Our Social and Environmental Impact at Wild Harvest

Environmental Impact.

As a sustainable education business here at Wild Harvest School we take our social and environmental responsibility seriously.

1. We manage the land at our sites using Permaculture methods to increase biodiversity and useable outputs, using no toxic/artificial herbicides or pesticides, instead using our free range poultry and companion planting.  Rain water is collected into troughs/ponds and used to water the plants.
2. We build in areas for wildlife, leaving edges long, leaving piles of twigs and leaves, composting our waste and recycling your waste left here into the correct council commercial bins, however it is mixed up.
3. We use only British suppliers of willow, glycerine, and beeswax and try to choose only British or European products for our toiletries - clay, lavender, etc. 
4. We bulk order our supplies into one monthly delivery of eg. loo roll, washing stuff.
5. We have recently set up an account with Tree Nation to plant a forest on behalf of Wild Harvest Ltd. customers.  You can view details of this below.

Social Responsibility

To our staff.

1. We pay over the living wage.  Behind the scenes staff get £12 an hour, and tutors get £25 an hour plus travel.  This is in recognition that rural workforces need extra help to get to work out here and that we don't have full time work to offer, so travel is for shorter shifts.  This is our responsibility to cover this, not staffs. 
2. We ensure staff have something they can wear - a t-shirt for the summer, hoody for cooler weather and rain jacket for showers - so that their own clothes don't get used for work. 
3. We have a yearly meal out somewhere and regularly check in to ensure they are ok, even outside of work hours.
4. We have a yearly re-onboarding form to ensure we are up to date with their needs.

To those worse off.

1. We have ran a big refugee mission taking vans of womens and childrens clothes, sleeping bags and tents, plus nappies and sanitary items and high energy snack bars to female refugees fleeing Syria, who found themselves homeless in Europe.  Having first created packs from all the donations, based on size/age.  Each pack had: coat/hat/scarf/gloves, sanitary or nappy items, wipes, snack bars, sleep bag/blanket and a toy or toiletry item.  We hired a van and took around 200 packs out and gave them out to refugees in France in 2016.  I even learned Arabic so I could say a few words: namely, hello, how are you?  my name is Di, I am here to help, I have warm clothes for you, I don't speak Arabic, thank you'
2. We have had our t-shirts printed and sold to raise money for a charity in India that rescues and educates trafficked children.
3. We have donated to Movember, to help prevent male suicide.
4. We have sponsored a female boxer from Yorkshire to take her first fight.
5. I am doing the British Legion survival challenge in the name of my Grandfather (Poppy) who raised me, to help support the services given to UK based ex- veterans see details and help me help them, HERE.
6. We are donating a wild food walk to a Visually Impaired Young Persons Charity, for them to come and have a more sensory Wild Food Walk in 2023.
7. We have volunteered to teach male refugees at a local centre, soap making to keep them entertained and give them a useful and maybe commercial skill.

HOW YOU CAN HELP US !

We don't have super huge profits as we keep our prices fair, and I don't take a big wage, we do these things because it is the right thing to do, not because we can necessarily afford it.   

1. You can help us by rounding up your spend at checkout for attended courses and stays, in our online shop HERE
2. OR donating separately HERE or Below to our Paypal Donations Campaign (where you can then choose an online course or e-book (less than the value of your donation) so you get a reward for your support.
3. Plant trees through our TREE NATION scheme HERE.
4. If you are a business and take out your insurance through us, we also benefit at no extra cost to you, if you want to help our social and environmental actions keep going into the future check out our Activity Business Insurance Affiliation page HERE.  We will get 15% of the value of your policy, which we donate to our actions above. You don't pay for anything extra, the insurance company donates.