Meet The Pitch Tent: Impact Project Finalists
A key part of the Summit’s success last year was The Pitch Tent, a feature that allowed impact businesses the opportunity to get on stage and pitch to a room full of investors. This year, The Pitch Tent is back and aiming to raise £10m+ for businesses and projects that have a positive impact on people and planet.
This year’s event sees the brand new category ‘Impact Projects’ added to the line-up. Hosted by B Corp organisation, ActionFunder, this category offers non-profits the opportunity to pitch for funding to a room full of investors and professional service providers, all of whom are actively looking to invest in and support impactful projects.
With the The Impact Project category open to projects with a focus on climate, biodiversity, sustainability, social mobility, access to nature, and sport and wellbeing, we were inundated with applications playing host to a variety of different projects.
You can see the Impact Projects on the Forum Stage on Day 1, 1-2pm and get a sneak peek of each below.
“It was amazing to see such a diverse range of projects, and narrowing down the short list to 4 was a difficult process. The judging panel made a selection based on diversity and inclusion, access, energy transition, cost of living crisis and food cycle. We look forward to seeing the pitches live on stage, wish them the best of luck.” – Linley Lewis, BES Event Director.
After a very tough selection process of over 150 applicants, we’re delighted to announce four finalists:
Black2Nature – Equal Access to Nature
Black2Nature fights for equal access to nature for all, a right that we believe is fundamental in the same way we all have the right to access education or health. This is important because everybody should have the benefit of being able to go out into green or natural spaces, not just for their enjoyment but also for good mental/physical wellbeing.
Vulnerable/disadvantaged minority ethnic children & teenagers are particularly at risk of entering foster care, prison or the mental health system. For example, minority ethnic teenagers are twice as likely as their White counterparts to be diagnosed with a mental illness through contact with the criminal justice system rather than it being picked up by their school, GP or Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).
Our vision for Black2Nature is that our early intervention will get visible minority ethnic (VME) children, teens and families out into nature on a regular basis, giving them resilience to physical/mental illness.
Regenerative Food and Farming CIC – Gleaning Cornwall
Gleaning Cornwall reduces farm food waste and gets it to those in need. Since September we have gleaned well over 80 tonnes of fresh fruit and veg, feeding around 6000 people every week or two. We have over 250 volunteers and an ever increasing number of farmers allowing us access to their fields and packing sheds.
We will reduce food waste by around 20 tonnes and deliver the fresh produce to around 60 food charities every week or two. We will also enable teams of gleaning volunteers, usually groups of around 5-12) the opportunity to get outdoor, group exercise which makes a positive impact on the environment as well as to those in need across Cornwall and east Devon.
All the Elements CIC
All The Elements in a non-profit network for everyone creating change on diversity in the UK outdoors.
Our one-on-one calls help individuals working in diversity in the UK outdoors in the following ways: connection with others working on similar things or facing similar challenges, connection to funding or training support, support with project development and help with amplification of their work. We have had 280 calls since All The Elements was founded in August 2020.
Our website has the only directory of groups working across all diversity areas, all outdoor activities and across the UK. Keeping this updated helps the general public find groups that can support them in getting outdoors, and also helps groups find others working in similar or complimenting areas. The directory currently includes over 200 groups and is constantly growing – we have a backlog of groups to include.
Our resources on the website help individuals explore the challenges of diversity in the outdoors and learn from the individuals who are creating change.
Transition Town – Empowering communities to tackle the climate and cost of living crisis
Participants calculate their carbon footprint before and after the project. We predict annual savings of 0.5 to 1 tonne of CO2 per household.
80%+ of households will report multiple actions to reduce their carbon footprint and bills including energy efficiency improvements, renewable energy measures, sustainable food production/consumption, resource efficiency & water saving measures.
We expect 90%+ of participants report an increase in the number of social connections on their street. We anticipate 65%+ of street groups to create collective street projects for social & environmental change including projects to share skills, gardens, meals, tools, lifts, bikes, Play Streets street closures, mutual support groups etc. These will indirectly benefit wider street populations.
These finalists will be taking to the stage on Tuesday 11th October at the Blue Earth Summit to pitch their incredible impact project plans and ideas.
