Charitable Trust / Donations 2009: Environment

In Kind Direct (£30,000)
In Kind Direct re-distributes new goods donated by some of Britain's best-known manufacturers and retailers to hundreds of voluntary organisations working in the UK and overseas.

Foundation & Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (£175,000)
The Kew Foundation helps support the work of Kew, its gardens and science-based plant conservation worldwide.

We made a donation of £175,000 per year for three years to fund the Chair of Restoration Ecology. Working with its international, national and local community partners, the Chair of Restoration Ecology and the Restoration of Ecology Unit will provide strategic direction, both scientific and geographic to Kew's efforts to inspire and deliver science-based plant conservation and habitat repair in response to the daunting challenges of declining plant diversity and climate change.

SolarAid (£250,000)
SolarAid helps to combat two of the biggest threats facing humanity today, climate change and global poverty, by bringing clean, renewable power to the poorest people in the world.

SolarAid carries out DIY solar projects - training local communities how to build small-scale solar devices such as solar powered radios and lanterns - and installs small solar systems for community centres, medical clinics, schools and other such communal infrastructure. The charity focuses on programme sustainability through a microbusiness approach that encourages beneficiaries to develop their own solar or solar powered businesses.

We made a donation of £1 million over four years to support a new project in Tanzania focusing on solar enterprise, solar education and the installation of solar systems in schools and health clinics.