The Co-op Foundation has opened the latest round of the three-year, £3.5m Carbon Innovation Fund, created in 2021 to support initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deliver added social value.
The Foundation is the charity set up by the Co-op Group, which created the Carbon Innovation Fund, backed by cash from the sale of compostable carrier bags along with the Foundation’s own money.
Round one of the fund backed a range of initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of the food and farming sector. The second round focused on innovative projects to reduce the UK’s reliance on soy in feed and synthetic fertilisers.
For our third round of funding, the focus is on “sustainable ways to create a thriving food and farming sector, without the need to damage important peat soils across the UK”.
The Group was the first UK supermarket to ban peat-containing compost from shelves in 2021, introducing a peat-free alternative from Westland Horticulture.
“We know that to protect our environment, we need to find sustainable solutions to make sure damaging peatlands is no longer the norm,” said the Foundation.
Related: Co-op Group works with RSPB on plan to restore UK peatland
“In the UK alone, an estimated 3.2 billion tonnes of carbon are stored in peatlands. However, with almost 80% of UK peatland degraded, without any intervention to repair and preserve UK peatlands, their greenhouse gas emissions could exceed the equivalent of 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.”
It added: “Peatland is often drained to grow crops and to allow livestock to graze. It is also often broken up to put the peat into compost as a growth aid. This is a major issue in terms of landscape degradation and biodiversity loss. Because of this, we want to focus our funding on ways to protect peatland while still providing the food we need to eat.”
The fund is offering grants of £50,000 to £150,000 to initiatives which do one or more of the following:
- Reduce the amount of peat needed to grow crops within food supply chains
- Remove the peat needed to grow crops within food supply chains
- Sustainable management / looking after peat soils by using alternative, non-damaging farming methods for crops and/or livestock
It is also partnering with Heart of Bucks Community Foundation to provide ringfenced funding for a project in Buckinghamshire. Organisations based in Buckinghamshire, can visit this page to find out how to apply.
For more details about the fund, read the guidance notes and application questions.
