Tag: Community Fund

Delivering positive action in our communities

16 May 2025

Opinion

Being a Chief Sustainability Officer makes me an optimist. I have a key part to play in how Drax embeds sustainability throughout the business, across our entire value chain, and that’s what gets me up every day.

For us at Drax, sustainability isn’t about words, it’s about action. Constant, tireless action to benefit climate, nature and people. It’s not just about our biomass sourcing, or the suppliers we choose to work with, or how we operate. It’s also about the impact we’re having in the communities where we operate.

Our commitment to be a good neighbour

Community investment is central to our commitment to be a good neighbour. We’re seeking to make tangible improvements to the lives and livelihoods of the communities we operate in through social investment, collaboration, education and long-term support.

One of the ways we do this is via the Drax Foundation and our Community Fund. Over the last 12 months we have invested more than ever before in our communities, disbursing £3.6m in charitable giving – a 33% rise from the previous year. This takes total investment to £6.3m since we launched the initiatives in 2023.

The Drax Foundation provides grant funding for non-profit organisations that improve access within underserved communities to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education, community green spaces, and measures to address fuel poverty and energy-efficiency.

The Community Fund compliments the Foundation by investing in grassroots organisations and volunteer-led initiatives that support the unique needs and challenges of our communities.

Giving support where it’s needed the most

At Drax we have a dedicated Community Affairs team to ensure our charitable giving is focused on where it’s needed the most. Over the last 12 months our funding is projected to benefit more than 98,000 people in the regions where Drax operates This includes 13,606 children with access to STEM education and 75 adults with ‘green’ skills training programmes.

For the past two years we’ve been working with Scientists in Schools in Canada, helping them to expand their STEM programming in the regions where Drax operates in British Columbia and Alberta. With a particular focus on engaging indigenous groups, this year we’ll build on this partnership by enabling another 3,000 young learners to participate.

We’ve supported nature projects as diverse as rainforest restoration with the Argyll Countryside Trust in the Scottish Highlands (yes, rainforests in Scotland!) and protection of priority bird habitats in the Southern US with the National Audubon Society. 2024 funding is projected to provide 8,836 people with access to improved community green spaces and enable 7,406 young people to participate in nature-based learning.

Across the UK we’re helping to reduce school energy bills and support those living in fuel poverty. We’ve funded energy efficiency improvements in over 260 schools near our operations in North Yorkshire, East Midlands, Scotland and East of England, and we’ve worked with partners to support 2,800 households in ‘fuel crisis’ so that they can receive financial and advisory support to keep the lights and heating on.

The range and diversity of projects we support is vast, but what they all have in common is that they fit within our wider business objective to deliver positive outcomes for the climate, nature and people.

What’s to come

For 2025, Drax’s major focus is sustainability. Continuing to partner with and invest in our communities is a key pillar of our new sustainability approach. To build on this commitment, we have pledged a further £1.5m to support 63 projects across our communities, working to enhance nature spaces, empower children and adults with STEM, and provide energy saving support. Within this we’re also addressing the unique needs of our communities through funding, outreach and direct engagement. We’ll share more soon on the progress of these projects.

We believe the energy transition should benefit everyone, and we believe in creating opportunities. For the year ahead, I look forward to how we can keep enhancing our positive social impact, listening and contributing to communities wherever we operate. It takes collaboration, determination and willingness to learn. Let’s take positive action.

Find out more in our latest Drax Foundation Annual Review

Building stronger communities for a Net Zero future through the Drax Foundation

22 April 2024

Opinion

By Shona King, Group Head of Community at Drax 

At Drax, we’re committed to making a positive difference in the communities we operate in. During 2023, we strengthened our approach to supporting our communities with the launch of the Drax Foundation – a key part of our new global community strategy which encompasses active community engagement and local stakeholder relations, as well as a refreshed approach to philanthropic giving and social investment.

The Drax Foundation provides grant funding for non-profit organisations that share our commitment to improving equitable access to STEM education and skills development, nature and community green spaces, and support for energy efficiency measures. We seek to form multi-year partnerships with impactful non-profits so that we can address these issues at scale.

