Newcastle International Airport net zero strategy takes off with latest sustainable project

The North East’s largest Airport has planted over 8,300 trees as part of its membership of the North East Community Forest Project as well as to support the business’ stretching environmental targets.

The North East Community Forest is a 30 year, multi-million pound project that will see tens of thousands of trees planted across Newcastle, Gateshead, North and South Tyneside, Sunderland and County Durham.

Helping to tackle climate change and support regeneration, the project plans to plant up to 500 hectares of trees by 2025, with a long-term goal to increase canopy cover across the North East by 30 per cent before 2050; almost double the current national average.

The new 5.77 hectare woodland area on Airport land, recently created with the help of the UK’s leading woodland creating and forest management company Tillhill, is one of the largest of the 25 North East Community Forest areas to be created in the 2021/22 planting Season.

Graeme Mason, chief sustainability and communications officer at Newcastle Airport said: “Being a good neighbour is extremely important to us and progressing with our Net Zero 2035 ambitions is one of our main objectives in the coming years.”

“The planting of these trees on Airport land will work to harness carbon from the atmosphere for many years to come, as well as providing more green canopy and woodland areas for the North East.”

Alongside the Community Forest Project, the new woodland area also supports the Airport’s Net Zero 2035 strategy. As part of the environmental roadmap, Newcastle International is undertaking a number of large scale initiatives to ensure the business hits the stretching target.

This includes the development of a Solar Farm on Airport land that will aim to supply 100 per cent of the business’ electricity requirements by renewable means. The solar farm development area also includes additional green enhancements made up of new trees, hedgerows and wildflower meadows.

Alongside the Solar Farm, the Net Zero 2035 roadmap will also include upgrading the Airport’s fleet of vehicles to 100% electric models, the first step of this initiative saw the Airport purchase the UK’s first fully electric airside bus in 2020.

The tree planting project is expected to be fully complete by the year 2025.