Wienerberger marketing team plants 250 trees in Greater Manchester
Earlier this month, our Marketing team put on their gardening gloves and demonstrated their horticultural skills as they spent a day helping to create a green space as part of the 100 Trees Club, a charitable tree planting initiative through City of Trees.
City of Trees is delivering a green recovery and tackling the climate emergency head on, through planting trees and restoring woodlands for the people and wildlife of Greater Manchester. Working with communities, organisations, and businesses to build an ambitious movement that will plant three million trees within just five years, that’s a tree for every person in the county. City of Trees are named in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s climate emergency response 5-year plan, which includes a target for the county to become carbon neutral by 2038.
City of Trees also looks at ways Nature Based Solutions, especially trees, can be used to adapt our urban areas and make them more resilient to a range of environmental challenges including air quality, flood risk and extreme heat.
On their first volunteering day with City of Trees, eight keen Marketing team members travelled to a site near Pear Mill Industrial Park in Stockport which needed some care and attention. Thankfully they were blessed with some uncharacteristically beautiful weather for Manchester and the team were put to work, tasked with the ambitious target of clearing the site and planting 250 willow, oak and alder trees.
Each team member adopted their own role within the tree planting process, which involved slashing the existing vegetation, digging holes, planting the trees, hammering in wooden support posts, and protecting the saplings with netting. The exercise required our Marketing team to collaborate, communicate and problem solve, and they impressed the organisers with their efficiency by successfully hitting their 250-tree target. The team thoroughly enjoyed their day, feeling a sense of accomplishment in improving a local green space through planting, learning some new skills and bonding as a team.
Back at the office, the Marketing team are also making decisions to do good in their supply chain. Earlier this year the team selected Firebrand Promotions to supply branded products. Through a charity partner called Eden Reforestation Projects, Firebrand plants 10 Mangrove trees for every £500 Wienerberger spends with them. Eden work with rural communities across Madagascar, Nepal, Mozambique, Kenya, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Philippines, Haiti, Honduras and Brazil. Planting mangroves has multiple benefits for both communities and wildlife: restoring habitats, sequestering carbon and providing a source of employment.
The Marketing team’s partnerships with City of Trees and Firebrand/Eden support Wienerberger’s wider sustainability strategy ‘Let’s Build Beyond’ to create value for our customers, our people and our communities.
Stephanie Palmer, Head of Sustainability, said: “These two partnerships are great examples of ways every team and department can get involved in implementing our sustainability strategy, reflected in their relationships with our suppliers and their hands-on support of local initiatives. We look forward to seeing trees at the Pear Mill site grow and attract all kinds of wildlife!”
