Speedy Hire has launched a new project aimed at supporting peatland restoration in the UK’s boglands. In partnership with Sisk, they have invested £10,000 into the local environment.
A team of volunteers from Speedy Hire and Sisk planted 10,000 cotton grass plants in the North Pennines, which is the UK's largest and best drained area of bogland. The initiative is intended to help to keep carbon in the ground rather than it being released into the atmosphere.
Working together with Sisk Group and North Pennines National Landscape, this is the first phase of a long-term collaboration focused on biodiversity and peatland restoration. Peatlands are the world’s largest terrestrial carbon stores and are essential to efforts in fighting climate change. While healthy peatlands become carbon retainers and take in greenhouse gases, damaged peatlands do the reverse, turning them into carbon emitters. Planting cotton grass plants will help to restore degraded peatlands by supporting vegetation growth, resulting in additional benefits for the surrounding wildlife and biodiversity of the North Pennines.
“We are proud to be supporting this important issue and making a direct contribution to peatland restoration. The World Economic Forum has considered world ecosystem collapse as a very real risk over the next 10 years, and it is important for businesses to include nature and biodiversity in their ESG plans. Climate change and biodiversity go hand in hand and we at Speedy Hire are committed to working with our partners to restore our country’s natural landscape, while helping to reduce carbon emissions." explained Sam Westran, chair of the communities committee at Speedy Hire.
While Christina Nichols, regional social value and stakeholder manager at Siskadded: “Undertaking this vital work in the North Pennines National Landscape has been really important for Sisk. Together with Speedy Hire’s volunteers, our team enjoyed being part of the project, making a difference in reducing the carbon released into the atmosphere. Projects like this contribute to our target to support the successful restoration of peat bogs as part of our 2030 Sustainability Roadmap.”
As part of its ‘Decade to Deliver’ ESG strategy, Speedy Hire has set targets to reach net zero emissions by 2040, some ten years ahead of the government deadline, with clear steps to reduce Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 50% and Scope 3 emissions by 42% by 2030.
