Longmartin Properties, a joint venture between Shaftesbury and the Mercers’ Company, has launched an art installation in The Yards to welcome back visitors to Covent Garden.
The Yards & The Bees artworks will provide a series of activities designed to champion urban pollinators, with workshops and retail offers in the district over the summer.
The bee-themed installations have been placed throughout the Covent Garden location for visitors to follow.
The initiative will also celebrate The Yards’ very own colony of more than 240,000 bees located in hives on the buildings’ rooftops as part of the destination’s efforts to protect the species. Wildflowers are also planted throughout the area to encourage pollination.
The campaign is supporting the Bee Friendly Trust, a charity which works to give all pollinators the habitats they need in order to thrive.
LandAid Covid fund tops £1m
LandAid’s Covid-19 Emergency Fund has hit its £1m target. The initiative, which was launched on 7 April, has given out £700,000 in small emergency grants of up to £10,000 to more than 70 charities, in every region of the UK.
The funding has made a huge difference to the lives of young homeless people.
Companies that have shown their support include: 100 Property Club, Abstract Securities, Argent, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, BNP Paribas Real Estate, British Land, Bruntwood, Capital & Counties, CLS Holdings, Fazenda, Grainger, Grosvenor Estate, Helical, Henry Boot, Knight Frank, Landsec, Logicor, M&G Real Estate, Mott McDonald, Ocorian, Picton Capital, Savills, SEGRO, Simmons & Simmons, Shakespeare Martineau, Squire Patton Boggs, StreetSmart, Allsop, Trowers & Hamlins, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, and West Midlands Growth Company.
Free wiki supports diversity and inclusion
Building People and Designing Buildings Wiki have launched People Wiki, a free, open-access knowledge-sharing platform for diversity and inclusion in the built environment.
The Building People site aggregates industry-wide activity to enable people to find employers, opportunities and resources, and helps employers to engage with a more diverse range of talent.
The launch of People Wiki is a crucial part of Building People’s ambition to create a single platform that brings together a multitude of fragmented industry resources, making it easier for people to find information and content specific to the built environment, with a focus on skills and careers, diversity and inclusion, and social value.
Could you pick up the baton for Unicef?
A virtual global relay event named Pass the Baton has raised more than £6,000 for Unicef, helping provide humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide.
The initiative began when a group of friends decided to create a virtual marathon relay to replace the cancelled London Marathon, which they had been training for, and alleviate the physical and mental challenges of the Covid-19 lockdown.
One of its founding members, Stephen Fern, finance director at Nottingham-based 200 Degrees Coffee, said: “Participants love the motivation they receive to get fit, push themselves and ultimately improve their mental and physical wellbeing, as part of a global community.
“Our reward is the ever-growing pot of money for Unicef, seeing people strive to achieve personal bests in their running and the fact that we have created a community with purpose and passion.”
The Pass the Baton global community relay takes place every Sunday, with three groups of runners completing 250km over 24 hours. The event has grown rapidly over the past few months, attracting more than 1,000 runners from 31 countries across all seven continents.
If you would like to take part, e-mail stephen@200degs.com
To send feedback, e-mail sharon.harnett@egi.co.uk or tweet @estatesgazette
