We help communities manage legacy contamination
People.
Action.
Trust.
The power of purpose-driven partnerships
Transform legacy contamination into sustainable environmental solutions
Legacy contamination is a multi-faceted issue that extends beyond environmental degradation. It can pose immediate and serious threats to human and ecological health, disrupt communities, impact local economies, and jeopardise the well-being of future generations.
Governments, NGOs, and local communities are often ill-equipped, both financially and technically, to address these urgent issues. This is a particular challenge where the funds and clean-up management from the original polluter are insufficient or non-existent. These are the circumstances that NICOLE Foundation and our network focuses on.
The NICOLE Foundation partners with NGOs, Governments, Funders and Volunteers to manage and remediate legacy contamination that poses an immediate and serious threat to people and ecosystems. By pooling resources, knowledge, and expertise from various stakeholders, we can deliver long term solutions where none were possible before due to economic or other resource constraints.
Join our mission
The NICOLE Foundation was established as a spin-off entity of NICOLE, a network of contaminated land professionals from industry, consultancies and academia. The Foundation has a separate mission, purpose & leadership team. To learn more about NICOLE, please visit them at NICOLE.ORG.
At the heart of the NICOLE Foundation is the conviction that partnerships are transformative forces. They expedite problem-solving, foster innovative solutions, and build enduring relationships among individuals, communities, and organisations.
Our operational model hinges on forging effective collaborations among key stakeholders to tackle the urgent and severe threats posed by legacy industrial contamination. To explore how you can engage with us and amplify our impact, we encourage you to visit the pages that align with your specific role, situation and interests.
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Donors
Our donor community is a diverse coalition comprising public charities, private foundations, corporate partners, and individual benefactors, all united by a shared commitment to the remediation and sustainable re-use of contaminated lands. Through a transparent, auditable process, our donors contribute to advancing ESG objectives and fulfilling the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
For a deeper insight into how our donors are making a difference, we invite you to visit our Donors page.
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Partner NGOs & Public / Private Institutions
We collaborate with NGOs, public institutions, and governmental bodies to address complex land degradation issues during the critical pre-competitive phase. We offer our partners immediate access to dedicated technical subject matter experts who deliver both the technical and managerial solutions required to remediate contaminated sites effectively.
For more information on our collaborative efforts, please visit our Partners page.
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Volunteers
Our deeply experienced volunteer technical specialists are the heart of the Foundation. Drawing from both academic circles and the professional environmental consulting sector, these experts are instrumental in delivering sustainable solutions to communities where no other feasible options are available.
To discover more about the invaluable contributions of our volunteers, please visit our Volunteers page.
We are focused on high-impact projects where we can accelerate the reduction of human and ecological risk and return contaminated lands to beneficial use (e.g. biodiversity, food production, community development). We carefully screen the projects & programmes we support to assure that we do not compete with the existing commercial consulting science & engineering sector (e.g. in cases where a viable responsible party and adequate funding exist).
Our credentials
The NICOLE Foundation brings together years of specialised experience in managing legacy contamination issues. Our extensive network includes volunteers, NGO & International Development Partners, Academic & Private Sector Partners, all rigorously vetted and aligned in their focus on high-impact, sustainable projects.
Recent programme activities
Historical Contamination Clean-up, Estonia
Cadmium in Cacao in Latin-America
