South West London Environment Network (SWLEN) builds active and engaged communities who protect and enhance our local environment. We work in the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames, Ealing, Hounslow and Kingston upon Thames. Our work focuses on preserving and protecting green spaces and biodiversity through community and voluntary groups involvement, promoting sustainability and community development.
SWLEN also chairs and acts as the secretariat of the Richmond Biodiversity Partnership.
Vision & Values
SWLEN exists to build active and engaged communities who protect and enhance our local environment. Our core values are:
- Local empowerment – we passionately believe the best way to protect and enhance the environment is through empowering local people to take an interest, become involved and to take action themselves.
- Collaboration and partnership – we know that by working together we achieve more, and in sharing best practices we are strong together. This approach brings wider benefits to the community, charitable organisations and local authorities.
- Environmental protection and enhancement– we exist to ensure South West London maintains a thriving and sustainable environment.
History & Governance
SWLEN is a registered charity (no. 1140872) and registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee (no. 7469024) established in 2011. SWLEN’s history dates to the founding of Richmond’s LA21 Group in 1994 in response to the UN Rio Earth Summit of 1992, agenda item 21 was the adoption of sustainable development principles of each signatory country, with each local authority (hence LA21) in these countries working towards adopting and delivering these goals.
Richmond’s LA21 group collaborated with SWLEN’s predecessor Richmond Environment Network (REN) from its founding in August 2004 sharing a member of staff. REN was formed by three local environmental organisations: the Environment Trust, Thames Landscape Strategy and Richmond office of The Conservations Volunteers to be the umbrella body and ‘network’ for the local environmental voluntary sector. After working in collaboration for three years Richmond’s LA 21 Group and REN merged in 2007. In 2008 the charity Richmond Environmental Information Centre (charity no. 1053104) closed down and transferred its assets to REN. In 2015 SWLEN established a wholly owned social enterprise (SWLEN – SE)
SWLEN is governed by a board of trustees, with operational management delegated to the executive, led by Chief Executive Colin Cooper. There are a number of committees and subgroups reporting to the board.
Our financial information can be found on the Charity Commission’s website with our most recent annual accounts:
Trustees
Emma is the Finance Director of the Paper Division at DS Smith Plc and was previously Group Financial Controller at Guardian Media Group plc.
Julie, was a former Deputy Director, Department of Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). She now works in academia working for Kingston University.
Stuart joined St Mary's in 1992 having worked previously as a journalist, visiting lecturer and Open University tutor. He is also an author having published several books, including one about the River Thames.
Henry is Head of Sustainability for Nando's and before this worked for Bioregional. One of his projects was to create a CSR strategy for Nando's. Henry also helps with the charity's fundraising and grant applications.
Lisa is a highly experienced researcher with a successful background in undertaking quantitative and qualitative social research. She currently works at charity umbrella body NCVO as their Senior Data and Research Analyst
Lainya is an urban development specialist with a strong track record of delivering change for service users in the public and voluntary sectors. Lainya joined the board of trustees in 2019.
Staff
Colin has a sixteen-year track record of managing environmental non-profit organisations, including the last nine years as CEO of South West London Environment Network. Colin holds an MA in Charity Management, was a founding trustee at Parks for London, is helping to set-up the Ealing Parks Foundation (to raise funding for parks) and sits on the grants panel of an environmental funder.
Ed joined SWLEN from the Institute of Fundraising, the professional membership organisation for fundraisers and fundraising organisations where he spent the last four years building the sustainability and resilience of third-sector organisations through delivering capacity building training and development programmes.
Vicky is a legal advisor and project manager specialising in legal and environmental issues. After working in practice, she became a legal advisory for for a renewables company and co-founded a international development charity specialising in renewables.
Initially starting as a volunteer, Diana became our Communications Officer in February 2017. Diana oversees our communications and supports groups in our 'network' with their newsletters, websites, social media content and crowdfunding.
Clive leads our energy-related work including our energy team. The team conducts visits to homes, community buildings and schools, to identify potential energy saving measures, which also reduce bills and CO2 emissions.
Volunteers
Daija previously worked at the Royal Society of Biology, in their Natural Capital Initiative. Daija was an editor and oversaw the coordination of a revised Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) for Richmond Borough.
Coming from a background in marketing, Paula is helping the charity develop marketing materials for our new crowdfunding platform and encouraging donations and new projects.
Coming from a background in business development, Richard is helping the charity develop relationships with businesses in the area in relation to our new crowdfunding platform and encourage charitable giving.
Mark helps with the charity's fundraising, helping with grant applications drawing on his knowledge as Director of Business Development, Partnerships and Marketing at Prevista.
Ginny is a local nature lover. She participated in our Nature in Richmond Photography Competition in 2018 and became a finalist with her photograph of the Old Oak Tree in Richmond Park. She is now part of our Biodiversity volunteer team
