Month: January 2026

The Royal Academy of Music announces £30M donation

Stuart Mitchell

The Royal Academy of Music announce a transformational £30 million donation from philanthropist Mrs Aud Jebsen. This gift, the largest in our 203-year history and the biggest donation ever given to a conservatoire outside the USA, will be used to transform the Academy’s facilities. In recognition of Mrs Jebsen’s outstanding support, 1-5 York Gate, a large Nash-terrace building, part of the Academy’s main site on London’s Marylebone Road, will be named Aud Jebsen House. The donation will be staggered and the Grade II-listed Regency building will undergo major works over…

Read More

A quarter of UK working parents have turned to food support services to put food on their tables

Stuart Mitchell

Almost a quarter of working parents across the UK have had to turn to a food support service in the last year to help them feed their children. Food redistribution charity The Felix Project surveyed 4,000 working parents with at least one child at home aged 16 and under. They found 23% have used a food bank, that could equate to 1,725,000 parents across the UK. Of those, 1 in 4 are using food services every one or two weeks to make sure they have enough food to feed their…

Read More

Tesco announces two new nature partnerships as it ramps up plans to boost biodiversity across land connected to food production

Stuart Mitchell

Tesco has today reaffirmed its aim to protect and restore nature across key sourcing regions in its supply chain, as it revealed the progress it’s made during the first year of its Nature Programme initiative. The retailer launched its Nature Programme in 2023, with five projects now established in partnership with Forestry England, delivered in the Blackdown Hills; RSPB; the Rivers Trust, alongside beef and lamb supplier, ABP; Herefordshire Rural Hub; and ANSE (Asociación de Naturalistas del Sureste) and key fruit supplier AMFRESH in Spain.   As part of the programme, land linked to the production of 18 high risk commodities is already benefiting from a range of initiatives, including creating habitats for key species, increasing pollinators, improving soil health and…

Read More

World Wildlife Fund Launches First-of-Its-Kind Wildlife-Driven Gift Card Offering

Stuart Mitchell

World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the world’s leading conservation organization, announces the launch of the WWFGifts Gift Card—a first-of-its-kind nonprofit gift card that blends the emotional impact of charitable giving with the joy of receiving a tangible gift that’s delivered right to your door. Now available in select Kroger stores nationwide, and online the WWFGifts Gift Card offers retailers a powerful new way to meet rising consumer demand for purpose-driven gifting. Each card purchased can be redeemed for a full donation to WWF, helping to fund critical conservation programs in nearly…

Read More

Europe’s Grids Package marks a positive shift to coordinated, EU-wide infrastructure planning and permitting

Stuart Mitchell

Today, the European Commission unveiled the European Grids Package. As one of the core deliverables under the Clean Industrial Deal and the Action Plan for Affordable Energy, the Grids Package is a response to the urgent need for more coordinated and forward-looking grid governance, planning, and permitting, reflecting several of the key principles emphasised by CATF. Key areas of the package Union-level integrated network planning The Commission is moving to a more integrated model for infrastructure planning, with stronger EU-level direction and better coordination across Member States. Updates to the…

Read More