Co-workers plant trees with the Trust
Home furnishing experts from the IKEA Bristol store plant new woodland on the store’s land as part of its celebrations for National Tree Week.
The tree planting also coincides with the store’s second anniversary of working with the Woodland Trust, which has led to Bristol customers helping to create almost 360,000 square feet of new native UK woodland.
Customers help raise money in store for the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity by swiping their IKEA FAMILY membership cards every time they make a purchase. A donation from each swipe is then given to the Woodland Trust, which is enough to plant a square foot of forest.
So far IKEA Bristol’s customers have swiped their IKEA FAMILY membership cards 359,000 times, which has enabled 359,000 square feet of new native woodland to be created by the charity. You could fit the IKEA Bristol store into this space 20 times!
On December 2, 60 IKEA Bristol co-workers planted a tree on the site, which will help combat future flooding and be a place where customers can explore for years to come. The species of these trees are Hawthorn, Field Maple, Spindle and Hazel.
As part of the store’s National Tree Week celebrations all children visiting the store’s play area ‘Smaland’ will have the opportunity to plant their own acorn in a pot, which they will decorate. The youngsters will then take the pot home and look after the acorn, which they will be able to plant in a special place when it grows into a sapling.
Janette Wickens, from the Woodland Trust, said: “We are delighted to be celebrating National Tree Week with IKEA Bristol, as the store and its customers have done so much to help create new native UK woodland.
“Trees are the lungs of the planet and brighten up all of our lives, which is why we need more of them. I would like to encourage as many people as possible to use their IKEA Family membership cards in store as every swipe helps us plant more native woodland.”
Richard Chalcraft, IKEA Bristol’s Store Manager said: “Our Foot of Forest initiative in partnership with the Woodland Trust gives us a brilliant opportunity to work together with our customers to do something positive to help our local forests flourish. As for the proof it’s working, we’d like to encourage our customers to get out into the fresh air and enjoy a day out at the local Stratton forest near Swindon – you can see row upon row of new trees that have been planted as a result of our work together!
“We would like to thank all our IKEA FAMILY customers for their fantastic support with this initiative over the last two years, and look forward to welcoming everyone into our store to join in with the fun of our National Tree Week celebrations.”
Nationally IKEA FAMILY customers have swiped more than 6.5 million times which has enabled the Woodland Trust to create 150 acres of new native woodland.