Marine Conservation Society

Debenhams

We are delighted to announce that in 2010 Debenhams will be entering their second three-year term of funding support for MCS!
Debenhams support MCS’s work for clean seas and protected sea life through a partnership with their clothing brand ‘Mantaray’. Through this partnership, Debenhams staff and customers throughout the UK are helping to protect wildlife by getting involved in voluntary beach cleans and surveys, along with initiatives to reduce plastic bag usage and encourage recycling of mobile phones and inkjet cartridges.

"Debenhams have now been involved in supporting MCS and the work they do for several years. We have continued to look for new ways in which we can increase our support not only financially but also raising awareness of the important work they do by incorporating information and images into our shop fits. By exposing our customers to the work MCS do, we really feel Debenhams are promoting MCS and helping to make a difference."
Paul Baldwin, Director of Buying for Menswear at Debenhams, supporting MCS through their Mantaray clothing range.

 

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DK

Reef - Exploring the Underwater World was published by DK and every copy of Reef sold supports vital MCS conservation work. Scubazoo, a dedicated team of marine biologists, are passionate about conservation and wanted to support MCS through this book. Reef is a stunning photographic journey showing the always beautiful, sometimes bizarre, highly varied and rich wildlife of reefs around the world.

"Turn the pages of this book and you can see why reefs are often called the rainforests of the sea...While it often seems like a carnival of colour on the reef, there is a dark cloud that threatens to spoil the party....MCS projects in the UK and abroad are making that all-important difference to the future of our seas, shores and wildlife, and it is in all our interests to support this vital work - as I'm sure you will agree once you have looked through this amazing book"

Nick Baker, Broadcaster and Naturalist

Useful Links:
MCS work to protect coral reefs
DK

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Fatface

Fat Face is a brand that is loved by people who are passionate about the outdoors, and the Fat Face crew at Head Office are equally as committed to protecting the environment which we all love to play in. They have an extensive 'Keep It Clean' programme with many different elements for crew to get involved with. One of these initiatives is a regular MCS beach clean at West Hayling, and they have grown very attached to all things sea-related!

They wanted to do a bit more to support MCS in our mission to protect beaches and wildlife, and   offered to donate £1 from every Fat Face re-usable bag sold to encourage their customers to stop using disposable plastic bags and help stop them ending up harming wildlife on our beaches.

Since we started our partnership in 2009, Fat Face have set up the Fat Face Foundation to do their bit to help protect the environment and get more people out there. The Marine Conservation Society is one of two official charity partners chosen because we are dedicated to protecting the great outdoors (the wet bits anyway!). Fat Face has always had the sea close to its heart and sees the link between the Foundation and the Marine Conservation Society as being a natural fit.

In 2010, the Foundation sponsored the development of our Your Seas, Your Voice campaign and website. The Foundation believes that we all have a part to play in protecting our seas, so was proud to support the Your Seas Your Voice campaign to highlight the lack of protected areas around the UK coasts, and would urge individuals to do the same.
Watch this space for an exciting joint venture in 2012!

Useful Links:
Visit the Fat face website

Go Plastic Bag Free

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Royal Caribbean Cruises

Royal Caribbean Cruises donated £20,000 from their Ocean Fund to bring the MCS Cool Seas Roadshow to develop an online version of the educational Roadshow to help bring the fantastic Captain Starbuck to even more schools. They also helped bring the original MCS Cool Seas Roadshow to 15 more schools around the country, giving school children the chance to learn about sea creatures and the importance of looking after our seas with the help of captivating life-size models of whales, dolphins, sharks, turtles and seals.

Richard Harrington, MCS Communications Manager, said "Over fifty percent of the UK’s wildlife lives beneath the waves, but few people have had the opportunity to appreciate the astonishing diversity of life within our seas. With the Ocean Funds support we can let over 5,000 school pupils know just how cool our seas really are!”

Since this initial donation, the Ocean Fund has continued to support our charity by sponsoring MCS Basking Shark Watch, and most recently one of their ships, The Independence of the Seas, made a donation award to further our mission to protect our seas, shores and wildlife.

Royal Caribbean Cruises

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Marks and Spencer

MCS is delighted to celebrate the launch of our latest initiative with leading high street retailer, Marks & Spencer. Launched on World Oceans Day 2011, the three-year partnership called Forever Fish, aims to protect our fish stocks and the marine environment for the future.

