Sutton groups and individuals can claim up to £1,000 from Veolia's Sustainability Fund by Wednesday 30 September. Six local projects shared £5,000 last year.
Community groups and individuals in Sutton have until Wednesday 30 September to apply for up to £1,000 from Veolia’s Sustainability Fund, the grant pot run by the council’s recycling and waste contractor. Six grassroots projects in the borough shared more than £5,000 from it last year. (London Borough of Sutton, 21 July 2026)
You do not have to be a registered charity. The fund is open to “not-for-profit organisations, community groups or individuals in Sutton”, which is a wider door than most grant schemes leave open, and applicants can ask for in-kind resources or Veolia staff volunteers instead of cash if labour or materials would be more use than money.
What the fund will pay for
A project has to meet at least one of four criteria. The council lists them as:
- enhances biodiversity
- promotes sustainable waste behaviours
- protects the environment by using recycled, reused or reclaimed materials
- strengthens and connects local communities, including but not limited to employment support programmes, rehabilitation projects and youth development initiatives
That fourth criterion is broader than the “green” framing suggests. A youth project or an employment support scheme can qualify on community grounds alone, without a recycling angle.
The council says all applications are “assessed on merit, with particular recognition given to those that demonstrate long-term or ongoing community benefits”. In practice that is a steer worth reading twice: a one-off tidy-up day is a weaker bid than something that keeps running after the money is spent.
How big the fund is
Veolia’s managing director for municipal services, Pascal Hauret, said the fund has backed “over 640 incredible projects nationally with more than £514,000 in funding” since 2021, across the areas where the company holds council waste contracts. Veolia’s own fund page puts it at over £500,000 across 641 projects in the same period. (Veolia Sustainability Fund)
Set against that, Sutton’s six funded projects and £5,000 last year is a small share of a national pot, which is the practical argument for applying: the borough is not competing against a queue of local bids so much as it is under-claiming.
Veolia took over Sutton’s waste and street cleaning contract, and Councillor Christopher Woolmer, who chairs the council’s Environment and Sustainable Transport Committee, tied the fund to that deal: “One of the benefits of our new waste and street cleaning contract with Veolia is the support they also provide in the community.”
What it means for you
If you run a friends-of-park group, a scout troop, a school garden, a repair cafe, a residents’ association or a youth club anywhere in the borough, you can bid for up to £1,000 and the deadline is Wednesday 30 September. Applications go through Veolia’s website at veolia.co.uk/sustainability-fund.
Two things worth deciding before you write it. First, whether you actually want cash or whether materials and a team of volunteers for a day would go further, because the fund offers both and the choice is yours to make. Second, frame the bid around what still exists in a year’s time, since long-term or ongoing benefit is the test the council says gets particular recognition.
Veolia also runs the borough’s bin rounds, so if you are checking your collection day at the same time, our Sutton bin collection days page has the current schedule and the rules on what goes in which bin.
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