The Waterloo Foundation

The Waterloo Foundation (TWF) is an independent, family foundation based in Wales that provides funding for global charities whose work focuses on four key areas: world development, child development, environment and Wales-specific projects.

Before starting their Deforestation Free journey, TWF had already pledged their support for Divest Invest – a movement to influence fossil fuel divestment – and was a proud supporter of Fairtrade. The environment is a key funding priority of TWF, in particular protecting tropical rainforests, and they are a long-term supporter of Size of Wales, therefore signing up to become a Deforestation Free Business Champion seemed like a logical next step, which would help them meet their sustainability objectives, identify forest risks within their supply chains and practices, and work with their suppliers to influence wider change. They wanted sustainability to be embedded in their ethos, not just the work they fund, but the practical day-to-day activities of the organisation.

“Tropical forests are critically important for biodiversity, for our weather, for our water, climate, people, incomes and for life itself.” (Steph, TWF)

To get started on their journey, Sarah and Steph from TWF read through the Deforestation Free resources from Size of Wales and met with the team to discuss the work they were already doing and identify forest risks within their practices. TWF then conducted a baseline evaluation to identify the physical products they use in the office, where they buy them, and which services they use, e.g. catering and banking, and conducted due diligence exercises to identify the provenance of food, cleaning products, ethical commitments etc. They created a dedicated team to lead the work and engage with the wider organisation, ensuring everyone was involved and felt able to contribute.

“We fund a wide variety of projects and have a wide values base across the organisation, so one person’s good cause is not necessarily another’s, but we all needed to come together on this particular project, the impact of which leads to all of our funds.” (Sarah, TWF)

While they inevitably encountered some challenges, such as, switching to an ethical pension, which is a longer term commitment, and ensuring that suppliers were on board with the changes, e.g. switching to ethical cleaning products, TWF found the approach helped them in several ways, including mapping out and reducing impacts, improved team communication and buy-in, external engagement and awareness raising, and wider behaviour change beyond the office. They found the process clear, systematic and simple:

‘‘It’s not hard to do. Some things are really quite small… it’s not the hard slog you think it might be. It’s actually easier.” (Steph, TWF)

Angie Kirby, Advocacy Outreach Officer at Size of Wales, supported TWF on their deforestation free journey:

“It was fantastic working with The Waterloo Foundation, from the initial conversation through to awarding their Deforestation Free Champion status. I was so pleased to see how they’d tailored the toolkit templates by including additional actions for them to consider as an organisation, and embedded Deforestation Free criteria within their existing policies. It was exciting to see all that work evolving and helping them on their Deforestation Free journey.”

Looking to the future, TWF will keep reviewing their actions to ensure they always consider their purchases and services and apply a deforestation free lens. They will also be working on their pension provision, as part of their longer-term commitment to be a Deforestation Free Champion.