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North east pupils’ tree-mendous planting efforts to help offset carbon footprint

Primary school pupils at Aberdeen’s Seaton Primary have branched out into the school’s garden as part of an environmental campaign sponsored by Sparrows Group to plant 350 trees in the north east of Scotland by 2021.

Twenty-five P6 students helped to bed in 120 tree seedlings within the school’s grounds as the international provider of specialist equipment and integrated engineering services seeks to offset 1,000 tonnes of its onshore operations’ CO2 emissions by 2021.

The tree-planting initiative is being managed by Carbon Footprint Ltd. So far, Sparrows has seen 125 of its young tree quota planted by students at Aberdeen’s International School and Knockando Primary in Aberlour, Moray.

Carbon Footprint, which supports businesses with their environmental and carbon management plans, ensures that all the trees are native broad leaf species such as hawthorn, downy birch and wild cherry, so they can preserve the UK’s environment and biodiversity by providing wildlife habitats and enhancing the natural UK landscape. The organisation also operates a ‘tree buddy’ system which means for every tree planted in the UK, it works with the Brazilian Amazon Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Reduced Emissions Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) project to protect trees in the Amazon Rainforest from deforestation to guarantee carbon offsetting.

A home for Sparrows’ remaining 105 trees will be decided on in the coming months.

Sparrows CEO, Stewart Mitchell, said: “With carbon emissions high on the news agenda, Sparrows is committed to playing its part. This tree-planting programme through Carbon Footprint supports this and plays an important role to ensuring our CO2emissions are offset. At the same time, it is helping to have a positive impact on the next generation and their environmental education.”

Ashley Verling, head teacher of Seaton Primary School said: “This initiative has sparked great conversations about climate change for our students. We’ve been able to talk about social responsibility in a fun and educational way where they can understand the carbon fighting capacity trees and plants have, and the importance of nurturing the planet and growing more.

“We are very grateful to Sparrows and Carbon Footprint for choosing Seaton Primary to be part of this community project and we look forward to watching the trees grow over the coming years.”

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