Case studies

Bennan Hill is a 57 hectare site situated in an area of outstanding natural beauty in Ayrshire, Scotland.

Balbeg Estate hosts a pioneering country holiday business with ecotourism at its heart, attracting over 1,000 guests each year. Timber produced on the Estate is chipped and used to generate renewable power for the business.

Planting was completed in January 2019 and the site is expected to remove 12,863 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent from the atmosphere over its lifetime.

Why did you choose to develop this project?

The main objective was to create an accessible woodland with a commercial element. It allows increased access to a hillside which would have been inaccessible due to livestock. The woodland enables the public to walk from Straiton village to the top of the hill without passing through livestock fields. The woodland also adds diversity to the area and provides a diversified income stream.

How did you go about it?

Balbeg Estate worked closely with Davidson and Robertson on the project.

The site was planted with a diverse mix of conifer species, with native broadleaves planted along the fringes. Open spaces were left to protect archaeological features. The open space also provides habitat corridors and an access network throughout the site.

Thinning will allow light into the woodland to provide a healthy ecosystem and will provide income which can be reinvested into the woodland.

What benefits does the project provide?

• Wider landscape: Bennan Hill provides an additional attraction for local tourism.
• Wildlife: The site connects adjacent woodlands, creating wildlife corridors.
• Water: The site has been identified as a potentially vulnerable area for flooding. The woodland will help regulate surface runoff into watercourses.
• Community: Balbeg Estate works closely with the local community and plans to use Bennan Hill for recreation, education and leisure purposes.
• Economy: The woodland adds diversity to the area and provides a diversified income stream. 
   

Cwm Fagor is a mile west of Devauden in Monmouthshire, close to the Wye Valley area of outstanding natural beauty. It was the first project to be accredited to the Woodland Carbon Code in Wales.

Why did you choose to develop this project?

Thorlux Lighting successfully reduced their carbon emissions through the 2000s. The company purchased the 80 hectare site at Cwm Fagor in 2008 to create a diverse, resilient mixed woodland which would sequester carbon to compensate for the company’s residual carbon emissions. You can find out more on the Thorlux website.

How did you go about it?

Thorlux worked with a local land agent and Pryor & Rickett Silviculture to identify a site, plan the woodland creation project and implement it.

What stage is the project at?

The project has established woodland across the whole site in compliance with the UK Forestry Standard and the Woodland Carbon Code. There were three phases of woodland creation in the project over 15-years. The trees are under active maintenance for weeding, wildlife control and recycling of protection guards.

What benefits does the project provide to your business?

The project provides Pending Issuance Units and Woodland Carbon Units that demonstrate carbon sequestered to a high standard with international recognition. Thorlux clients have valued visits to Cwm Fagor as a symbol to the company’s commitment to biodiversity, sustainability and mitigating climate change. 

Mike Allcock, Thorlux’s Managing Director, explained: “It’s particularly pleasing that this woodland will be contributing towards several targets to address climate change. The scheme is a demonstration that we recognise the emissions from Thorlux Lighting and the FW Thorpe Lighting Group and will also help the Welsh Government’s target to increase the area of woodland.

“Our manufacturing processes will always produce emissions and these can be calculated and offset. However, lighting generally accounts for approximately 20% of all global carbon dioxide emissions. We hope to help reduce this by selling extremely efficient lighting and electronic control systems. However, no matter how much we save, a small amount of energy use is inevitable. Woodland offsetting is a long term project to compliment this.”

What benefits is it delivering to your community and the environment?

The project provides permissive access to local community groups interested in the project. There are visible increases in key flora and fauna such as small mammals, butterflies and bluebells.

Contact

For more information, email Andrew Sowerby. 

What is Premier Paper?

The Premier Paper Group is the UK’s leading independent paper merchant. The company has an active policy of taking practical steps of reducing the environmental impact of its activities, including compensating for carbon dioxide emissions by planting trees.

It offers customers and their clients the opportunity to capture carbon dioxide emissions from their paper purchases by planting native woodland right here in the UK, through projects in the Woodland Trust's Woodland Carbon Scheme, validated to the Woodland Carbon Code. Through its nationwide distribution network Premier Paper offers a wide range of paper products, including Woodland Trust Office Paper.

When did you become involved?

Premier Paper has been working with the Woodland Trust since 2011. The partnership gives its customers the chance to compensate over time for the carbon dioxide generated from the production and distribution of the paper that they buy. One hundred percent of this carbon capture charge is then passed on to the Woodland Trust to fund the planting of trees.

In 2014 Premier Paper announced it was producing its first ever reams of Woodland Trust Office Paper. Now, for every 500 sheet pack of this fully sustainable Forest Stewardship Council^® (FSC^®) quality paper that is sold, 5p of the wholesale price goes directly to the Woodland Trust. Woodland Trust Office Paper is a unique brand in the UK market, carbon dioxide generated in the production and storage of Woodland Trust Office Paper is compensated for through Premier’s Carbon Capture programme which plants trees with the Woodland Trust’s Woodland Carbon Scheme. 

How many projects are you involved with?

As well as the Carbon Capture programme and Woodland Trust Office Paper, Premier Paper loves to encourage its staff and customers to roll their sleeves up and get involved in a host of tree planting days – sometimes planting thousands of trees in a day!

Premier has planted trees at Warcop in Cumbria and Heartwood in Hertfordshire. More recently it sponsored a tree planting event in Scotland involving businesses, schools, colleges and local residents, bringing a spot of green space to an urban environment in Livingston. Premier has plans to hold even more events right across the UK with the Woodland Trust as tree planting is a great way for people to engage with woodlands and learn more about trees and the nature they help support.

Why did you decide to buy from Woodland Carbon Code projects?

Trees from managed plantations provide the raw material for the paper that we sell, so engaging in a woodland carbon project was a logical step to take.

We offer our customers the opportunity to become part of a strong environmental marketing programme and compensate for carbon dioxide emissions from the paper that they buy and use. In doing so, they help create beautiful native woodland here in the UK. Woodland that will endure and provide much needed wildlife habitats and recreational spaces for years to come. 

How has it benefited your company?

Engaging in woodland carbon projects has enabled Premier to develop a marketing programme with a strong environmental message that permeates through all levels of our supply chain, from our suppliers through to our customers and even on to their clients.

We have worked with Woodland Carbon Code projects since 2011 and have held numerous tree planting events and other initiatives that have provided a wealth of positive messages and achievements for us and our customers to talk about. The Carbon Capture programme through the Woodland Trust has helped us win and retain business by providing an environmental marketing programme that customers can easily commit to and, in turn, promote to their clients and stakeholders. The marketing programme, through its association with the Woodland Trust and the Woodland Carbon Code, is highly visible, has a high level of credibility and delivers tangible results by creating new native UK woodland.

The success of the programme and our relationship with the Woodland Trust has also helped build our values and shape the corporate culture of the Premier Paper Group.

You can find out more about companies which have bought Woodland Carbon Code units in the UK Land Carbon Registry. View: 

• Holdings to see who has carbon units in their account

• Assignments to see other companies which have purchased Pending Issuance Units

• Retirements to see who has retired/used verified Woodland Carbon Units