Carbon Capture Programme – May ’16

Hello and welcome to our May blog showing the latest news from the Carbon Capture programme we are so proud to be part of.

Each month we calculate the CO2 emissions from the production and distribution of our paper purchases with the Premier Paper Group. We then make a donation based on this figure which goes straight to the Woodland Trust, the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity, who invest that money into planting new native woodland and maintaining existing woodland right here in the UK.

As we approach the half way point of 2016 we would like to recap on what our donations to the Woodland Trust, through Premier’s Carbon Capture scheme, have achieved in the UK.

By Carbon Capturing our paper purchases through the Premier Paper Group we have helped the Woodland Trust to:

– Purchase the Smithills Estate in Greater Manchester

– Save the Llennyrch ravine, near Porthmadog

– Open a First World War Centenary Wood for Scotland (over 1 million trees planted)

– Fight against pests and diseases in trees

– Protect the UK’s old and iconic trees

– Create and manage ‘wood allotments’ with local communities

– Invest into conservation-based studies

– Save Mantle’s Wood from being bulldozed for HS2

– Educate students with tree packs and tree planting events for schools

– Revive ancient woodland (29% above target in 2015)

– Map the full tree canopy across England and Wales

Tree of the Month : Whitebeam

Also as a bit of fun, on each edition of our Carbon Capture Programme we will be naming our tree of the month, this month we have chosen the Whitebeam!

Whitebeam is a broadleaf deciduous tree native to southern England, though widely planted in the north of the UK.

Compact and domed, mature trees can grow to a height of 15m. The bark and twigs are smooth and grey, and the shoots are brick red in sunlight, but greyish green in shade.

The young twigs start hairy and become smooth later. Only the edges of the buds are hairy.

The berries are known as chess apples in north-west England and are edible when nearly rotten.

Whitebeam timber is fine-grained, hard and white. Traditional uses included wood-turning and fine joinery, including chairs, beams, cogs and wheels in machinery.

At Datum, we are proud of our ongoing commitment to respecting the environment and conducting our business in a way that is at once ethical, sustainable and responsible, an ongoing commitment to our ISO14001 accreditation.