Yorkshire Tea joins climate fightback
ENVIRONMENT: Taylors of Harrogate, the firm behind Yorkshire Tea, has embarked on a hugely ambitious environmental programme that will see the company become carbon neutral later his year.
The firm is working with its tea growers in Kenya to plant a million trees to fight the impact of climate change in Africa.
ON A Monday afternoon in the late spring sunshine, a group of children are standing in a field at Baitgitu Primary School in Meru County in Kenya waiting to do their own small part in tackling climate change.
They dig enthusiastically into the soil, and place the latest batch of trees to be planted in Kenya to help counter the growing impact of climate change.
It is a scene that is being replicated across communities in the African nation as Taylors of Harrogate aims to complete the challenge of planting half-a-million trees in Kenya by the end of this year.
Among the children involved in the latest programme is Roney Mwirigi, a 14-year-old from South Imenti who planted an avocado sapling in the soil at the primary school.
He said: “We can see the trees are important, as they help protect the environment, and allow more crops to grow.
“We all want to try and do our bit to help, so the trees we are planting may be just a little thing, but together it means something a whole lot bigger.”
For Joseph Kithinji, the headteacher of Baitgitu Primary School, the tree-planting programme which has been introduced in Kenya has provided his 320 pupils with a tangible idea of just what needs to be done to tackle climate change.
He said: “To explain why the weather has been changing so much was often difficult to get across to the children.
“But to give them the opportunity to do something fun like planting trees and then helping them grow means we are able to explain how important the programme is. If we can get our pupils interested at this age, then there is hope for the future.”