The initiative is expected to raise over £1m per year for marine conservation and education projects, of which 40% will come to MCS. The funding will be generated from the 5p charge made to customers for re-usable plastic bags in M&S food stores – a scheme which has already seen plastic bag usage drop by 80%.

Customer and employee involvement in marine conservation, be that through learning, volunteering, or taking part in two beachcleans a year, is a key element of Forever Fish. The funding we will receive from M&S will help us to put in place a UK-wide network of champions for the sea to support our marine conservation initiatives at a local level.

Mike Barry, Head of Sustainable Business at M&S says: “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with the Marine Conservation Society. The marine environment is vitally important to Marks and Spencer and our 21m customers. MCS’ inspiring work to protect our beaches, oceans and sea life will provide practical opportunities for our customers and employees to make a real difference right across the British Isles.”

www.marksandspencer.co.uk/foreverfish
www.mcsuk.org/foreverfish

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Dragonfeeds

Demand for farmed fish globally is at an all time high, however one of the crucial issues that the fish farming industry currently faces is the amount of wild-capture fish currently used to feed farmed fish. New sources of marine oil and protein are required to sustain this growth and Dragon Feeds are leading in this field by working to develop an innovative sustainable, fish-free fish feed in the form of ragworm, a project with the potential to greatly contribute to the sustainability of fish farming and the health of UK seas.

In 2008 Dragonfeeds entered a three-year partnership with MCS when they became a founding Oceans 25 Ambassador. Their funding makes a vital contribution towards MCS’s core work for clean seas, sustainable fisheries and protected sea life.

Dragonfeeds

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Helpful Holidays

Helpful Holidays is one of our regular business supporters and recently donated £10,000 from its VAT charitable fund to help sustain our work.

Helpful Holidays was established 28 years ago and has grown to become one of the leading West Country holiday cottage specialists with over 650 holiday homes all across some of England’s most beautiful countryside throughout Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset and Hampshire. They range from romantic retreats for two to grand country houses or ancient farmhouses for great gatherings, as well as seaside apartments and simple country cottages with roaring log fires.

You can find detailed descriptions and lots of photos of each holiday home at the helpful holidays website, where you can search for the perfect holiday cottage for you and your friends and family, view the latest availability and special offers, as well as book and pay online for your holiday. The great thing is if you are new customers and you book a week’s holiday through the link above, Helpful Holidays will donate £10.00 to MCS with no extra cost to you.

Helpful Holidays

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The Green Insurance Company

The Green Insurance Company has recently teamed up with MCS to help preserve our beaches and protect your pets.

Founded in 2007, The Green Insurance Company is a Scottish based insurance intermediary with the aim of helping consumers to make greener choices when shopping for their insurance.

The Green Insurance Company have recently launched their new pet insurance and listed MCS as one of their charity partners that will benefit from the sale of the product. Customers buying insurance can chose MCS for The Green Insurance Company to donate to on their behalf.

MCS have chosen their Clean Seas and Beaches project to receive donations from this scheme, as over the last decade litter on Britain’s beaches has got worse. This litter affects marine life at every level – from tiny microscopic organisms through to the very largest animals such as whales and turtles.

To find out more about Pet Insurance from The Green Insurance Company, including special discounts off all of their products, visit their website www.greeninsurancecompany.co.uk/mcs

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Waitrose

In 2008 Waitrose entered a three-year partnership with MCS when they became a founding Oceans Ambassador.

Waitrose has been working on the sustainable and responsible sourcing for all of its comprehensive range of fish for over 10 years and continue to be amongst the leading fish retailers in the UK in this regard. They have a rigorous policy covering the management of the fishery, the species, methods of capture and full traceability with a clear mission to sell only sustainably caught fish in all of its stores. This policy extends to the feed for their farmed fish which they rear with high regard for both the quality and welfare of the fish and impact on the environment. Most recently Waitrose supported MCS through their Community Matters Scheme online. They asked customers to vote for one of three charities of their choice, MCS being one, to receive a percentage of £25,000. As a result MCS received a fantastic £7,355 towards our work.

