Trees mark firms growth over 60 years

A recruitment firm has sponsored a grove of trees at the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood to mark its own jubilee – and reaffirm its commitment to the environment.

(left to right): (back) Kirsty Reeves, Abush Tsehy, Kimberley Winnall, Lisa Salt, Alice Twist, Summa Schrickker. (Front middle) Lisa Duncan

Pertemps Network Group celebrated its 60-year anniversary last summer and wanted to do something fitting to mark the occasion.

So it made a donation to the Woodland Trust to sponsor a one-acre grove at the beauty spot, near Coleville, which contains around 750 trees. The donation encompasses ongoing care and management of the trees to ensure they grow into maturity, enabling them to provide shelter and food for wildlife.

Last week, colleagues from the Warwickshire-based business attended the site to unveil the new plaque that has been erected, commemorating both their own anniversary and that of the Queen’s 70 years on the throne.

Pertemps Director Lisa Duncan said: “It’s important, as a responsible employer, to ensure we are looking at how we can improve our own practices and do our bit to cut our environmental footprint. Working with the Woodland Trust is an important factor in that.

“But, of course, trees also symbolise growth so it seemed a most suitable, lasting legacy to celebrate the business’s journey over the last 60 years, our colleagues growing with us and and Her Majesty’s incredible milestone.

“The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Wood is a wonderful amenity for people to come and walk round, reflect and refresh. At a time when personal wellbeing has never been so prominent, we would like to encourage people to just come here to have a wander and relax.”

The grove is part of Pertemps commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. It has already switched more than half of its 200-vehcile fleet to hybrid or electric only and has donated to the Woodland Trust. This has established its own woodland carbon scheme, which enables companies and individuals in the UK to compensate for their contribution to UK greenhouse gas emissions by helping the charity to create or enable the creation of new native woodland in the UK. In time, these will absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

By joining the woodland carbon scheme, Pertemps have supported the planting of approximately 2,377 UK native trees which will sequester around 557 tonnes of carbon throughout their lifetime.