Why Do We Plant Trees?

Sustainability Series 2: The Meander Sustainability Series looks to simplify sustainability jargon, and over the next few articles we’ll be delving deeper into greenwashing, fabrics, chemicals and transparency in the industry.

On the 21st of March we celebrate International Day of Forests and the theme this year is Forest restoration: a path to recovery and well-being.

At Meander we’re huge nature lovers, which drives us to make sustainable choices and protect the environment we live in. So, we wanted to take this opportunity to share with you a little bit about why we plant trees and how that helps protect nature.

Why we plant trees

One of our core values is to be a sustainable business, and so we strive to cause the least possible harm to the environment in the manufacture of our apparel and in the operation of our business. We use mostly recycled, organic and natural materials, we work with mills that use renewable energy, and manufacture all our range in the UK and Europe in order to keep our carbon count low (but it is ultimately impossible to truly have zero impact).

There is no getting away from the fact that manufacturing will always use energy resulting in some CO2 emissions, and that it will require water consumption and produce waste. Even using purely green energy such as solar or wind results in CO2 emissions from the manufacturing and transport of the machinery and from the mining of the raw materials required to make solar panels and wind turbines.

Man Made emissions of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and other greenhouse gases are a primary driver of climate change, which has numerous devastating effects on the environment and wildlife from forest fires and droughts, to rising sea levels and coral bleaching. Whilst we do whatever we can to reduce our carbon footprint during the manufacturing process, we know we can’t eliminate it all together.

Forest restoration helps address climate-change and biodiversity which is why we have partnered with Forest Carbon to offset our emissions by planting trees in Scottish Woodland. We do this by calculating the total emissions coming from our operations each year and plant the required number of trees to help suck the amount of CO2 out of the atmosphere as they grow.

Why Scottish woodlands?

We partnered with Forest Carbon as they have a number of projects around Scotland and we like the idea of giving back to the area where we live and work, rather than somewhere further afield (the UK's forest cover is still only at 13%, far behind the European average of 44%). It is also important that we can ensure that trees are planted responsibly and correctly. Forest Carbon are certified under the Woodland Carbon Code and UKAS accredited bodies to ISO standards and ensure the right trees are planted in the right place, and the woodlands are managed to a high standard and are protected in the long term.

The benefits of trees on our wildlife

Planting trees and woodlands not only sucks carbon from the atmosphere, it protects and regenerates habitats which have an enormous impact on our wildlife and it helps protect some of our endangered species. Forest Carbon has seen red squirrel colonies thriving in some of the woodlands they work with and many other species benefit from the regeneration of these areas.

The number of breeding woodland birds in the UK has fallen by 25% since 1970 and Scottish Wildcats, Capercaillie, Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, and Willow Tits are all examples of woodland species in decline. We hope that by building back areas where these amazing animals can live and flourish, we can help protect these species from becoming endangered and ensure that they are around for generations to come.

This article is the second in our sustainability series. If you would like to read more in the series you can visit our article, What is Sustainable Fashion, here.