Toptree Information

"We are aiming to plant 500 trees every year in each city we operate in (Bristol, Bath and Edinburgh). "We will introduce Urban Green to two cities each year - planting a total of 17,000 trees over the next five years." This is a major development in The Toptree programme, which, in association with the Woodland Trust, has been responsible for the introduction of more than 92,000 trees into Woodland Trust sites around the UK since 1997. The aim of the new Urban Green initiative is to improve the urban environment. In addition to providing a greener landscape, urban trees have been shown to absorb pollution, reduce flooding, and reduce the impact of temperature extremes. Gus Hoyt, Green Party Cabinet Councillor, attended the initiative launch this week:"Trees play an active role in flood mitigation. This is of greater importance as our weather patterns are already changing leading to more increased rainfall. It's great that green minded businesses such as Velopost are focussing investment in planting more trees in the city region and we very much look forward to working with them as we approach Green Capital year. Joe Broadway, Director of Velopost, explains:"Our customers choose us because they are committed to supporting environmental issues as well as local business. We have set up Urban Green so we can increase investment into local sustainability and improve the Urban Environment of the cities that we operate in. The business communities in both Bristol and Bath have very strong green credentials and I am confident of the support of local organisations for this initiative." Gus Hoyt, Green Party Cabinet Councillor, adds his support to both Velopost and Urban Green:"By relying more on cycle couriers we can seriously tackle the issue of air quality in Bristol. Likewise, increasing the canopy of tree coverage in the city also helps us naturally clean the air we breathe." Local businesses and schools in Bristol and Bath can apply directly to Urban Green to receive trees. Velopost will also arrange a school trip for a local primary school in Bristol to visit Dundry Wood and learn about trees and how they benefit the environment. The Toptree Initiative was responsible for funding the original planting of the Dundry Woodland Trust site in 1997.