The Conservation Volunteers’ I Dig Trees community tree planting scheme is a partnership programme helping to deliver OVO Energy’s Planting Promise; planting 1 million trees each year around the UK on behalf of their customers.
Over 2 million trees have been planted on publicly accessible land, with a further 1 million trees now available to communities, for free.
Tens of thousands of community volunteers have been getting stuck in with this tree-planting phenomenon, covering 17.4 million square meters, so far.
- Over 76,000 community volunteers have planted trees
- With over 450,000 volunteer hours committed
- That’s 1,024,000 tonnes of CO2 saved!
Darren York, TCV’s Chief Executive said:
“Together, since 2015, we’ve absolutely smashed our target of 2 million trees. That’s thanks to more than 4700 local community groups on over 5000 community green spaces.
But we’re not done there. Now we want more local community groups to take practical action to tackle the climate and ecological emergency.”
40,960 packs of mixed variety native trees have been distributed so far with a further 20,000 available this year – perfect for local wildlife and well adapted to the UK climate.
These FREE trees are not only a beautiful addition to local parks and community spaces, but also provide vital habitats for local wildlife and sequester carbon out of the air, whilst improving the air quality.
Alex Moczarski, OVO Energy’s Proposition Manager said:
“The Conservation Volunteers and OVO Energy have been working together for the past seven years, and in that time, 76,000 volunteers have planted trees that we have funded via the partnership.
That’s a really incredible 450,000 hours spent planting trees right here in the UK. As those trees grow, they’re going to absorb over a million tonnes of carbon dioxide.”
Joe Coles, TCV’s Tree Programme Manager said:
“This year we have a further 1 million trees now available to communities. Thanks to the efforts of an army of amazing volunteers and supporters, I Dig Trees is growing a huge and lasting legacy of green spaces improved for biodiversity, climate resilience and social benefit. It’s wonderful to see that with our free tree packs, communities are mobilising and making a difference; proving that local action can have a national impact.”
The free trees are available for ordering now, ahead of National Tree Week (Nov 27 to Dec 5), the UK’s largest annual tree celebration; helping community groups kick off the annual winter tree-planting season which runs from October to March each year.
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