We’re on a mission to bring people together and create a Co-forest near their town or city. We believe that through collective action we can engage people across the UK to lead by example and plant their very own forest legacy.
Co-forest was conceived by Bath-based digital technology agency, Storm Consultancy.
Now it’s own legal entity, Co-forest has since partnered with and received advice from environmental experts to assist in the Co-forest in the creation of its inaugural forest Co-forest:Acorn and in developing a blueprint for the future. We’d like to thank both the Woodland Trust and Forest of Avon Trust for their advice and support.
The past few years alone have experienced record-breaking temperatures and the number of unstable weather incidents and disasters are increasing. Plus, deforestation across the world is occurring at an alarming rate and is even happening right here in the UK.
hectares of additional woodland is needed to help reach our net zero carbon target by 2050. That’s around the same size as Yorkshire.
all time high temperature records were set in the the northern hemisphere during the summer of 2019
is the highest recorded CO2 measurement in 3 million years, when sea levels were metres higher and trees grew at the South Pole.
So how will planting more trees make a difference? For starters, trees are nature’s solution to climate change.
Trees cool the planet by absorbing harmful greenhouse gases and releasing clean oxygen back into the atmosphere. It is actually possible for trees to reduce a city’s temperature by up to eight degrees Celsius.
They also provide natural flood defences by intercepting rainfall as it makes its way to the ground, allowing more time for soil to absorb water. A mature evergreen tree can intercept more than 15,000 litres of water every year!
In addition to combating climate change, trees support our ecosystems by creating a home for hundreds of species of animals, insects and plant life.
Scientists state there are currently 1.7 billion hectares of treeless land available across the world which could be used for tree planting – without impacting agriculture or urban areas. It is one of the biggest and cheapest ways to tackle climate change.
*Source: All information above has been provided by The Woodland Trust.
In order to reach our targets and start making a difference right away, Co-forest is not becoming a registered charity. Whilst that may seem surprising given the nature of our work, we have created a private limited company to give us the ability to scale quickly. This is so we won’t hamper the opportunity of accessing private investments, building a forward-thinking team and planting trees as soon as possible. Our hope is that Co-forest can become a national (or even international) movement.
We will continue to ensure that our approach and profit taking will be documented with complete transparency using what’s called Articles of Association. This will enable us to uphold our values and continue to operate as intended in the future.
We’re doing this in the UK. Most offsetting schemes are based abroad and we want to demonstrate that you can make an impact right here.
We’re not just planting trees, we’re buying and protecting the land for the forest so that it doesn’t get cut down unnecessarily. Many offsetting schemes simply rent land and are unable to promise that the trees will have the best chance to grow to maturity.
We are about the ecological impact as much as the carbon offsetting. We’re planting the right mix of native woodland trees, in the right place to join up ecological corridors. Most offsetting projects plant single species with little thought to habitat creation.
You will be able to arrange to visit your co-forest and will have access to the founders forest area. You may not be able to stand on your exact plot as it may not be suitable terrain and we have to be considerate of the wildlife.
Purchasing and preparing the land for a new forest to be planted, and of course the trees!
We also have some small staffing and infrastructure costs, but those are related to getting more people co-foresting.
The Woodland Trust is helping to ensure we plant the right trees in the right places. We’re also working with local groups who have localised knowledge.
We have incorporated maintenance costs into the pledges, however, beyond that we will establish a small commercial element to Co-forest to help fund the long term needs of the project.
Co-forest:Acorn, as the inaugural project, will be owned by Co-forest Ltd and managed by its trustees.
There are a lot of things to juggle, but we’re hoping we can find land that isn’t perfect for agriculture. At the same time we need land which is the right size, is not already a valuable non-woodland ecological habitat in its own right, ideally connects existing woodland habitats, is affordable and is geographically accessible. We may not manage to get everything on our shopping list but that is our ideal.
Each tree will offset approximately one tonne of Co2 during its lifetime (100 years).
It’s hard to get an exact figure without a lot of investigation but in short, even a fairly small business making just half a dozen flights per year with nominal car mileage for meetings etc could produce north of 25 tonnes Co2 per year. Larger businesses will create significantly more.
The average 3 person family in the UK, taking one long haul flight per year, and driving one family car, could produce north of 15 tonnes of Co2 per year.
We’re open to all discussions that help us to grow this project. Just get in touch.
If you’d like to get involved in the Co-forest vision, donate as a business, or simply discuss the project further, we’d love to hear from you.
Get in touch