We are all aware of the climate crisis the whole world is facing as huge amounts of gases caused by burning fossil fuels increase the greenhouse effect and the Earth’s temperature.
There is also a relatively wide awareness of the measures proposed by various governments to combat global warming – such as the push for people to switch to electric vehicles as we prepare for production of petrol and diesel engines to end in less than a decade.
Now Allied Vehicles, the UK leader in the manufacture and supply of specialist wheelchair accessible vehicles, has embarked on a tree-planting programme to balance its own carbon footprint.
Peter Facenna, Allied’s Managing Director, said changes were already under way to improve the company’s green credentials, but he decided to take it further with the tree-planting programme.
Allied employs more than 600 people, and he told them the company intended to plant a tree for every vehicle, scooter and powerchair they sold, and for every new member of staff that joins the firm.
“We want to do our bit for the environment, as it’s incredibly important to us. We want to offset our carbon footprint,” said Peter.
“And to celebrate our 30th anniversary, we’re also going to plant a tree for every member of staff currently employed.”
Allied are working with a company called Grow My Tree, which plants trees specifically aimed at reducing global warming. When choosing where to plant trees, they pay particular attention to the content of the projects they support and local social conditions.
Grow My Tree also helps reduce extreme poverty and restore healthy ecosystems by planting trees in cooperation with partners from Haiti to Nepal, Madagascar and Malawi.
“We manufacture and we generate a lot of CO2,” says Peter. “There’s a large part of my focus now on the transition to EVs [electric vehicles] and with all of that it’s great to be able to do something to reduce our carbon footprint."
“Alfie Kennedy, who heads up our stores team, is a big part of that and has been doing a lot in terms of recyclability. We do so much more recycling than we used to in segregating our waste and so on, but I’m aware there is more we can do."
“The future of the planet is vitally important for us, our children and our children’s children, and I’m glad that we can play even a small part in making the world a safer place for them.”