The Cardiff-based Orchard Media & Events Group is getting spades in the ground to back its company sustainability policy by making a ‘Guarantree’ to clients and stakeholders – planting a tree each time a new piece of work lands.
Orchard has partnered with Coed Hills Rural Artspace, an eco-friendly sustainable community set in an idyllic forest in the nearby Vale of Glamorgan, to create its own ‘Orchard’ on a hill overlooking the sea.
Orchard’s Business Development Director Jim Carpenter said: “In the face of climate change, we wanted to find a sustainable initiative that was realistic, attainable, scalable and local, so that our team, our clients, friends and families could see tangible benefits for themselves just 10 miles from our offices as the scheme grows.”
This practical and achievable way to make a little difference plants a tree for every completed job over £5,000, with an invitation to clients to add their own tree at the same time – so by engaging Orchard, they’ll be doing their bit to benefit the planet by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen.
The Guarantree is looking to plant at least 200 trees a year, a third of these will be fruit trees.
The initiative is a step towards B Corp Certification, the global cultural shift to redefine success in business, and build a more transparent, socially accountable, inclusive and sustainable economy.
Orchard Events Director Alastair Wilson said: “Events play a key part in our operations, and in the year leading up to the pandemic, the UK events industry alone is estimated to have produced 1.2 billion kgs of Co2. That hasn’t changed with the pandemic, as moving events online now requires yet more data centres and server farms all fed by mostly fossil fuels power supplies. This needs a collective industry response, and at Orchard we’re making our own small steps in the right direction.”
Rawley at Coed Hills said: “Engaging partnerships with the wider business sector is most important to activate a bigger picture on environmental policy change. Working with Orchard not only means more trees, it means deeper connections between sectors, education and support for the lives within businesses.”
In addition to the Guarantree, Orchard will enable team members to become eco volunteers on company time, they’re reducing the use of single use plastic throughout their operations, investing to increase energy efficiency by 30% in Orchard HQ, adopting a hybrid working policy to enable the team to work more from home, and the live music arm in the group, Orchard Live, is committed to the LIVE Beyond Zero vision to become a net zero agency by 2030.
