The company aims to plant 5,000 trees, 1,000 for each of its five years working with the Woodland Trust.
Premier first started participating in the Woodland Trust’s Carbon Capture scheme in 2011. The scheme calculates the amount of CO2 generated by paper sold by a company and mitigates that by planting the number of trees that will capture the equivalent amount of CO2.
Customers in the past year that have participated in Premier’s Carbon Capture scheme have helped plant more than 55,000 trees with the Woodland Trust, which Premier said has captured 11,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
380 customers have taken part in Premier's scheme since its inception.
Taking place on 24 November, Premier plans to take a number of customers and staff to assist with the tree-planting in 858 acre-Heartwood, which is the UK’s largest continuous new native woodland.
Premier marketing director Dave Jones told PrintWeek: “Heartwood is the biggest continuous expanse of woodland that the Woodland Trust owns in the UK. It is a great location and the site is guaranteed to be around for future generations.
“The Carbon Capture scheme is not an exercise in making money, all the money we collect through the scheme goes directly to the Woodland Trust. It is part of our cause-related marketing strategy if you like, finding a relevant cause that works well for the customer.
“My own view is that cause-related marketing is under-utilised. All companies large and small should look at cause-related marketing in greater depth as it is an effective way of communicating the values of your company to your customer base.”
Jones explained that Premier is currently working with Breast Cancer Care on a separate cause-related marketing campaign.
Last year, it planted around 4,000 trees on the day and the year before that, in its inaugural Heartwood event, it planted 3,000. Jones feels it can reach the extra thousand with the help of more volunteers. It currently has 80 confirmed for the day and anticipates at least double that number.
With a head office in Minworth, Birmingham, Premier Paper has 16 branches in the UK and stocks more than 5,500 paper products, along with packaging and wide-format laminates. Projected turnover for 2016 is £225m.
In May, it appointed former Paperlinx chief Dave Allen as its new managing director, amidst a number of senior appointments.
