Is there anything better at this time of year than the colour brought to our surroundings by autumnal orange, red and brown leaves. The turning of the seasons has got us thinking about our love for trees and all they do. Trees help form our beautiful countryside, they create shade and shelter for animals and other plants, they aid in biodiversity and create the air we need to breathe. In other words, trees are one of the most vital elements of our environment. And just to add to their awesome multitasking nature, trees have been proven to be a great tool in our fight against climate change! A great way to reduce your carbon footprint, plant a tree!
The climate crisis is a big problem. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned us that we need to keep our global temperatures from rising over 1.5˚C, a big job when we’ve already passed a rise of 1˚C. We seriously need to work hard and fast to reduce our emissions levels. Some great news though, is that planting trees is a great help in combating the climate crisis!
Trees are the ultimate carbon capture and storage machines. They absorb atmospheric carbon and store it for centuries through photosynthesis. A young woodland area with a mix of native tree species can lock up a gigantic 400+ tonnes of carbon per hectare! So, whilst trees are only part of the solution, they can play a huge part in it!
The UK is not the best when it comes to our number of trees, in fact we’re actually very low on the scoreboard of countries most densely populated by trees. Only 13% of our land area is covered in trees, pretty below the mark when you consider that the EU average is 38%. To help reach the UK government’s target of becoming net zero by 2050 – we need way more. We would need to increase the UK’s woodland areas from 13% up to at least 19%, adding another 1.5million hectares.
So, we need to get planting!
The climate crisis is only half the battle we are dealing with when it comes to trees. We are also facing a biodiversity crisis. The UK’s ecosystems are damaged to the point where we have lost 13% of our native species since 1970. Planting new woodland areas and restoring habitats extends possible homelands for our wildlife. Boosting biodiversity, which goes hand in hand with mitigating climate change.
At Imageco we are green to the core. We have huge ranges of eco-friendly materials and constantly work to make print as sustainably as we can. We use less carbon-intensive productions methods and have also begun tapping into tree planting to offset our carbon emissions. We have teamed up with the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust to do our bit!
We wanted to look at a way in which we could link the planting of trees directly back to Imageco’s services. The idea was to plant 1 tree per 10m2 sold of Imageco’s recycled bottle eco wall canvas. This material is made from 100% recycled plastic bottles and has 80% lower carbon footprint approximately than traditional PVC based wallcoverings. The trees will be planted locally by the Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust in the Nidderdale area of the region.
Tree planting of course doesn’t fix your carbon footprint or offset carbon immediately, but over time they will start to do their job. We are doing what we can at Imageco to reduce our emissions with the introduction of solar and carbon reduction technology. Tree planting is just yet another factor in our fight to reduce our environmental impact at Imageco.
You can find out more on how Imageco is working to reduce our environmental footprint here.
