May 2017 – The Premier Paper Group has announced that through working with its customers, it has raised more than a half a million pounds to support the work of the Woodland Trust, funding the planting of 87.5 hectares of new native UK woodland – an area equivalent to 122 international sized football pitches.

Premier first started working with the Woodland Trust in 2011 and by the end of 2016 the company had raised £519,000 for the charity through sales of the company’s Woodland Trust Office Paper and its Carbon Capture Programme.

Appropriately the story started in a Woodland Trust woodland, Pepper Wood, in rural Worcestershire, where Premier’s Group Marketing Director David Jones first came up with the idea of working with the charity and set about formulating the Carbon Capture programme which has quickly become the Woodland Trust’s leading Woodland Carbon initiative.

Premier’s Carbon Capture programme gives customers the opportunity to capture the CO2 emissions from the manufacture and distribution of the paper that they buy and to help the Woodland Trust to create new native woodland that has an enormous environmental benefit right across the UK.

Using guidelines from The Carbon Trust and DEFRA, Premier calculates the amount of CO2 generated in the production and distribution of the paper. Customers can then choose to capture the equivalent amount of CO2 by planting trees in the Government accredited Woodland Carbon scheme through the Woodland Trust.

The Carbon Capture charge can be as little as 2p per ream of A4 and the amount raised is paid, in its entirety, to the Woodland Trust which then uses the money to plant woodland at accredited sites. The success of the programme is down to the affordability, relevance and marketing benefits of engaging in this highly effective environmental programme.

In addition to promotional items and PR initiatives customers receive a certificate detailing the amount of CO2 captured and the area of woodland created. There is also a Woodland Carbon logo, which may be used in conjunction with the paper purchased and any associated print jobs.

Karl Mitchell, Director of Fundraising at the Woodland Trust said: “We are really grateful for the terrific support of Premier Paper. Funding the equivalent of 122 football pitches of trees will bring a big boost to the environment – oxygen rich places for people to enjoy and visit and homes for wildlife. Premier Paper loves nothing more than joining us tree planting and clearly shares our love of trees”.

Premier and its customers take a hands-on approach when it comes to tree planting. So, far, they have planted a range of native species trees in woodlands across the UK, including North Wood near Livingstone, Bovey Valley in Devon and the Prince William of Gloucester Barracks in Lincolnshire and in November Premier is hosting its fourth consecutive annual tree planting event, at Heartwood Forest near St Albans.

Vast and beautiful, Heartwood is one of the Woodland Trust’s largest native woodland sites. Once an oilseed rape field, Heartwood Forest is a 347 hectare estate of native woodland comprised of pockets of ancient woodland, wildflower meadows, a community orchard and over 500,000 new native trees. Located three miles north of St Albans, Heartwood Forest is easy to get to and definitely worth a visit.

If you would like more information on the Carbon Capture programme or the next tree planting day, please e-mail marketing@paper.co.uk

More on the Woodland Trust: www.woodlandtrust.org.uk