Plastics 2020

The Plastics 2020 Challenge was founded in 2009 with the aim of engaging the public in a nationwide debate about the use, reuse and disposal of plastics.
As part of the UK plastics industry's pledge to lead the UK in diverting plastics from landfill by 2020 and to inform the public about the environmental challenges facing society today, the Challenge hosts a series of online debates on its website framed around the Four R's: reduce, reuse, recycle, recover. The Challenge is backed by Plastics Europe, the British Plastics Federation and the Packaging and Films Association.
Since 2010, MCS has been working with Plastics 2020 Challenge using the Cool seas Roadshow as a vehicle for positive messages about the value and proper use and disposal of plastics through our exciting new ‘Bottle Champions’ scheme.

‘Bottle Champions’ provides an opportunity to encourage primary school pupils and the wider community to recognise the value of plastic as a resource. Pupils recycle plastic bottles and bring the bottletops in to school to earn sports kits made of recycled plastic.

We piloted this initiative in Autumn 2010, and there was 100% take up in the schools that took part. Building on this success, the scheme was expanded in 2011, and by the end of April 2012, 130 schools and over 20,000 pupils will have recycled nearly 400,000 bottles, collected the bottletops and earned football, netball and rugby tops for their school teams. Both pupils and teachers continue to be enthusiastic about the scheme which will continue on in 2012 with support from Plastics 2020 Challenge.

Useful Links
MCS Beachwatch – the problem with plastics…
http://www.mcsuk.org/what_we_do/Clean+seas+and+beaches/Litter+campaigns/Plastics
http://plastics2020challenge.com/

 

Bank machine

The Marine Conservation Society has been selected from more than 550 applications to benefit from Bank Machine’s new ATM giving initiative and can now receive donations via cash points in Scotland.

Commenting on the initiative, Ron Delnevo, MD of Bank Machine  said: “The Bank Machine ATM Giving Charity Selection Panel were tasked with taking a thoughtful approach in selecting a range of charities for the ATM Giving initiative, both local and national, in order to offer the UK public a wide choice of good causes to support. The Marine Conservation Society is an important charity and we hope that added income generated by donations can make a difference to the charity’s work”

Katherine Stephenson, Corporate Fundraiser at the Marine Conservation Society said: “Giving our charity this amazing opportunity will bring marine conservation to a whole new audience. We are a small but growing charity with real drive and passion, and the funds raised will be used locally to ensure our Scottish conservation team can continue vital work to protect our seas, shores and wildlife.”

The seas around Scotland are world class, supporting a diverse range of marine species and habitats, including over 20 species of whale and dolphin, basking sharks, leatherback turtles and globally important populations of grey seals and seabirds. However, this sea life is under increasing threat from human activity, with the Scottish Government’s own Marine Atlas highlighting concerns over species and habitat declines throughout Scotland’s seas. MCS has already achieved so much in Scotland in the last decade, including the successful campaign for the Marine (Scotland) Act 2010, and we are dedicating the ATM giving donations to our work in Scotland to help this success continue.

Find out more about Bank Machine at www.bankmachine.com, and more about MCS in Scotland here www.mcsuk.org/scotland

 

 

Green People

Green People are producers of organic, ethical personal care products that are kind to the environment as well as your skin. MCS are thrilled to be working with them around their organic sun lotions, which don’t contain chemicals that are harmful to the marine environment.

Research has shown that some mainstream sunscreens promote viral infections in coral reefs, potentially playing a huge role in coral bleaching, where the corals start to die. With an estimated 10,000 tons of UV filters produced annually, with an average of 25% of the sunscreen ingredients that are applied to the skin being released in the water over the course of a 20 minute swim*, it’s a problem that Green People wanted to make sure they didn’t contribute to in any way. Hence their natural, organic sun lotions!

Green People have agreed to donate 30p per bottle sold to MCS from their Adults SPF25 and Children’s SPF25 lotions…so protect your skin before heading out into the sun this summer and have the peace of mind that you are helping protect our marine environment as well!

www.greenpeople.co.uk

*Research - Sunscreens Cause Coral Bleaching by Promoting Viral Infections
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2291018/

 

Care and Compare

www.CareandCompare.com is a price comparison site that gives 25% of profits to 5 Associate Charities, of which MCS is one.

They provide great deals on a huge range of financial and insurance products. The more people who use CareandCompare.com to obtain quotations, the more money they will raise for good causes, so have a look today. In short – you save, they give!

Find out more at www.careandcompare.com