Member Article

Kall Kwik Oxford joins carbon capture scheme

Kall Kwik Oxford helps plant 3,000 trees in a day to add to the UK’s largest continuous new native woodland

As a part of its commitment to the Carbon Capture scheme, Kall Kwik in Oxford recently took part in a Carbon Capture tree planting day in Heartwood Forest, Hertfordshire. More than 3,000 trees were planted at a site which is set to become the UK’s biggest continuous new native woodland.

Kall Kwik is based in the Oxford Business Centre in Osney Lane. It offers a complete design and print service for business including short run digital output and large format posters and banners. From April to December 2014 the business helped capture 3503 kg of carbon under the scheme.

Its director Christine Herbert joined over 150 other ethically minded businesses at Heartwood Forest, which is a ‘Woodland Carbon Site’ in St. Albans, where they were greeted with hot drinks and breakfast to set them up for a hard days planting trees including Oak, Alder, Willow, Wild Cherry, Rowan, Holly, Beech and Hazel.

Said Christine: “Many believe that paper products are not environmentally friendly because the manufacturing process involves cutting down trees. In fact, our industry has always been one of the most active when it comes to green issues.

“By sourcing trees from properly managed forests and then balancing the carbon emissions created during the paper making process through helping to create new native woodlands, significant amounts of carbon will be removed from the atmosphere and stored.

She explained: “Each time we are invoiced for paper by our supplier the amount of CO2 produced is itemised. This company has signed up to the Woodland Trust’s Woodland Carbon scheme and keeps a record of the total estimated emissions produced. As a result the number of new trees required to absorb the equivalent amount of gas is planted in days like the one I have just taken part in.

“Even sending an email burns energy, so the more we can do to counteract the emissions the better. Planting the trees at Heartwood was hard work but rewarding and fun. I must admit that the hot food on offer also made it worthwhile!”

CO2 levels in the atmosphere have increased by more than a third since the industrial revolution. The UK government has a target of reducing carbon emissions to 50% of the levels they were at in 1990 by 2025. Scientists are currently looking at ways the CO2 produced by making energy through burning fossil fuels can be captured before it enters the atmosphere and then stored safely underground for thousands of years.

But trees capture and store CO2 as part of their natural growing process. CO2 emissions from the paper purchased and used by Kall Kwik is compensated for by planting and conserving native woodland in the UK.

It is calculated that 25m² of native UK woodland will capture and store one tonne of CO2 and creating large areas of new native woodland, will, over time, remove hundreds of thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The scheme operates under the Woodland Trust’s Woodland Carbon scheme and the Government’s Woodland Carbon Code, a voluntary standard for woodland creation projects in the UK.

For more information about Kall Kwik Oxford telephone 01865 791003, email christine@oxford.kallkwik.co.uk or visit www.kallkwik.co.uk/oxford

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by LJPR Ltd .