Goodman digs deep to support Farm at company community day
22 June 2011
Property group Goodman, which owns, develops and manages Birmingham Business Park, gave something back to the local community when their park management team helped reinstate Newlands Bishops Farm, Solihull, into a green haven.
Newlands Bishops Farm offers supportive living for adults with learning difficulties but the Farm’s gardens were becoming difficult to maintain. Goodman’s experience and skills in landscaping meant they could offer a solution for this particular community group and so they chose to spend a day at the property to help and get involved.
Goodman are in partnership with local organisation, SUSTAiN, who work with the 600+ voluntary community groups in Solihull to organise corporate social responsibility initiatives amongst local businesses, matching them to a community group that suits their company’s offerings.
The Goodman team consisted of 24 people, including the park managers, landscapers and the maintenance team, each of whom put their skills and expertise to good use. Whilst some members of the team implemented a new irrigation system for the vegetable garden, others painted a portakabin, cleared weeds and debris from the land and also set up eco-friendly water butts to help water the newly cleared vegetable garden.
Richard Potter, Property Services Director for Goodman commented, “SUSTAiN provide innovative ways for us to get involved with the local community in a way that really made a difference to residents at Newlands Bishops Farm. The team really enjoyed the challenge and achieved a lot in a short space of time. We have formed a great relationship with everyone at the Farm and we look forward to helping them again in the near future. We have many employees who specialise in particular skills and we are delighted that we are able to put these skills to good use in such an enjoyable and rewarding way.”
The SUSTAiN team will be at Birmingham Business Park on the 24th June 2011 to speak to companies based at the park and provide further information on how to get involved with local voluntary groups.