A conservation initiative which aims to offer “physical activity with a purpose” is planning to become the UK’s largest physical activity initiative as it gears up for expansion.

Green Gym, which was co-founded in 1998 by activity expert Dr William Bird with The Conservation Volunteers, has steadily grown to reach 140 sites across the UK and last year won £475,000 in growth funding from Nesta and the Cabinet Office. Having recently scooped a prestigious Health and Wellbeing Award from the Royal Society for Public Health, organisers want to harness this momentum to reach 600 locations in the next five years.

Green Gym aims to improve the health and wellbeing of its participants – typically harder to reach demographics who may be experiencing joblessness, ill health due to lifestyle conditions, or have mental health conditions – by boosting their activity levels, reducing isolation and supporting better mental wellbeing.

“We are committed to building healthier and happier communities and are firmly of the belief that we need to empower people to look after themselves,” said Green Gym MD Craig Lister, a physiologist who has held senior roles in both the fitness and public health sectors with the likes of Public Health England and the NHS.

“People need to feel valued and feel that they’re providing value, which is why physical activity with a purpose – creating a new pathway for a park, for example – might appeal to some people more than running on a treadmill.”

Green Gyms are a weekly activity – running for 3-4 hours at a local community facility such as a park. Each Green Gym has up to 50-60 volunteers, with turnout on any one week typically ranging from six to 20.

Sessions include a specialised warm-up, cool-down, plus a wide range of gardening and land management activities. Intensity increases over time according to ability; volunteers (Green Gym’s term for participants) may begin with a light task such as potting seedlings and later move onto wheel barrowing gravel or digging.

The group tracks the wellbeing of its volunteers over time using a number of tools and is currently in talks with a major fitness supplier with a view to using wearable tech as part of this monitoring.

Having recently commissioned a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis which found Green Gym generates £4.02 worth of social value for every £1 invested in the form of social, environmental, and economic outcomes, the organisation is busy adding to its wide range of partnerships with CCGs, hospital trusts, schools, local authorities and private companies.

Green Gym has also established a new exercise referral programme with leisure trust Aquaterra, which will see deconditioned patients offered the choice of gym programmes, walking groups or joining their local Green Gym.

“I’ve worked with leisure trusts a lot and leisure centres are a central part of the community, so we want to form lots of new partnerships whereby people who become active through Green Gym can then be introduced to sport or swimming as well if they want to,” added Lister.

“We’d also love to have leisure centres’ fitness instructors measuring the fitness of our volunteers, because they’re better qualified to do so and this would reduce the risk of damaging the trusting relationships that form between our volunteers and leaders.”