About us
The new National Street Tree Sponsorship scheme
Trees for Streets is the new National Street Tree Sponsorship scheme. We aim to make it easy for residents and organisations to donate to the planting and watering of trees in their streets and neighbourhoods. We host sponsorship schemes on behalf of local councils.
Giving residents the means to directly improve their neighbourhood, is a powerful way to increase community resilience, and helps dissolve barriers between councils and residents.
Street trees offer huge benefits for our own mental and physical wellbeing. They also capture carbon, absorb pollution, create shading and cooling, and just make where we live that much nicer.
Trees for Streets is a charitable scheme from the national charity, Trees for Cities, supported by local innovator, Start with Local.
Trees for Cities is an innovative charity, with an admirable track record of empowering communities through tree planting and other green projects. Their work is often focussed on localities suffering from a lack of access to green space. They recently planted their millionth tree.
“This project mixes technology and local engagement, which can help amplify the aims of our charity by inspiring and empowering communities to take a leading role in greening their streets. There is the potential to leave a lasting legacy on every street up and down this country.”
DAVID ELLIOTT, CEO, TREES FOR CITIES
Start with Local, is a social enterprise, whose aim it is to try to solve some of society’s problems from a local starting point.
Set up as a design and delivery organisation, Start with Local understands how to weave together differing disciplines, (from tech to marketing to community engagement, and this case, tree planting), to come up with innovative ways of solving problems.
“Trees for Streets empowers residents to work with their local councils to make a difference to the world immediately outside their front door. Planting a tree in your street can be a powerful first step in a journey to strengthen your community and how you connect with the world.”
SIMEON LINSTEAD, CEO, START WITH LOCAL
This project has been supported from the start by the Environment Team at the Greater London Authority (GLA) – our thanks to Ben Connor and Katrina Ramsey.
In fact, Trees for Cities together with the Forestry Commission, were involved in the creating the new London Urban Forest Plan, which includes ‘Piloting an online platform to facilitate corporate and public sponsorship to support street tree and other planting and maintenance across London.’
The project team are over the moon to be one of 68 environmental projects awarded funding from The Green Recovery Challenge Fund. A big thanks to @DeFRA and @HeritageFundUk. #GreenRecoveryChallengeFund, #TogetherForOurPlanet.
We are also extremely grateful for the initial seed funding from the City of London Corporation’s charitable funder, City Bridge Trust, which enabled this scheme to be set up in the first place.
The project team is working with a group of local and city councils to help shape and design the scheme, these include: Bristol City Council, Nottingham City Council, The Northern Forest Project (which covers a number of northern city councils), Croydon Council, Ealing Council, Barking and Dagenham Council, Redbridge Council, Tower Hamlets Council, and Hillingdon Council.
We’re also thankful for the advice we received from arboriculture expert, Jon Parker at Arboricultural Association and from the team at Street Trees for Living.
Are you a resident or community group who’d like to get trees planted in your street or in your neighbourhood? Or, if you work for a local authority and would like to discuss whether a street tree sponsorship scheme could work in your borough, we’d love to talk.
