Kier Living, part of the Kier Group, has launched its Greener Living campaign and partnered with Forest Carbon with a commitment to create new woodlands by planting 45,000 new trees by 2020 to offset its carbon usage.
Forest Carbon leads the way in voluntary carbon woodland creation in the UK and since 2006 has planted 5.2 million new trees in the UK through its partners’ projects. These projects have seen new woodlands created that has removed over 1,200,000 tonnes of CO2 from the air.
Its efforts also support flood mitigation, river improvement and public access and are assured by the UK government’s Woodland Carbon Code (WCC) for important areas such as additionality, risk management and carbon capture estimates.
The partnership with Forest Carbon will see Kier Living create new woodlands totalling 15,000 trees per annum over the next three years – to balance, in time, its annual 3,500 tonne CO2 footprint.
The company is also implementing greener working practices across all of its development sites which include changes in the way it uses energy, disposes of waste and how it uses equipment.
Home buyers will also be provided with guidance on using household appliances, transport and energy resources in an effort to become more energy efficient.
John Anderson, executive director, Kier Living, said, “Although we are pleased to be leading by example and to be the first UK housebuilder to commit to this initiative with Forest Carbon, we know that we – and the house building industry – need to do more for the environment. It is a major undertaking but one which we are 100% committed to achieve, and we’re looking forward to becoming a more carbon efficient house builder by 2020.”
Stephen Prior, Director at Forest Carbon, said, “UK forestry is in desperate need of expansion. We are among the least forested countries in Europe, and yet, for example, a staggering 80% of the timber we use is imported. We also need new woodlands for habitat, flood mitigation, cleaner rivers and community access, all on top of carbon capture. Kier Living’s tremendous contribution is across all these project types”
