Naturesave’s long running tree planting policy to fight climate change
For every customer who switches their insurance to Naturesave, we plant them a tree. For many years we planted a tree for every home insurance customer who had stayed with us for more than ten years. In 2018, the Committee on Climate Change announced that tree planting needed to double by 2020, as part of radical changes required to avert a climate breakdown. In response we decided to plant a tree for every new customer.
Trees For Life
All our trees are planted in the Scottish Highlands; in an area named The Naturesave Grove. The planting is conducted by the charity Trees for Life, who have planted more than a million trees as part of a long-running conservation project to restore the Caledonian Forest.
New forests are now seen as playing a vital role in locking up carbon. Planting trees also bring further benefits such as improving wildlife biodiversity and limiting the increase in flood risks expected with global warming
So, whether you are a charity, a business owner, homeowner or manage a renewable energy installation, if you switch your insurance to Naturesave, we will plant you a tree, in the Naturesave Grove.
Why the Caledonian Forest?
All our trees are planted in the Caledonian Forest in the Scottish Highlands. The tree planting is handled by Trees for Life, a conservation charity that was founded in 1989 with a specific vision to restore native woodland to parts of the Scottish Highlands. The forest originally covered much of the Highlands of Scotland, and takes its name from the Romans, who called Scotland ‘Caledonia’, meaning ‘wooded heights’. However, there has been a long history of deforestation in Scotland, and clearance of the land began in Neolithic times. Over the centuries, the forest shrank as the human population grew, and some parts were deliberately burned to eradicate ‘vermin’ such as the wolf. More recently, large areas were felled to satisfy the needs of industry, particularly after the timber supply in England had been exhausted. The widespread introduction of sheep and a large increase in the numbers of red deer ensured that once the forest was cleared, it did not return.
Today less than 1% of the original forests survive, and the native pinewoods have been reduced to 35 isolated remnants. Since it was founded Trees for Life have planted more than a million trees across their project area. Their new goal is to expand the forests with a further million more trees.
What types of trees will be planted?
The Trees for Life project focuses on planting native trees in the barren areas where the forest has disappeared completely, by collecting seed from the nearest surviving trees, to maintain the local genetic variation in the forest. The resulting seedlings are planted in a random, non-linear pattern inside fenced enclosures. Particular attention is paid to the pioneer species such as birch, rowan and aspen. The charity also works to remove non-native trees which have been planted in some areas as commercial crops amongst the old trees of the Caledonian Forest remnants.
What other action is Naturesave taking to protect the environment?
The activities of Naturesave Insurance funds the Naturesave Trust which has donated a million pounds to environmental projects across the UK. Read more about the Naturesave Trust…