The Environment Trust is a registered charity and development trust based in Tower Hamlets in the East End of London

East End of London

The East End of London, also known simply as the East End, is the area of London, England, United Kingdom, east of the medieval walled City of London and north of the River Thames. Although not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries, the River Lea can be considered another boundary...

. Its aim is to achieve sustainable development

Sustainable development

Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use, that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come...

 by improving the social

Social

The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms...

, economic and physical environment for community

Community

The term community has two distinct meanings:*a group of interacting people, possibly living in close proximity, and often refers to a group that shares some common values, and is attributed with social cohesion within a shared geographical location, generally in social units larger than a household...

 benefit.

Community finance

The Environment Trust created Fair Finance, a community development finance institution, which offers a range of financial packages to disadvantaged community members in the East End of London.

Energy and recycling

The organisation researches and develops renewable energy

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...

 schemes, including solar, wind

Wind energy

Wind energy is the kinetic energy of air in motion; see also wind power.Total wind energy flowing through an imaginary area A during the time t is:E = ½ m v2 = ½ v 2...

, biofuels, and tidal energy.

Environmental education

The Environment Trust’s Education Team offers educational workshops in schools around themes of biodiversity

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...

, nature

Nature

Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...

 and gardening

Gardening

Gardening is the practice of growing and cultivating plants. Ornamental plants are normally grown for their flowers, foliage, or overall appearance; useful plants are grown for consumption , for their dyes, or for medicinal or cosmetic use...

. Through organised events, the Education team assists people in becoming more involved in improving and using their local green spaces. It also works with partners and communities to try to effect change in local and national government policy on public spaces and biodiversity.

Green homes and workspaces

The organisation provides affordable, environmentally sustainable

Sustainability

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

 housing through its green homes schemes. It has developed a practical approach to building energy efficient

Efficient energy use

Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal of efforts to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature...

 homes with low running costs, which are then sold at 70% of their market value.

The organisation also works to increase the number of quality, affordable workspaces available to local social enterprises, by acquiring land and properties at discounted cost and transforming them into suitable workspace, which is developed in line with the Green Homes Specification.

Planning with communities

The Environment Trust provides consulting for communities, and helps plan advertising

Advertising

Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...

 for local authorities and private companies. Consulting work includes feasibility studies for improving local green spaces, sustainable neighbourhood development plans, area action plans, and masterplans.

See also

• Conservation biology
  Conservation biology
  Conservation biology is the scientific study of the nature and status of Earth's biodiversity with the aim of protecting species, their habitats, and ecosystems from excessive rates of extinction...
  
  
• Conservation ethic
  Conservation ethic
  Conservation is an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection. Its primary focus is upon maintaining the health of the natural world: its, fisheries, habitats, and biological diversity. Secondary focus is on materials conservation and energy conservation, which are seen as important to...
  
  
• Conservation movement
  Conservation movement
  The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....
  
  
• Ecology
  Ecology
  Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
  
  
• Ecology movement
  Ecology movement
  The global ecology movement is based upon environmental protection, and is one of several new social movements that emerged at the end of the 1960s. As a values-driven social movement, it should be distinguished from the pre-existing science of ecology....
  
  
• Environmentalism
  Environmentalism
  Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
  
  
• Environmental movement
  Environmental movement
  The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
  
  
• Environmental protection
  Environmental protection
  Environmental protection is a practice of protecting the environment, on individual, organizational or governmental level, for the benefit of the natural environment and humans. Due to the pressures of population and our technology the biophysical environment is being degraded, sometimes permanently...
  
  
• Habitat conservation
  Habitat conservation
  Habitat conservation is a land management practice that seeks to conserve, protect and restore, habitat areas for wild plants and animals, especially conservation reliant species, and prevent their extinction, fragmentation or reduction in range...
  
  
• Natural environment
  Natural environment
  The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
  
  
• Natural capital
  Natural capital
  Natural capital is the extension of the economic notion of capital to goods and services relating to the natural environment. Natural capital is thus the stock of natural ecosystems that yields a flow of valuable ecosystem goods or services into the future...
  
  
• Natural resource
  Natural resource
  Natural resources occur naturally within environments that exist relatively undisturbed by mankind, in a natural form. A natural resource is often characterized by amounts of biodiversity and geodiversity existent in various ecosystems....
  
  
• Renewable resource
  Renewable resource
  A renewable resource is a natural resource with the ability of being replaced through biological or other natural processes and replenished with the passage of time...
  
  
• Sustainable agriculture
  Sustainable agriculture
  Sustainable agriculture is the practice of farming using principles of ecology, the study of relationships between organisms and their environment...
  
  
• Water conservation
  Water conservation
  Water conservation refers to reducing the usage of water and recycling of waste water for different purposes such as cleaning, manufacturing, and agricultural irrigation.- Water conservation :Water conservation can be defined as:...