Devon Wildlife Trust

Devon Wildlife Trust applied for funding to install a rainwater harvesting tank to help them water their tree nursery.

“After we’d installed it, we had a night of really heavy rain, and when we came back in the morning, the tank was already a third full!” Ian added that he reckons it takes about four days of rain to completely fill the tank. That’s 10,000 litres of water saved in just four days!

Read the full story about here.

Permaculture Kernow CIC

Sylvie Gomez, the founder of Permaculture Kernow, applied for help through our Water Saving Community Fund for two water butts and guttering to harvest rainwater and solve their watering needs. As well as this, they asked for our sponsorship for two places on a Permaculture Design Course. With all the benefits this project is giving to the community, school children and the environment, we couldn’t say no!

Read the full story about here.

As part of our funding for Permaculture Kernow’s projects, we paid for the scholarship of two people to take a 10-day Permaculture Design Course. The course covers the unique gardening techniques that the Permaculture movement has cultivated through the years. It’s taught by Joshua Gomez who is also a co-founder of Permaculture Kernow.

We caught up with Jo, she said "𝗜'𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻", find out more about Jo's story here.

Heathfield Allotment Trust

After applying to our Water Saving Community Fund for 25 water butts, we surprised the Trust by sending 30.

The allotments only use their water supply between March and October to prevent any freezing. Since July, when the butts were installed, the water bill has practically halved from what it was last year. The team are hoping that next year, once they have had the water butts for an entire season, their savings will be even better.

“I think people were really surprised that South West Water was giving us supplies that would help reduce our bill,” Mandy said. “Not only has this had a massive impact on us financially, more importantly too on the environment. We need to be using natural resources with less wastage. It’s a win-win situation.”

Read the full story about here.

Isles of Scilly Golf Club

For the people who live on the Isles of Scilly, water scarcity is part and parcel of their everyday lives. This is because the islands’ water supply depends mainly on rainfall. The water gets soaked up and stored within rocks as ‘groundwater’ and harvested through boreholes. Unlike on the South West Peninsula, there are no surface reservoirs in which to store water. So, when it gets hot and sunny, collecting enough drinking water gets tricky.

The club applied for support to fund water-saving loos. Replacing old toilets may feel like a small step, but it has had a significant impact on the amount of water freed up to go into their taps. Phil calculated that the old toilets used 300 m³ of water per year – that’s 300,000 litres of perfectly drinkable water. With the new toilets, the club is halving that consumption, saving approximately 150,000L a year.

Read the full story about here.