Community Engagement

GreenSkies Community Fund Recipients 2024

This year, we awarded a further £22,500 to small-medium enterprises and charities across the UK to support the shared aim for a more sustainable future. In total, the GreenSkies Community Fund has supported almost £80,000 of renewable projects within the communities we serve.

This round of funding received nearly 250 applications. The successful applicants span the length and breadth of Loganair’s domestic network, from Hillswick in Shetland to Paisley near Glasgow and Enniskillen in Northern Ireland.

A solar-powered robot lawnmower, EV charging points and air-source heating are the projects that Loganair supported.

The GreenSkies Community Fund is part of Loganair’s environmental programme, which includes measures ranging from carbon offsetting to investing in future flight technologies to help achieve an ambitious target of becoming net zero by 2040.

 

DaBarn

£4,449 was awarded to DaBarn.

Based in Hillswick, Shetland, DaBarn is the most northern plant nursery in the UK that grows ornamental plants and vegetables. The GreenSkies Community Fund will be used to help take their business off the grid by purchasing solar panels. 

It will enable Da Barn to install solar panels on its office roof, helping it to operate off the National Grid and be powered entirely by solar energy in the summer months.

The Rep Theatre

£5,000 was awarded to The Rep Theatre.

Founded in 1939, The Rep has been integral to the cultural heart of Dundee for 84 years, working with groups across their local community, including children living with disabilities and inmates from HMP Perth.

The funding it receives will allow for the installation of two exterior wall-mounted EV charging units, which can power its company vehicle and those of the public.

 
 

Hoy Heritage Centre

£3,600 was awarded to Hoy Heritage Centre.

Situated in a former 19th-century church, Hoy Heritage Centre is a community-run venue that protects and promotes Hoy's heritage. It is an essential and vital asset to a small rural community and offers cultural events, exhibitions and a community archive. 

The GreenSkies Community Fund will enable Hoy Heritage Centre to replace and weatherproof the doors of its visitor centre to make it more energy efficient while protecting its heritage exhibits for the future.

The Aisling Centre

£3,500 was awarded to The Aisling Centre.

Established in 1990, Aisling Centre is a dedicated mental health charity offering free, confidential, and professional counselling, psychotherapy, and play therapy for children. Situated on the island town of Enniskillen, the Centre serves young people in the rural border community of County Fermanagh and the surrounding area with trauma-informed services.

The fund will make the organisation more energy-efficient with a new loft insulation project for The Aisling Centre's 120-year-old townhouse building as they deliver vital mental health services in a rural community setting.

 
 

Arkaig Community Forest

£4,142 was awarded to Arkaig Community Forest.

The community forest, a registered charity, owns and operates a native tree nursery as part of its broader woodland management plan. The nursery focuses on growing new native tree stock from locally collected seeds to replant in over 1000 hectares of Caledonian Forest that they manage in partnership with Woodland Trust Scotland.

Arkaig Community Forest's fund will go towards solar panels to power the native tree nursery and its tools. The power supplied by the solar panels will further increase the organisation’s resilience by providing backup power when the borehole, which supplies groundwater to the nursery, is impacted by power outages in the remote rural location of Clunes.

Kintyre Food Bank

£1,426 was awarded to Kintyre Food Bank.

Numbers using Kintyre Food Bank have doubled in the last year to over 100 users on record, many of whom are regular users, while the level of food donations has decreased.

Already proud of its green initiatives, Kintyre Food Bank will use the fund to replace an older fridge freezer and room heater with a more energy-efficient model.

 
 

Clyde Judo Club

£662 was awarded to Clyde Judo Club. 

Currently in their 13th year of operation, Clyde Judo Club offers year-round sessions in Paisley and Bishopton, with participants from across Renfrewshire. Additionally, offering support to local refugee groups through its outreach programmes, and taster sessions to Renfrewshire schools in partnership with One-Ren's Active Schools Health Week programmes. 

With this funding, Clyde Judo Club will be able to insulate its dojo, offering a warm space to its students and the wider community while reducing heat loss in the environment.