History

Groundwork and Barclays have been working together to help protect and improve the local environment for over 15 years.

In the 1990s, the world’s policy makers revised their approach to environmental issues - realising that the days where the old certainties of cause and effect were long gone. The closely related nature of environmental, social and economic issues demanded new, integrated approaches.

A major by-product of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio was a change in the way the planet’s environment was managed, through Agenda 21, a global environment management plan for the 21st Century. As a result, Local Agenda 21 management plans were being drawn up for towns and cities closer to home.

Groundwork and Barclays took the idea of Local Agenda 21 as the starting point for one of the country’s longest running private/voluntary partnerships.

Like many corporate sponsorships the link between Groundwork and Barclays grew from the personal passion of a business leader and a chance meeting with an organisation that could turn ideas into action. Barclays Innervision was the result. The programme was designed to engage local people in deprived communities in activities that promote environmental awareness and practical community activity.

The popularity with communities of regenerating derelict land led Groundwork and Barclays to commission MORI to conduct research into how some of these communities felt about their surroundings. This research was to form the basis of the next programme in the Groundwork/Barclays partnership - Barclays SiteSavers.