The Groundswell Collective has been named as this year’s winner of the $50,000 Hatch: Taronga Accelerator Program (Hatch) grant at a competitive pitch event held at Taronga Zoo Sydney on 19 June.
A not-for-profit organisation based in Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, The Groundswell Collective was co-founded by Anna Noon and Mark Colquhoun with the vision of creating densely packed patches of diverse, native vegetation in urban areas through their Tiny Forest initiative to support a thriving, connected and sustainable future.
“We’re thrilled to be awarded the $50,000 prize from Taronga’s incredible Hatch program,” Co-founder Anna Noon said. “It’s been a privilege and fantastic opportunity to engage with likeminded changemakers, subject matter experts and the wider Taronga network. We can’t wait to continue The Groundswell Collective’s purpose of bringing people together to create a better planet by building two new school-based tiny forest with the funding.”
Now in its fourth year, Hatch is the world’s only accelerator program that is led by a conservation zoo. It aims to help ecopreneurs take their idea from vision to reality and support innovators who are tackling some of the most pressing environmental and conservation challenges currently facing the planet.
“We were so impressed with the calibre of this year’s cohort,” Taronga Conservation Society Australia CEO and moderator of the 2024 Hatch pitch event, Cameron Kerr, said. “Each of the start-up founders demonstrated a way forward for our world – whether that’s addressing the way we rethink food waste elimination through digital labelling systems, addressing challenges related to solar panel waste, redirecting medical supplies from landfill, and so much more.
“The Hatch founders have proven that when there is support, we can come up with innovative solutions that can benefit our environment and humanity,” Ker added. “Last night’s judges were so impressed with The Groundswell Collective’s co-founders Anna Noon and Mark Colquhoun. Their impressive knowledge of the ecosystem and scalability is inspiring. The rewilding of urban spaces is so important and I cannot wait to see what they achieve. I am so grateful to our generous donors for their leadership and recognising the need to nurture and support innovative minds to ensure that together, we can make these ideas a reality.”
This year’s Hatch: Taronga Accelerator Program saw 13 founders immersed in masterclasses and workshops led by Taronga’s network of subject matter experts over a 14-week period. The program culminated in a pitch event, attended by more than 200 guests at the Taronga Institute of Science and Learning at Taronga Zoo Sydney.
The six teams of ecoprenuers delivered their pitches to a judging panel which included philanthropist, businesswoman and urbanist Lucy Turnbull, one of Hatch’s founding donors Alexandra Holcomb, climate change and sustainability leader Andy Marks, and marine biologist and advertising legend John Preston.
Taronga has been widelh acknowledged as a leader in identifying and supporting innovative conservation ideas for more than a decade. In 2011, Taronga launched the Taronga Green Grant program which evolved into the Hatch: Taronga Accelerator Program in 2020. Over four years since its launch, Hatch has granted $199,000 in funding, and has connected 17 teams with more than 95 mentors and subject matter experts. Past Hatch initiatives include edible coffee cups Good-Edi and Xylo Systems, a cloud-based platform that uses AI for tracking and managing conservation programs.
