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The impact story series reveals the journeys of social entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizers, their ups and downs in achieving different social missions, and potential support they need in order to thrive, especially in measuring impact and getting funding. If you are also an impact maker, hear from them to get inspiration for your own impact journey.
Episode 3: A registered charity and eco-education permaculture community located in Lantau Island, Hong Kong, dedicated to cultivating respect for the natural environment and promoting sustainability through experiential education workshops.
#NatureConservation #EcoEducation #Hong Kong
Mother nature is precious and deserves our respect. How do we inspire urbaners to become more connected with nature, and to consciously protect the environment?
Environmental sustainability, carbon emission reduction, waste recycling… these are all important keywords when we talk about sustainability. For urbanites living in the concrete jungle, nature seems distant from us. How do we inspire more people to experience the wonders of nature, and to make an active effort to protect the natural environment?
Ark Eden Foundation provides a solution by nurturing positive changes in people’s attitudes and behaviors towards the planet. Started in 2006, it is an one-of-a-kind registered charity as well as eco-education and permaculture center based in Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Run by a dedicated team of four full time staff and many part-time staff and volunteers, the center hosts various school, community and corporate programs to get children and adults out into nature. Participants immerse in all sorts of sustainability activities from nature-based play for the very young to nurturing native trees and permaculture farming for all. To date, volunteers and students mobilized by Ark Eden have planted over 37,000 native trees of around 160 species.
We are happy to have Jenny Quinton (founder) to share with us her insights on Ark Eden’s impact journey:
Funding journey and business model
Back in 2006, Jenny first started building Ark Eden after resigning from her job as a primary school teacher. She began with incorporating hands-on nature knowledge into education curricula. In the first year alone, she wrote and delivered over 25 different environmental education programs to schools, focusing on tree-planting, organic farming, ecosystem studies, sustainable living, waste management…etc.
In 2013, they opened their second center and made Ark Eden a permaculture demonstration site, running courses, conferences, eco-camps as well as holiday programs. Over the years, they gradually expanded the network to build a community with people interested in and looking for comfort in nature. Together, people in the community brainstormed and executed various ideas to save the environment.
Jenny describes the organization as “low-profile”, opting not to actively do pitching or marketing (or maybe they didn’t have the expertise to do so, Jenny reflects). Most of their opportunities come from word of mouth and referrals. In experiencing nature, people genuinely felt inspired and promoted the organization in their own networks. This is what makes Ark Eden unique.
Through Handson Hong Kong, for example, corporate volunteers would organize day tours to visit Ark Eden and help with tree-maintenance and organic farming, waste management, as part of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) and/or employee wellness/engagement programs. So far, Ark Eden has welcomed employees and their family members from leading corporations such as Bloomberg, Marriott, Boston Consulting and Fidelity. They also host workshops to demonstrate how a “zero-waste” office can be set up.
How is Ark Eden’s impact being measured?
Ark Eden does not have a very structured impact measurement system as they do not have a funder that requires them to do so. But in terms of outputs, they have hosted over 5,000 workshops and trained 300 volunteers. According to surveys, 90% of participants reported that they have gained environmental knowledge such as how to grow a garden, how to manage a sustainable house, and how to manage school or office waste. They also have increased confidence in bringing learnt knowledge back to their own home/workplace. 95% of participants reflected that the Ark Eden experience has cultivated a stronger sense of belonging and respect to nature.
To Jenny though, she has her own set of impact measurements, including whether the place that she built has cultivated a sense of belonging among the community, whether it has sparked a sense of inspiration in people’s daily life, and whether former participants keep coming back, contributing more while bringing the practice back to where they come from. She is happy to hear that some young adults have become vegan or tried to eat less meat, reduced and recycled their wastes as much as possible, and chosen more locally grown and less plastic-packaged products.
What kind of technology or tools can help your daily work?
As one of Ark Eden’s main tasks is to collect tree data, Jenny would like to have an app to record and tag tree data with geolocation mapping. Over the years, volunteers and helpers have been measuring the height and base diameter of trees, adding labels, and tracking the trees’ growth status periodically. Ark Eden currently stores the collected data in a database, but the data is unanalyzed and not mapped to the trees’ locations. A more structured approach would allow Ark Eden not only to better quantify tree-planting’s contribution to Co2 emission reduction and climate change mitigation, but also share the meaningful data with government and potential funders.
Are you a social enterprise or NGO looking to connect with potential funders for your impact projects? Are you a philanthropist looking to create some unique, tangible impacts? Or a CSR Manager trying to discover charitable projects that align with your business? Cheeri, an impact measurement and management (IMM) platform, offers impact funding matchmaking. Join today to find the right funder or funding project!