The project involves adopting at least one mile of waterways for a year where people volunteer at least once a month to work on this stretch of canal.

Volunteers take part in a range of activities to help maintain the canal and make a real difference in the community.

Activities include:

• Vegetation maintenance
• Litter picking
• Towpath maintenance
• Painting
• And much more!

SCC gives employees one day a year to donate their time to a charity of their choice, and since July, a group of SCC employees used their volunteering days to help clean and maintain the Grand Union Canal in Tyseley, Birmingham that has recently been adopted by SCC.

The volunteers took part in a range of activities to rejuvenate the canal and its surrounding area, including litter picking across the entire stretch of SCC’s adopted stretch of canal, as well as painting, bulb planting and edging.

Tom Pierce, who is the Volunteer Team Leader at Canal & River Trust:
“Since SCC have taken on the canal adoption we have seen some great improvements to the local area. Activities include regular litter collections and cutting back of vegetation have greatly enhanced the environment for many users including cyclists, walkers and of course the wildlife. It has also been great to see the interaction and enthusiasm from both staff and volunteers from SCC & Canal and River Trust which has made our volunteering days very enjoyable.”

Helen White comments on her experience volunteering:
“Volunteering for the Canal and River Trust was a great experience for me as I got to contribute to cleaning up the environment and making it a better place for the general public, and more importantly, nature. I think the SCC volunteering days are a brilliant idea and that everyone should take part.”

Matt Walker comments on his experience volunteering on the canals:
“A fantastic morning spent with the Canal and River Trust guys; they are totally reliant on volunteering to keep the waterways looking good. I got to meet some people from the business that I don’t normally work with plus it was fantastic to be out in the community talking to locals about what we were doing; I’d certainly be up for doing something like this again.”

For more information on our Corporate and Social Responsibility please click here.