Sign of Success
Wednesday 10th October
We have today set out our ambition to be the first Wildlife Trust in the UK to incorporate Quick Response Code technology into signage on all of its nature reserves.
With the help of our main signage supplier, Nottingham based Caliba, who have been a provider of some of Nottingham’s most well known and visible signs installations, we've designed new entrance signs for our reserves.
The new, highly visible signs include a Quick Response Code – known as QR codes – which provide a speedy way for people to access the details about our reserves, directly from this website. The codes are scanned using the camera on a smartphone to provide visitors with access to information including maps, the history of the reserve and details of species to look out during their visit.
The signs are being produced by Caliba, which has been providing a range of signage for Wildlife Trust reserves for well over a decade. The company is a member of our Wildlife Guardians corporate involvement scheme and has helped subsidise the cost of signs for a number of reserves for which we don't have funding.
Our Nature Reserves are one of the best adverts for our work and with over 70 across the county we have sites on the doorstep of almost everyone in the county. However, some of our signage is in need of replacement and we’ve worked with Caliba to develop cost effective, robust and highly visible signs which will make our sites easier to find. Through the use of the QR codes, we also hope more people will be able to access information about our wonderful nature reserves from our website.
Each year Caliba supports us with a cash donation and also provides additional work free of charge where funding is tight. Over the past 12 months Caliba has also been supporting us through the provision of subsidised entrance signs for a number of key reserves.
Speaking on behalf of Caliba, Director Philip Chester said: “We have worked with the Wildlife Trust for a number of years and have helped them deliver major projects on sites such as Attenborough and Besthorpe where they have received project funding. However, we understand that as a charity, the Trust doesn’t have access to funds for all its sites. As a Wildlife Guardians Scheme we are happy to provide both financial support and in-kind assistance to help them improve the quality of their signage and interpretative materials across their unique estate of nature reserves.”
Other Wildlife Guardians include Speedo International Ltd, Siemens Metering Services, L’Oreal Lux, EDF Energy, Castle Rock Brewery and Capital One.
We really enjoy working with Caliba as their experience and expertise means they can provide great solutions when we are looking to improve our onsite signage, and their support through the Wildlife Guardians scheme means that we can make improvements on sites where we’ve been unable to secure grants or sponsorship. This also means that we can invest more of our core funds in enhancing the wildlife value of our reserves.