Each of our communities is unique. That’s why we have also established a new Community Fund to drive meaningful change through grassroots funding in each of our communities.

Through both of these Funds, we are committed to making a measurable contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We have prioritised eight intersecting SDGs and will report annually on the progress and contributions we are making to achieve them.

The Drax Foundation’s impact so far

During 2023, we operated a wide range of community programming and corporate giving in the communities and regions where we operate, including the UK, US and Canada. In total, the Drax Foundation and Community Fund gave £2.7 million to support our communities throughout 2023 – this includes £1.3 million in the UK, £671,000 in the US and £576,000 in Canada.

In 2023, the Drax Foundation:

  • Funded STEM education and training for 70,300 children and 637 adults globally.
  • Helped 20,860 people with access to community green spaces and provided money to restore or protect 1,230 hectares of land.
  • Funded energy analysis tools and climate education at over 200 UK schools.
  • Installed LED lighting in 8 pilot schools to help UK schools to improve their energy efficiency.

Examples of  grantees include Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering (TAME), who we provided two rounds of funding for in 2023 to help deliver STEM programmes for around 2,000 students, of which a minimum of 82% are girls or black, indigenous or people of colour. Speaking about the funding, Andrea Herrera Moreno, Executive Director of TAME, said: “TAME welcomes the Drax Foundation into our alliance as we continue to prioritise cross-sector partnerships that improve access to engineering pathways for Texas students. This support enables us to amplify our impact by investing in our programmes and capacity, and we’re very excited to engineer this new partnership.”

In the UK, we also provided funding to STEM Learning, helping them to deliver STEM education to 8,500 school children in areas of low social mobility. “We are delighted with the generous funding awarded by the Drax Foundation.” said Gill Collinson, Director of Strategy and Partnerships at STEM Learning. “The partnership will help STEM Learning’s mission to change the lives of thousands of young people by supporting teachers and introducing young people to inspiring role models and raising their aspirations.”

Plus, in Canada we’ve helped to promote nature-based experiences for youth with the University of British Columbia’s Wild & Immersive programme. “We are honoured to be awarded a grant from the Drax Foundation that will extend our trail system to enable more community members to connect and enjoy the outdoors in the natural environment around Williams Lake,” said Stephanie Ewen, Manager at Alex Fraser Research Forest.

In 2023, we were also proud to support 222 community projects via our Community Fund, reaching over 26,600 community members. This includes our annual donations to foodbanks in the run up to the December festive season, where we donated £110k to 33 foodbanks last year.

The third pillar of our corporate giving is our Communities in Crisis Fund, which was established to provide emergency aid in response to natural disasters, conflict and other humanitarian crises. In 2023, our Crisis Fund donated over £200k to seven different causes in the US, Canada, Morocco, Libya and Gaza-Israel.

Looking ahead

This year, we will be continuing our giving via the Drax Foundation and Community fund, placing greater emphasis on outreach and community engagement. For example, we recently announced the latest round of funding from our UK Community Fund, which will see over £35,000 donated to 33 organisations across the UK. Additionally, we will be expanding our community engagement across our operations with more community ‘listening’ sessions and focus group meetings to ensure that we understand community concerns and priorities.  

A key focus area for us will also be our new BECCS plant in the US, where we will deliver a full Community Benefit Plan to ensure we make a positive different in the community.

In supporting renewable energy and energy efficiency, we will also continue to roll out LED lighting, and solar panels in up to 45 schools in and around our operating communities to maximise energy efficiency and cost savings. Our LED pilot in 2023 is projected to save each school on average £8,600 per year on their energy bills, money that can be reinvested back into the children’s education.  

We are proud of all that has been achieved so far and are excited to accelerate our efforts in the year ahead to ensure we continue to be a good neighbour in our communities.

You can learn more via the Drax Foundation Annual Review 2023 here: https://www.drax.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Drax-Foundation-Annual-Review_2023.pdf