Yell and Honda UK have signed up to cut carbon emissions as part of the Woodland Trust’s Carbon Payroll Giving scheme.
The Woodland Trust launched the scheme in June to help individuals compensate for their carbon emissions, through donations, by planting more native trees in the UK.
Employers are able to offer staff the option to make donations tax-efficiently from gross salary.
Yell chose to implement the scheme becuase it is already a corporate partner of the Woodland Trust. It began promoting the scheme to all of its 3,500 UK employees using posters and the intranet ,and has received positive initial feedback.
Kimberley Watts-Fitzsimmons, Yell’s corporate responsibility manager in the UK, said it is pleased to be involved with tackling carbon emissions: “It is really nice for us to be able to tell our people there is a really simple way to look at what your carbon emissions are on the calculator the Woodland Trust provides, and then have a way of locking that up by donating to a UK charity, which will then plant trees on ther behalf to make sure carbon emissions are locked.”
Nick Atkinson, carbon manager at the Woodland Trust, added: “What is unique about this is it gives people something back as well. It is not just about donating to a good cause; it is about individuals being able to take responsibility for their carbon footprint and their own impact on the planet.
“It is important to plant trees not only for carbon, but also in the context of climate change. Trees can bring their biggest benefits in terms of adapting to the effects of climate change, so even if we stopped all carbon emissions tomorrow, there are still changes that are going to happen as a consequence of the actions that we’ve been taking over the last 50 years.”
Yell has been running its give-as-you-earn (GAYE) scheme for around ten years. Last year employees donated over £45,000. “We have got quite a good take up within Yell and we are really hoping this scheme takes off alongside that,” said Watts-Fitzsimmons.
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