Barratt London, the housebuilder responsible for the Eastman Village development on Harrow View, is encouraging school children in Harrow to celebrate Christmas in a more sustainable way this year.
The local housebuilder has donated 120 replantable Christmas tree saplings to Vaughan Primary School. The pupils were able to take home their very own ‘kidmas tree’ to plant where it will grow and can be enjoyed for years to come.
According to the Carbon Trust, a 2m tall real tree that ends up in a woodchipper or bonfire has a carbon footprint of 3.5kg of CO2. This increases to 16kg for the trees that end up as landfill. But neither of those figures compare to the 40kg of CO2 that is used to dispose of an artificial tree. The donation of sapling trees encourages families to make more sustainable choices at Christmas and have a go at growing their own.
Vaughan Primary School will be selling the trees to raise money for its Parent Teacher Association. The group’s usual fundraising activity has been put on hold this year due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions. The saplings will allow the PTA to raise some much-needed funds in a year where it has been otherwise hard to do so.
Kirsten Beaven, School Business Leader at Vaughan Primary School commented: “As a school we always like to engage in activity which encourages pupils to think more sustainably and this is an especially important message at Christmas. We welcomed this donation from Barratt London as we approach the festive season when there is typically so much waste. We look forward to seeing how the saplings grow for those students who have purchased one!”
Ed McCoy, Sales and Marketing Director for Barratt West London said: “This year we have pledged to reduce our carbon emissions by 29% by 2025 and to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in our operations by 2040. To support this message, we felt it important that our school activity reflected our ambitions to meet these targets and in total we have donated thousands of sapling trees. We hope the pupils at Vaughan Primary School enjoy growing their saplings and I hope these young trees can be enjoyed for years to come.”
Eastman Village is a new regeneration project in Harrow which will provide over 2,000 new homes, a school, shops, leisure and community facilities, a new medical centre and commercial space. Prices at Eastman Village currently start at £288,000 with two- and three-bedroom apartments also available.
