Trees for Reading

Programmes
Sustainability
Trees for Reading

Making Reading greener, healthier and happier

As part of Ethical Reading’s Sustainability programme, we’re mobilising Reading-based businesses to help make our town greener, literally, through our Trees for Reading initiative. This will enable Reading to enjoy more of the many benefits urban trees can bring.

What are the benefits of urban trees?

Trees in towns and cities create a haven for wildlife, improve air quality and lock away carbon. They help to cool the air in summer and absorb heavy rains. They also create a better ambience, helping to improve the mental and physical wellbeing of people who live and work nearby.

Find out more about the benefits.

What are we doing?

We’ve teamed up with Reading Borough Council (RBC) and Reading Tree Wardens to offer local organisations the opportunity to make a tangible positive difference to our town by funding the planting and care of trees.

To maximise the impact of our initiative on the way the town looks and feels, we’re focusing on planting substantial young trees (3-3.5 metres tall and 12-14cm around the trunk) in carefully chosen locations. RBC have committed to providing two years of care and maintenance, including watering, which will be crucial to ensuring that the trees survive and thrive. Any that don’t will be replaced.

Find out more about how the initiative works.

Why get involved?

In normal times your organisation’s staff probably commute to work and some may also travel for business. Meanwhile the air quality in parts of Reading is deteriorating, having a negative impact on health, and we’re in the midst of a global climate crisis.

Trees for Reading will enable your business to be part of the solution by investing in making our town greener, healthier and happier, creating a lasting legacy for the future.

As well as helping to offset your organisation’s negative impact by improving the local and wider environment, your involvement will provide a meaningful boost to its public image.

We’ll mark the trees planted with your support and acknowledge your contribution on our interactive map below to spread the word about the positive difference you have made to our town.

Trees planted so far

Funded by a single business

Funded by the local business community

Funded by the people of Reading

Trees planted in 2019-20: 8

Trees planted in 2020-21: 17

Thames Lido leading the way

Our first corporate sponsor was Thames Lido. They planned to start charging a small fee for the use of their car park, to deter people from taking unfair advantage of it.

However they didn’t want to profit from it, and were looking for a good local cause to donate to. We were thrilled when they contacted us to say they had decided to donate all the takings to Trees for Reading.

Thanks to their support, we were able to plant eight trees in the 2019-20 planting season. We planted the first, together, in front of the lido, at our launch event on 26 November 2019. The event was covered in The Reading Chronicle and In Your Area.

The trees the Lido has funded will all be marked with a plaque, so anyone passing can see how they came to be there.

For schools

If you’re involved with a local school and think there might be space on the grounds where we could plant some trees, we’d love to know about it.

Schools could also be very powerful in helping us get the word out about Trees for Reading. Imagine if all the pupils at your school wrote to the employers of their parents or guardians letting them know about the initiative and suggesting that they might like to contribute.

If you’d like to talk about your school getting involved, please email us at [email protected].

For individuals

In response to feedback, we’re also accepting smaller donations from individuals, to build up a community tree-planting fund.

We planted our first community-funded tree in February 2019 outside Reading Town Hall, in association with Brighter Futures for Children, to help children in care feel Rooted in Reading.

Find out more about our community tree-planting fund and how you can get involved.

Useful resources

Here is a collection of useful resources for you: