42
Sustainability
Back on the beach
Millennium Bridge near the very spot where King Charles II had landed to view the extent of the damage done during the 1666 Great Fire of London.
Showcase
Participation in the exercise extended beyond members of LCCI’ s sustainability committee, helping to showcase the group’ s work and the wider programme to a broader section of LCCI membership.
LCCI members assembled Thameside at Queenhithe, just south of St Paul’ s Cathedral, in September to conduct the Chamber’ s regular litter survey as part of a national beach clean-up campaign.
The volunteers worked along the northside of the river, eastwards from the
The group collected 26.1 kg of litter, lower than the total at last year’ s event. Indeed it was the general opinion that London’ s riverside stretches appear to be getting cleaner year by year. At the same time, there is still plenty of litter to remove and a continuing role for practical clean-up activity remains.
The event was delivered in partnership with Veolia UK, LCCI’ s programme partner for sustainability. Veolia offered operational expertise, led a
health and safety briefing and supported members throughout the clean-up.
To learn more about how Veolia can support sustainability activities, and for commercial partnership opportunities, interested parties should visit:
www. veolia. co. uk / contactveolia
Counting butterflies
This summer was a good one for butterflies in Greater London, according to the results of the 2026 Big Butterfly Count.
Thousands of people took part, spotting 57,376 butterflies and dayflying moths during the three weeks of the count. The most-spotted butterfly was the Small White, also known as the ' Cabbage White ' due to their caterpillars ' taste for cabbages and other brassicas. It has pale white wings with small black tips.
Remarkable
Another standout species was the Painted Lady. These butterflies undertake one of the most remarkable insect migrations in the world, arriving in Britain via a relay of several generations, each flying a leg of the journey from Africa, across the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea, before reaching UK shores.
The strong numbers of butterflies this year are likely due to excellent conditions for caterpillars in the spring and hot, dry weather which is loved by adult butterflies in the summer.
The Big Butterfly Count will return in July 2027 when citizen scientists in Greater London are invited to participate
www. butterfly-conservation. org