In 2014, Sam Ward, who leads the communications team at Yorkshire Tea, was walking in the woods with her daughter, when something struck her. “Our company had just pledged to plant a million trees in the UK and Kenya within the next five years, but we needed a way to renew people’s energy for the subject. I realised the answer was simple: go directly to the kids.”
The company has form when it comes to families and trees. In the 1990s, an earlier campaign was inspired by a promise made by Jonathan Wild – chair of Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, the family-owned company behind Yorkshire Tea – to his children. It started with Wild planting a hornbeam in the centre of Harrogate with a stone plaque at the base that read: “First of a million”, and went on to work with the Woodland Trust to plant trees across the UK, as well as protecting an area of Peruvian rainforest larger than the Yorkshire Dales and funding the University of Leeds to set up rainforest protection projects for other businesses to adopt.
Like Wild, Ward got down to business right away. The company renewed its relationship with the Woodland Trust, which is dedicated to preserving the UK’s natural woodlands. The timing was crucial, says John Tucker, director of woodland creation at the charity. “Tree planting in the UK over the past five years had been at its lowest for a generation,” he explains. “Woodlands stabilise soil erosion – we’re losing 2.9m tonnes of topsoil every year at the moment – as well as offer shelter and a habitat for wildlife. Changing climate is resulting in bees coming out of hibernation earlier, when their normal sources of nectar and pollen are not available. This means tree species such as goat willow, which can be flowering in January, can provide a vital source of food for the bees.”
Yorkshire Tea has helped finance the Trust’s community tree packs for schools. These packs come in three sizes: 30 trees, 105 trees and 420 trees. The hedge pack – with dog rose and hawthorn – has 30 trees; the copse pack – with silver birch, rowan and cherry – has 30 or 105 each; and the wild harvest pack – with crab apple, blackthorn and elder – offers 105 or 420 trees.
“People think trees take years to grow and they won’t see the benefit,” says Tucker. “Last week, I was in a copse just four years after planting and there were alder and birch trees 20ft tall. They’ll be around for the long-term, but they’re already sucking up air pollution today.”
Over in Kenya – where most of the company’s tea is farmed – the sustainability team, led by Simon Hotchkin, worked with the International Small Group Tree Planting Program (TIST) and the Kenya Tea Development Agency on a large reforestation project. Tea farmers supplying four tea factories Yorkshire Tea sources from, volunteered and then worked under TIST supervision to plant trees on their land to provide shade and wind protection, enrich soil nutrients, prevent erosion and battle climate change.
In Kenya, the three main species are grevillea, used for boundary fences, wind breaks and shade with low-hanging branches offering animal fodder and sustainable fuel wood; avocado, which gives farmers a nutritional supplement, a second income and a new set of skills; and macadamia, which is a longer-term crop, as its harvest comes after seven years.
In the last four years Yorkshire Tea has planted 400,000 trees with schools in the UK and over 150,000 trees with tea farmers in Kenya. The total is rising fast and come 2020 the one millionth tree should be planted. That’s what you call being rooted in the community.
Yorkshire Tea and trees
Yorkshire Tea is planting a million trees over five years – with a bit of help from the Woodland Trust, UK schoolchildren and Kenyan tea farmers. Learn more at yorkshiretea.co.uk/yorkshire-tree
