Crow Wood living up to its name with blossoming tree planting scheme

The sprawling health and leisure resort has been busy planting thousands of trees alongside Recycle IT, which has pledged to plant one tree for every one ton of E-Waste they collect from their clients and end users to work towards sustainability and circular economy.

The huge area is now being transformed into a wildlife sanctuary, full of ponds, flora and fauna and bird nesting boxes.

Back in 2001, 25,000 trees were planted in partnership with the Forest of Burnley. Managing director of the Crow Wood Group Andrew Brown organised a huge clean-up of the River Calder with groups of volunteers, who sadly found everything from laptops to bicycles.

And when the Crow Wood Hotel was built, 1,000 trees were planted to make up for the land that was cleared for the construction, with a further 3,750 native English trees planted this spring by the resort and an additional 4,000 planted by the Ribble Rivers Trust.

Andrew said: “Thousands of wildlife species depend on trees for food and shelter. Of course planting trees is also once of the best ways of mitigating climate change too. We also wanted to provide an opportunity for not only our guests but also our neighbours over the bridge off Pendle Way to be able to enjoy the walks we have created around the perimeter of the hotel in their leisure time.

"The town of Burnley has been good to me. I want to give back as much as I can.”

The efforts will now continue after Crow Wood has joined forces with local business and fellow Burnley Bondholder Recycle IT in a long-term and impressive project. Recycle IT have pledged to donate and plant a tree at Crow Wood for every ton of e-waste they collect and recycle.

Robert Doherty, managing director of Recycle IT, said: “Initially we donated 100 trees to the amazing efforts that Andrew and the rest of his team have carried out. However, this project has really taken off and we predict the number of trees Recycle IT will donate will reach into the thousands.

“We will support the Crow Wood forest project for years to come and in August, Recycle IT will adopt a section of Crow Wood’s land to plant our trees and contribute towards our and our clients’ circular economy.”

Recycle IT currently refurbish and recycle around 3,000 pieces of end-of-life IT equipment each month, diverting it from landfill. On top of every tree planted for each ton of e-waste recycled, they have pledged to plant a tree for every laptop that is donated to their refurbishment project.

People and businesses who are interested in taking part can contact Carl Greenwood, business development manager at Recycle IT, on [email protected]

It certainly looks like the efforts at Crow Wood will grow at a pace, especially after Recycle IT collected around 100,000KG of e-waste last year and expects to double this over the next 12 months.