Date published: 17 July 2024
Leading housing provider Stonewater has celebrated planting its 30,000th tree as part of its longstanding initiative with the Community Forest Trust.
In 2019, Stonewater established a partnership with the Community Forest Trust to ensure every future development contained at least one newly planted tree. As well as this, Stonewater pledged £50 to the Community Forest Trust each time a new housing scheme was built, to enable five further trees to be planted.
Stonewater was the first housing organisation to form a partnership with the Community Forest Trust, which supports the work of England’s Community Forests to improve our natural environment, and since starting the partnership, 30,000 trees have now been planted.
The 30,000th tree has been planted at Stonewater’s Harrap Meadows scheme, a 140-home development in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, which also marks Stonewater’s 2,000th home in Yorkshire. Stonewater is also developing new schemes in the county including Calverley Lane in Horsforth, York Road and Otley Road, Harrogate.
Adam Masters, Assistant Director of Environment & Sustainability at Stonewater, said: “We’re so proud to have been able to work with Community Forest Trust to plant 30,000 trees in areas local to our new homes and communities across the country.
“This is just one of the steps that we’re taking as an organisation as part of our environmental strategy, which will ensure we’re working towards our target of being net zero by 2050 and reducing the impact of the construction of new homes.”
Roger Pearson, Funding Partnerships at the Community Forest Trust, said: "We are thrilled to celebrate the planting of our 30,000th tree in partnership with Stonewater. This milestone underscores The Community Forest Trust's shared commitment with Stonewater to enhancing green spaces and promoting environmental sustainability in our communities.
“Through collaborative efforts like these, we are not only improving local biodiversity but also fostering a deeper connection between residents and their natural surroundings. We look forward to continuing our work with Stonewater and other partners to create greener, healthier environments for future generations."
As well as its partnership with the Community Forest Trust, Stonewater has several initiatives in place to reduce its carbon footprint and deliver sustainable, high-quality homes .
The most recent of these is the launch of the Greenoak Centre of Excellence, a collaborative thought leadership initiative with Greenoak Housing Association, working to identify and highlight the most effective routes for the sector to achieve a zero-carbon future.
As with all Stonewater’s new developments, the homes at Harrap Meadows are low carbon and gas-free. Environmentally sustainable air-source heat pumps have been installed instead of gas boilers, reducing both carbon emissions and bills for customers.
Stonewater also uses new innovations in its homes to reduce energy usage and considered landscaping to increase biodiversity, as well as creating targets to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. As a result, by 2030, all its homes will have an EPC rating of C or above.
Find out more about their environmental strategy https://www.stonewater.org/about-us/our-environmental-impact/