Capital Credit Union's Green Grant for Schools

Community 2 min read

25 Mar 2021

As Saturday, March 27^th, marks #EarthHour2021 - the world’s largest grassroots initiative to promote positive environmental impact.
 
Capital Credit Union’s €2,000 Going Green Grant supports secondary schools with innovative green projects.
 
The fund, launched last year, and part of the credit union's community council sponsorship, offers four €500 grants to local schools who have a creative idea for a green project or event that needs financial support.

Each year, the Community Council's sponsorship fund gives €50,000 to organisations and schools; and involvement in local projects means they see first-hand the issues that matter in their community.

“When we sponsored Energy Awareness Day at Ballinteer Community School in 2019, we saw just how much the climate issue struck a chord with the students,” said James Liston, Business Development Officer at Capital CU. “We thought this was something we could build on and ideally see more schools roll out projects like this – and we wanted to support them.”

The idea also fit with the credit union’s plan to launch a specific project around sustainability.

“In terms of what we hope to achieve, I’d like to see students get to fulfil the project ideas they have and for us to be able to support them. I’d hope that students today take note of credit unions and our financial co-operative model which puts so much emphasis on giving back to the community.”

“On a larger level, I think this is a good indicator of how Capital Credit Union supports sustainability in the community. We already offer Green Loans and have an internal Green Committee so we want to be at the forefront of supporting sustainability.”
 

Schools can apply for one of four €500 grants, via a short application form on Capital CU’s website, which asks for a history of the school’s involvement in green initiatives, and an outline of a green project they are seeking sponsorship for. The winning projects of the 2020/21 academic year are currently being completed.
Applications will re-open in the new academic year, September 2021, for other schools who want to apply for their green project or event.




Credit unions are a different type of financial institution. They are not-for-profit democratic financial cooperatives owned by all of their members. Every member over 16 has a vote at their local credit union AGM, and any surplus income is used to develop new and existing services or it is distributed among members in the form of dividends to savers or interest rebates to borrowers.
 
 
For more information on how to get involved with your local credit union, click here. For more information on Earth Hour, and how you can get involved, click here.