Land Rover Discovery Sport in UK countryside
British automaker Land Rover is concocting a CSR initiative to conserve the environment with the help of British royalty.
His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales recently met with Cumbrian farmers and renewed a partnership with Land Rover to create a bursary to kick-start fledgling countryside careers. The Prince’s Countryside Fund Land Rover Bursary Scheme highlights Land Rover’s values at the intersection of global good in environmental conservation and national pride and wellbeing.
“Land Rover is synonymous with the countryside and we’re looking for the UK’s most enterprising young people who would benefit from the use of a Land Rover Discovery Sport," said Jeremy Hicks, managing director at Jaguar Land Rover UK. "Access to a 4x4 vehicle can be crucial to getting a rural business off the ground.
"By providing a vehicle with capability to tackle the most challenging of rural terrains, space for seven and excellent towing capacity, we are aiming to help five ambitious young people to further their rural careers.”
Fit for a prince
This is the third year in which The Prince’s Countryside Fund has partnered with Land Rover. Five people aged between 21 and 35 will be awarded a Land Rover Discovery Sport to assist in a rural life.
Prince of Wales with Cumbrian farmers
The Prince’s Countryside Fund was established in 2010 to improve the prospects and conditions of country life. Each year, it provides more than £1 million, or $1.4 million, in grant funding, leads projects that help farmers navigate turbulent markets, commissions research and provides direct assistance through an emergency fund.
The outlook for the UK countryside is bleak, with the average farmer being 59 years old and those 35 and under only representing 4 percent of the population. In forestry, more than half of the workforce is at least 40 years old.
Ideally, the nation will create an additional 30,000 jobs in the countryside by 2020.
Prince's Countryside Fund branded Discovery Sport
The Prince of Wales visited as the farmers were learning to navigate trailers around obstacles, check water depth and flow of flooding and off-road around and through floods when necessary. His Royal Highness then took to the wheel himself, practicing the same techniques in the Discovery Sport.
Since its beginning, the Land Rover brand has concentrated on all-terrain and off-road driving, traits that make it ideal for country life.
“There’s an acute need for young people to be supported to enter farming and related careers and a multitude of opportunity waiting for them,” said Claire Saunders, director of The Prince’s Countryside Fund, in a statement.
“Whether you’re new to farming, starting a ‘field to fork’ food business or keen to bring new technologies and your skills to the countryside, The Prince’s Countryside Fund is here to support you," he said. "That’s why we’re delighted to be working in partnership with Land Rover to provide such practical and valuable support to young people starting out in their rural careers.”
Land Rover Discovery Sport
CSR initiatives with a focus on important causes create positive sentiment along consumers, who are more attuned to a brand’s values with each passing year. The bursary shows that Land Rover’s concerns extend beyond revenue, with the backing of royalty casting an even more favorable light on the brand.
Heart of gold
Land Rover has previously shown a commitment to improving living conditions.
The brand’s parent company Jaguar Land Rover is furthering its work on global causes with a new water filtration project set to benefit 300,000 students in Africa.
For this five-year venture, Jaguar Land Rover is working with Climate Care and Vestergaard to install LifeStraw filtration systems in communities that feed into 375 schools in Bungoma County, Kenya. Launched in 2013, Jaguar Land Rover’s global CSR program has a goal of impacting 12 million individuals by 2020 through initiatives centered on education, technology, health, wellbeing and the environment (see story).
Jaguar Land Rover’s concern for its nation’s people extends to other groups In needs.
British automaker Jaguar Land Rover’s work with the armed forces has not gone unnoticed, as the brand received the gold award from Defense Secretary Michael Fallon on Jan. 14.
Jaguar Land Rover’s recognition was in honor of its continued upholding of commitments it made when it signed the Armed Forces Covenant, whether through employment opportunities for veterans or giving reservists time off to train. While Jaguar Land Rover may have begun its efforts around Britain’s military to fulfill a sense of duty to its country, its work has given the brand recognition at a national level (see story).