I’m Chris, the Director at Trees not Tees.
At Trees not Tees is focused on helping Event Organisers make more environmentally friendly choices to try and drive sustainability in sports we all love and enjoy. The main way we do this is by encouraging races to offer the option for participants to opt out of a race t-shirt and choose to plant a tree instead. So many runners already have enough race t-shirts, so by having this simple option helps reduce the number of t-shirts produced, and then helps get more trees in the ground.
As part of The Future Forest Company, we have reforestation projects in Scotland where we then plant the trees, making sure we plant the right tree species in the right place. Each runner that chooses to plant a tree receives a digital tree certificate after the race, including a photo and a what.3.words link, so they can even come and visit!
We’re thrilled to be working for a second year with Meadows Marathon, a race not far from our Scottish reforestation sites. The event is focused on driving money and resources to worthy causes, and the amount of money that has been raised for brilliant charities is impressive, so we’re delighted to be able to play a small part in the positive action the race is bringing about. The team were great to work with last year and we’ve been working closely with the Marketing Team to share some content around the partnership, it’s lovely to work with a team so open to shouting about the work we’re both doing.
It always excites me to see us growing strong partnerships especially with races in Scotland, and then the feedback when the tree certificates get sent out to the runners, seeing them share their sapling photos on social media, is a real buzz for the team. For 2022 we’re looking forward to seeing even more trees get planted thanks to the Meadows Marathon team. We’re also looking forward to being able to welcome more teams up to visit our sites once COVID restrictions have eased, as this is something that has been put on ice in recent months. Talking about being put on ice, here is a photo of our woolly Mangalitsa pigs, who help us prepare our forest land before we plant the trees.
