Spotlight on RePollinate
In our latest member spotlight, we’re thrilled to be joined by Fiona Scott from RePollinate.
What does your social enterprise do?
At RePollinate, we’re all about giving pollinators in the UK a fighting chance by taking real, practical action and by teaming up with businesses, community groups, and local authorities to build a network of beautiful, pollinator-friendly spaces.
From full scale community gardens to small scale flowerbeds and planters, every space we create is tailored to the local environment and designed to thrive for years to come. It’s not just about saving bees, it’s about boosting biodiversity and creating places people and wildlife can enjoy together.
RePollinate: Helping Pollinators Thrive, One Space at a Time
How do you do it?
🌸 DESIGN & BUILD habitats
We work with businesses, councils, and communities to transform spaces into pollinator havens. Each design is unique and packed with a carefully chosen mix of trees, flowers, herbs, and shrubs, all selected to suit the space and support a wide range of pollinators through all their life stages.
📚 EDUCATE & INSPIRE
We love sharing what we know. Whether it’s through workshops, talks, or hands-on sessions, we’re here to help you understand the vital role of pollinators and how you can help. We work with schools, businesses, and community groups of all sizes to build that knowledge.
🤝 CONNECT & SUPPORT
We act as a hub for like-minded people and groups working to protect pollinators. We link businesses with local environmental projects, guide them through habitat assessments, create custom designs, deliver materials, and support them every step of the way.
📢 ADVOCATE FOR CHANGE
We collaborate with policymakers at both local and national levels to push for more pollinator-friendly strategies. We also help businesses boost their sustainability impact as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Why should someone buy/use your product/services? What are the benefits, and what makes your organisation unique?
Bringing People Together for Nature; RePollinate is uniquely placed to connect corporate sponsors with local community groups or organisations working on environmental projects.
Thanks to our wide network and experience, we’re great at matching a company’s sustainability goals with real, on-the-ground needs in communities.
Here’s how it works:
We help guide groups through environmental assessments, create custom designs, sort out the plants and materials, and offer support throughout. Once everything’s in place, the community takes over, looking after the space with one of our easy-to-follow care plans.
It’s a real team effort and a brilliant way to turn shared values into real-world impact.
Our approach to design is also unique; Our flagship project, Beds for Bees, offers a ‘best of both’ approach to flowerbed design, incorporating a rich mix of perennial cottage garden plants and native wildflowers. The combination of cultivated (non-native) and native plants in a bedding scheme is something quite novel. Beds for Bees is about blurring these boundaries and bringing about a culture change in horticulture towards something more sustainable/climate conscious, ecologically valuable and which celebrates our native flora and fauna.
What is your personal motivation?
RePollinate was founded to support wild bee populations and give back to nature. At the heart of our work is a mission to shift public perceptions, moving away from manicured, sterile spaces toward wilder, more natural environments. By doing so, we aim to spark practical action and help build a network of rich habitats that support pollinators and biodiversity across Scotland.
What exciting things do you have coming up?
We’re incredibly proud of our recent work creating the Tranquil Garden at the Kyle Chemotherapy Unit, NHS Ailsa Hospital in Ayr. In partnership with our corporate sponsor, Hewlett Packard, we designed and built a beautiful, safe, and restorative outdoor space for patients, visitors, and NHS staff to enjoy. The garden offers not only a moment of peace and reflection, but also a vital habitat for pollinators, bringing nature’s healing power into a healthcare setting.
This project is a powerful example of how collaboration between communities, corporates, and nature-based organisations can deliver meaningful, lasting impact.
Following this success, we’re excited to explore a similar opportunity within the criminal justice sector. We’re currently in discussions with a Scottish prison to co-create a pollinator-friendly garden that would offer a haven of tranquillity for both wildlife and individuals within the system.
Gardens like these provide much more than aesthetic value. They offer space for education, rehabilitation, and reflection, reconnecting people with nature while supporting biodiversity. By introducing native wildflowers and pollinator-attracting plants, we aim to create environments that are both ecologically rich and emotionally supportive.
These kinds of projects align closely with our mission at RePollinate: to bring people together through nature, challenge traditional ideas of what green spaces should be, and create lasting change, one garden at a time.
Who do you want to work with more?
We’re actively looking to expand our network of corporate sponsors, (particularly those in the construction industry), to support our growing portfolio of community and environmental projects.
Additionally, we are always keen to hear from community groups who would like to work with us.
What’s your biggest challenge?
Once a project is complete, our active involvement gradually steps back. Each community group or organisation we work with agrees to take on the ongoing maintenance of their beds or gardens. This requires real commitment and groups with a strong base of active volunteers, ideally across generations, are best placed to keep these spaces thriving.
Of course, we’re always available to offer guidance and advice whenever it’s needed. Our goal is to empower communities to take ownership while knowing they’re never entirely on their own. However, ensuring these spaces thrive into the future is the real challenge.
Where do you see your organisation in 5 years?
Because our work spans key policy areas including education, mental health, food security, and environmental protection, we’re keen to engage more closely with local and national policymakers.
Our long-term goal is to help shape future policies that reflect and reinforce the values at the heart of what we do: sustainability, community empowerment, corporate responsibility and long-term ecological impact.
What top tips would you give to other social enterprises?
Collaboration is key. One of the most important lessons we’ve learned is this: talk to as many people as possible, from as many diverse backgrounds and sectors as you can. The right partners, collaborators, or supporters often come from unexpected places and it’s through these conversations that ideas begin to take root and grow, and you find the people who can help you make things happen.
Organisations like Social Enterprise Scotland make this process easier by helping connect like-minded individuals and groups who are passionate about creating positive change. Building a strong, diverse network is often the first step to making your vision a reality.
For more information about RePollinate, please visit their website and make sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
Want to read more Member Spotlights? Visit our blog. If you’d like to be featured, please email membership@socialenterprise.scot.