Renegade Conservatory Guy

We had the first meeting of those interested in setting up a tree planting charity (or organisation) from the double glazing industry yesterday evening.

It was a good start and the main decision that needed to be made was whether or not we would proceed and set it up – and we have decided that there is enough interest from people within the industry to give it our best shot. I intended writing minutes, but in all the excitement I wrote very little down (hence the need for someone with secretarial skills to offer their services). So, to keep everyone updated with progress, I’m working mainly from memory about what was discussed.

Introductions

Matthew Glover (me) – I basically explained that I run a double glazing company and ran through my usual potted history. I pointed out that I have very little knowledge about tree planting, but enjoy doing voluntary work and am willing to put as much of my spare time towards getting this all set up.

Richard Spencer from RPS – Richard explained that he is a software engineer by trade, but crucially considered himself to be a ‘tree hugger’ having been a tree warden, and generally having a genuine interest in trees.

Matthew Wilkinson from Gablecraft – Similar to myself Matthew has little knowledge of tree planting, but is concerned about global warming having young children, and offered his enthusiasm and networking skills to help get the charity off the ground.

Jon Twigge from RPS – Jon offered the services of RPS for helping create the website presense of the tree charity and using their database of customers to get the message out there. Jon will be a great facilitator and someone who can make things happen.

Pat Denman from Pro-Active MS – Pat offered his programming and website skills to the team, alongwith his database of over 3500 industry email addresses to get the message out.

Unfortunately, Jocelyn Morgan who has offered her services as treasurer was unable to make the meeting, as was Paul Godwin from Vast PR who has offered his ‘vast’ industry knowledge and PR skills.

The Problem

We then had a general discussion about the issue of Global warming, climate change, deforestation and the impact our industry has upon our environment. Whilst none of those in the meeting are experts on any of these issues, we all agreed that climate change is more than likely a problem that the people of the world need to address. There was debate about the degree of climate change and how much human activity was adding to global warming, but we all agreed that planting trees was only going to be a benefit to the world.

What we all agreed was that whether or not global warming is happening, the planting of trees has other benefits such as creating areas for wildlife to prosper.

Ideally, it would be great to have data about the impact the fenestration industry has upon the environment. Since the meeting, Nigel Rees from the GGF has suggested that they have commissioned a major report on environment matters which we will be keen to have a look at to support our work.

Solution

Where and how do we plant trees?

I was keen that we sorted two main issues from the meeting. Firstly, do we plant trees in the UK or overseas? And, do we try plant trees ourselves or work with another organisation to plant the trees.

When we discussed planting trees overseas, we felt that despite scientific evidence suggesting the planting of trees in rainforest areas such as the Amazon and Congo have a greater impact upon fighting climate change, it would be more difficult to manage the project by volunteers in the UK. So, there was unanimous agreement that any efforts to plant trees should be focussed upon the UK where it is easier to manage and control, and any progress made can be photographed and visited by members of the industry and general public. It was also agreed that over the last few centuries the UK has had vast swathes of forest cleared in the UK, and that our country has a far lower percentage of woodland and forest than other European countries which needs addressing.

The decision upon whether we plant trees ourselves or work with another organisation needs further consideration. Ideally, we all felt that if we could purchase land and plant trees and maintain them ourselves this would be the preferred option. For the charity (and industry as a whole) to be able to identify to the general public woodlands which have been planted by individuals from the Window and Door industry would be very powerful. However, we need to further investigate the implications and whether working with outside agencies will be more beneficial. Richard Spencer offered to get in contact with the Woodland Trust, and see what support they could offer us.

Jon Twigge suggested that maybe setting up in the short term with an organisation such as the Woodland Trust, but with the long term goal for us to manage planting our own woodland.

Fundraising

Many different ideas for fundraising were discussed. Generally, it was felt that larger organisations in the industry could contribute towards the purchasing of land with smaller companies contributing towards the planting of trees. In simple terms, if an acre of land could be purchased for say £5000 then a larger company could make the contribution and the charity could purchase the land. The wood could then be named after the company as a sponsorship opportunity. If, for example, Conservatory Outlet paid for the acre of land then the woodland could be called ‘The Conservatory Outlet’ wood. For larger companies, there are obviously major PR opportunities if woods are being created in their name.

Trees cost roughly £1 each, so if Joe Bloggs Windows installs 20 jobs per month and wishes to plant a tree for every installation they do, then they could set up a standing order of £20 per month, and this would go towards purchasing trees. For Joe Bloggs Windows this can be a major selling feature. For the charity, if we have lots of window companies, software companies, conservatory roof manufacturers and so on, making regular contributions then we have an ongoing revenue for purchasing trees.

Then, we can have regular tree planting days, where people from the industry offer their services for the day and we plant trees, with supervision from people who know the best practices for planting trees successfully.

Website / Marketing

The website will be the key marketing tool for launching and developing the charity. It will be important for us to create a website where those sponsoring the charity with larger donations, or smaller regular payments are thanked on the website for their commitment. For example, if a large company makes a large donation to purchase land this is acknowledged on the website, as are smaller companies. For example, if Joe Bloggs Windows are contributing £20 per month, then the website can state they are contributing 20 trees per month to the charity.

The poll I added to this website suggested that most people felt ‘Trees4Windows’ was the best name. At the meeting, we all felt this was a good name which summed up what the charity was about. We need to create a logo which can be added to websites, and encourage our sponsors to link to our website which will aid SEO and traffic to the website, and generate momentum for our efforts.

Setting up a Charity

Having researched setting up a charity on the Charity Commission website, I was concerned that there might be a lot of unnecessary bureaucracy required. It was suggested on their website that if working with an existing charity could be achieved then this would make sense as pooling of resources can have economies of scale.

I suggested that, as a trustee of Heal, I could speak with the other trustees and see if they felt planting trees could be a project of Heal, with the Trees4Windows team acting as a subcommittee of this charity. We could also be a fundraising arm of the Woodland Trust or similar tree planting charity.

No decision has been made upon this, although I have spoken with Jocelyn since the meeting who has suggested that she felt that setting up a charity is the type of bureaucratic endeavour she relishes!

Conclusion

We need to meet again as there’s still further investigation required, especially in relation to the mechanics of the organisation. But, the key decision was taken that we are going to progress the idea, and see how far we get. And that’s the main thing I wanted to get out of the meeting.

If anybody has any further ideas or suggestions please share them with me either by posting your comments below or emailing me at matthew@conservatoryoutlet.co.uk.

Tags: Tree Planting

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 9:13 pm and is filed under Climate Change, Environmental Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.