Peel L&P invests in green community projects across Greater Manchester

We've recently donated to Greater Manchester charity City of Trees to help make the city-region greener through planting trees and restoring woodlands, helping to tackle climate change at a local level.

The donation, which has been made possible through Peel L&P’s carbon offsetting programme, will be used to expand the City of Trees Citizen Forester programme, which enables local volunteers, of all ages, to take part in a range of, practical conservation and greening activities, such as tree planting, restoring woodland and helping communities to connect with their local environment.

The Citizen Forester volunteer scheme offers people the opportunity to get hands-on and reconnect with the natural world on their doorstep. The charity currently runs eight sessions per month across Greater Manchester, but this funding will enable it to run even more events for the increasing numbers of people who want to get involved following the Covid pandemic.

Finally, Peel L&P’s funding will be used to help the charity expand its work in encouraging local groups out into their local woodland and green spaces, through activities such as dementia friendly walks, and promote the benefits the environment has on mental health and wellbeing.

Sixteen of Peel L&P’s operational buildings are currently verified as net zero carbon, as defined by the UK Green Building Council, which involves improving their energy efficiency every year and offsetting remaining carbon emissions through a Verified Carbon Standard scheme. The regeneration business then chooses to ‘bundle’ international offsetting with local initiatives, such as the Citizen Forester volunteer scheme, which provide social value to the communities in which it has a presence.

Alex Bedford, fundraising manager for City of Trees, said: “I would like to say a huge thank you to Peel L&P for their generous donation which will help fund our Citizen Forester volunteer scheme and enable City of Trees to connect even more people to their natural environment. Our work is made possible through the wonderful support of organisations such as Peel L&P and, together, we can help create a greener, more climate resilient region for everyone.

“As a community forest, connecting people to nature is at the heart of everything we do and we encourage anyone to sign up to our regular events across Greater Manchester.

Whether you give 1 day, 1 hour or 1 week, you are spreading the word about the City of Trees movement and helping us to achieve our vision of planting a tree for every man, woman and child across Greater Manchester.”

Jo Holden, Sustainability Director at Peel L&P, said: “We are delighted to support City of Trees and the fantastic work they are doing across Greater Manchester.

“Our investment in the Citizen Forester volunteer scheme, the Trees for Learning programme and their community outreach work is part of our commitment to supporting projects which will have a significant impact on carbon reduction and an increase in social value and biodiversity across Greater Manchester. This is linked to our sustainability five- year plan which keeps us focussed on driving forward our sustainability agenda.”