Local schools and community groups plant free trees donated by CitizEn Energy

Over 60 trees have been distributed to help 'green Southampton'

CitizEn Energy has continued their campaign to ‘green Southampton’ by offering 100 free English Oak Trees to local schools and community groups. Since October last year, over 60 trees have been distributed and amongst those who have benefitted include: Bitterne Manor Primary, Great Oaks School, Bitterne Park School and Sixth Form and residents of Holyrood Estate.

Run by Southampton City Council, Citizen Energy only offer 100% green electricity* to their customers, but they wanted to do more to have an even bigger impact on the environment, Southampton’s children, wildlife and the local community by donating these free oak trees.

CitizEn Energy’s tree campaign comes after Southampton City Council launched its Green City Charter last year. This sets out plans for making Southampton a cleaner, greener, healthier and more sustainable city. A series of ambitious goals include being carbon neutral by 2030 and using energy generated from renewable sources.

Councillor Steve Leggett, Cabinet Member for Green City and Environment at Southampton City Council, said:

"We’re extremely pleased and encouraged that our free tree campaign has received such a great response from so many local schools and community groups. It’s been a pleasure visiting all the amazing groups over the last few months and seeing their interest in the environment and the future of our planet.

“We’re very happy that we’ve been given the opportunity to work with so many and contribute a little something to make our local community a little greener.

“Our campaign supports our vision of creating a cleaner, greener, healthier and more sustainable city – and we hope it will also help to educate our children and wider community about the importance of trees.”

The oak saplings come from Solent Mind’s Mayfield Nurseries which gives every penny they make back into helping people with mental health issues at their nursery.

Mike Adams, Headteacher of Bitterne Manor Primary, said: “We are very pleased to support the tree planting initiative. It is encouraging for the future that our pupils are already passionate and care a great deal for the environment they are growing up in.”

“Hopefully, this little area by the side of our playground will prove a good home for these trees as they grow and develop too.”

Ffion Phillips, teacher at Great Oaks School, said, “The students at Great Oaks School were given a challenge at the start of the year from their headteacher to think of an idea to make a small positive 'change'. My tutor group wanted to help the environment and thought that planting a tree would be a good idea. Southampton City Council gave them the opportunity to plant five oak trees on the school grounds.

“The students were all involved in collecting the trees, choosing the location of where to plant the tree and planting them. The project was practical, engaging and encouraged the students to think about their environment, the world and how we can all make a positive impact.”

Chris Whitbread, Assistant Headteacher at Bitterne Park School and Sixth Form, said: “Following on from the redevelopment of the school site over the past 4 years, students have been keen to continue to improve the external areas of the school. We are very lucky to already have a very green site so by adding more trees is a great opportunity to provide an enhanced environment for student, staff and nature. The new oaks have been planted in an area which was once an overgrown part of the site. In the future these oaks will provide a shaded walk between the main school and Sixth Form.

Bitterne Park School students really enjoy being part of any new projects so planting trees was a very popular project to get involved with.”

CitizEn Energy still have a number of trees available for the local community. If you are interested in a free oak sapling for your school or community group please get in touch with CitizEn Energy at citizen.energy@southampton.gov.uk

If you’re looking to switch energy provider, CitizEn Energy, as well as being 100% green* and feeding its profits back into local causes, currently has one of the cheapest low-cost two-year tariffs on the market.

Do you think you’d like to change energy provider but you’re not sure where to start? CitizEn Energy’s friendly team will be at Gateway on 16, 17, 19 and 20 of March from 9.30 to 10.30am (and in Westquay all day on Wednesday 18 March) ready to give you free advice on how you could save money on your energy bills.

Alternatively, you can get a quote from their website and find out how much you could save for yourself. Just visit their website fo a quote.
 
*Our green electricity tariffs are certified as being sourced from UK based wind and solar generators. For every Megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity purchased for our customers, we also purchase a Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO) certificate, which proves the electricity is certified as being sourced either directly from the renewable generators or through a green wholesale energy provider.