Barr Joinery work alongside Nicholsons to initiate tree planting program

Although using timber to build and manufacture locks in carbon (sequestration of carbon dioxide by trees from the atmosphere equates to approximately 900kg of CO2 per cubic meter of wood, which it holds captive during its entire lifetime, even when it is reprocessed in the form of a building) and despite using sustainable timber sourcing, the Barr Group, as most organisations still has a long way to go.

We were lucky to have the opportunity for local forestry experts Nicholsons to educate the team and help us kick start a tree-planting program, which we hope will build momentum through the engagement of Barr Group clients and collaborators.

On a chilly morning back in February, Dai Lewis, Nicholsons Senior Woodland Manager, took the Barr Joinery crew through the theory and practice of tree planting. The site was previously unused and is to become an area of natural woodland with a clearing for camping and playing in the shade. With two hundred infant trees now in the ground (a drop on the ocean – but a start none the less!) we wait for the green shoots of a little future forest.

As Dai quotes, ‘The trees we want to plant today, for tomorrow, should have been planted yesterday’. That said it is never too little or too late. The Barr Group are hoping that this is a project with which we can engage clients and collaborators, and will eventually grow into much more!

The Nicholsons’ ‘Carbon Canopy’ initiative is a not for profit tree planting project, working in conjunction with local and international organisations to: PROTECT the Climate. RESTORE the Canopy. FUND new forests.

Last year the Committee on Climate Change published ‘Net Zero: the UK’s Contribution to Stopping Global Warming’, asking for the current 13% of UK woodland coverage to be increased to 17% by 2050 (the European average currently sits at 35%). This would require planting 30,000 additional hectares every year for the next 30 years (in 2018-19 only 13,000 hectares were planted and 11,000 of these were in Scotland). The longer-term aims are even more ambitious, but none the less necessary. For those of us not used to the metric system in land terms - one hectare is 2.5 acres (pretty much the size of a rugby field).

The Carbon Canopy Program is looking for:

Landowners and farmers in Oxfordshire and surrounding counties, who would be prepared to commit land to afforestation (ideally two hectares or larger, to maximise the value and impact of the planting). Investors who want to plant trees to sequester carbon. Investors will own the CO2 sequestration potential of the woodland for 40 years. Corporate grants are available for companies planting up more than a hectare at a time – a process with which the experts at Nicholsons can lend a hand.