A team of EY volunteers recently took part in a conservation day with Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, to support with their ongoing efforts to protect and regenerate the local environment and create a more sustainable future at Durrell.
The EY team, led by Durrell, took part in a number of activities to support Durrell’s animal conservation programme, including gardening and painting in the surrounding area of the gorilla enclosure. The team also worked on maintaining the organic farm, which involved laying bark chip and weeding. This area is used to plant fruit and vegetables for the animals, which enables Durrell to reduce their carbon footprint due to less food having to be sourced elsewhere.
The activities support one of EY’s own goals; accelerating environmental sustainability. This is one of the three key focus areas of EY Ripples, EY’s global corporate responsibility programme.
The programme also supports the next generation’s workforce develop mindsets and skills to find and sustain meaningful work and involves EY’s professionals providing consulting services for impact entrepreneurs to tackle inequality and drive sustainable growth. Everyone at EY is encouraged to use their skills, knowledge and experience to drive long-term change, so that together they can positively impact the lives of one billion people by 2030.
Francis Malaspina, an Assurance Associate Partner and ESG leader at EY in Jersey, who also took part in the conservation day, commented: “As with most charities and organisations, Durrell has faced a number of challenges over the past 18 months due to Covid-19. We are delighted to have been able to lend our support to such a worthwhile cause to ensure Durrell can continue to run their global leading conservation programme, to ultimately drive the social change needed to restore the natural world and create a more sustainable future.
“As a firm, driving sustainability, and ultimately building a better working world, is the centre of everything we do. Globally, we have committed to become carbon negative by the end of 2021 and net zero by 2025, so it’s been great to align this focus with the fantastic work Durrell is doing to reduce their own carbon footprint.”
Nick Morgan, the Organic Farm Manager at Durrell who worked with the EY team during the day, added: “When 30 volunteers show up, it’s hard to find a job for them all to do. But I needn’t have worried. It was a great team effort and the job which was completed in two hours would have taken me and my team six months.”
