#ThousandTrees

UPDATE: In December 2021 we hit our target of 1000 trees planted. We’ve decided to continue as we began and look forward to our hitting our next milestone of 2000!

As a business specialising in impact management it’s only right that we lead by example. As an expression of our concern about the climate emergency, and as a commitment to do our best to tread lightly on this beautiful planet, we are delighted to become an official partner of the global reforestation charity One Tree Planted.

Find out the full story below…

#ThousandTrees is our pledge to plant a forest of 1000 trees over the next 2 years. Over the course of their lifetime our trees will sequester an estimated 500 metric tonnes of CO2. We have chosen to plant our forest in Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere and a place that, due to its extreme poverty, has seen rapid deforestation in recent decades. Reforesting the hills of Haiti has a double bonus, as the trees not only sequester carbon from the atmosphere, but also protect against deadly flooding and landslips during hurricane season. Another benefit is to halt erosion, which combined with over-farming and poor agricultural methods, has destroyed the region’s soil, making it very difficult to grow food. The Goodlabs forest will help restore nutrients to the soil. Parallel programmes alongside the planting will teach local farmers how to use the land responsibly and profitably. Due to the tropical climate trees planted grow faster than here in Britain so the benefits of the scheme are realised more quickly too.

To find out more about One Tree Planted and how your business can partner to grow your own forest click here.

Empowering communities in Northumberland

Evaluating the impact of charity services and community programmes has become an important aspect of Goodlabs’ offer over the last couple of years. Sometimes we handle evaluations in-house and on other occasions team up with other evaluators. This month we commenced a new partnership project with Asset Based Consulting and Helme Park. Together we’ll be evaluating one of the most innovative new public health projects taking place in the North East: the Empowering Communities project, working across Northumberland.

The joint initiative from Northumberland County Council and Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is rooted in the theory of Salutogenesis: an approach the focuses on the factors that make us well, rather than those that make us ill.

Trevor Hopkins brings exceptional insight to the team having written extensively on the subject of Asset Based Community Development in recent years. Simon Penhall is well respected for his work in the arena of Theory of Change. Goodlabs will be contributing substantially to a series of ‘Lab’ events through which VSCO’s will be consulted, as well as assessing the effectiveness of a new ‘Asset Mapping’ technology that will be rolled out through the project.