You may have noticed we have been posting videos of Kai, our Marketing Assistant, and myself planting trees on social media recently.

The reason behind this is that Dean Healthcare is trying to reduce its carbon footprint. As a healthcare agency, our workers nearly always have to travel for their jobs. We have done as much as we can to try to encourage mindful consumption of products in the workplace, and this week we were lucky to be invited to the site of our sister charity, The Dean Farm Trust to plant trees in one of their gardens.

Trees are capable of removing up to a tonne of carbon dioxide in their lifetime, that’s about 5,000 miles of driving!

I travelled (by public transport and ride share) to the trust to meet with Mary, one of the founders of Dean Healthcare and the Dean Farm Trust. We were led to a beautiful garden with ecologically diverse selected saplings in pots, ready to enhance the area and provide a great space for the rescued chicken flocks to dust bathe beneath during the summer months.

Mary explained to us about the animals that would benefit from these trees, from the local bat colonies to the chickens and the insects. These trees do remove carbon and help to heal the damage done by cars and our everyday consumption, but also provide enrichment, a healthier area and a richer biodiversity. They will also look really pretty in spring with all the blossom!

I have to say Mary was certainly quicker and better practiced in terms of planting the trees, as you can see in the video, she clearly knows what she is doing! I enjoyed being outdoors and it felt really rewarding to be doing something so positive. We were also lucky enough to meet some of the resident animals at the sanctuary and see all the wonderful work that is being done by staff and volunteers (more videos coming soon!)

We will continue to add trees to the Dean Farm Trust in an effort to help absorb the carbon we produce in our working tasks for the coming years, as well as making a continued effort to be as mindful as we can about our practices in and out of the offices.

You can find ideas of how to reduce your carbon footprint here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52719662

You can find out more about the Dean Farm Trust on social media, and at www.deanfarmtrust.org.uk