A tree-mendous opportunity to be more sustainable at Goodwood
With the US pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord, the announcement that greenhouse gas emissions are higher than ever, and a world that seems to be on fire almost every day, we’re all looking for ways to be more sustainable. So why should your annual trip to Goodwood be any different?
Now, thanks to some back-breaking work by hundreds of Goodwood staff, you can help make your visit to the Goodwood Revival, Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard or 78th Members’ Meeting carbon neutral.
Over the last few weeks around 300 of Goodwood’s finest have been out and about on the estate, wellies on feet and spades in hands, planting thousands of trees in the West Sussex countryside. We hope to give something back to the earth and help us all be a bit more sustainable as we try and protect the future of the wonderful Goodwood Estate and beyond.
The goal is to finish with around 40 hectares of new plantations at 12 different sites, adding around 78,000 new trees to the Estate, helping to offset both the emissions of our events and visitor travel to and from Goodwood.
And you can help us carry on with the good work! Around 50 per cent of Goodwood’s total carbon footprint comes from visitor travel to and from our events, so we’re offering you the chance to offset that footprint for a donation of just £1.
This year Goodwood has already planted over 15,000 trees and we’ll be continuing that process throughout 2020 and beyond. Your donations allow us to continue that good work and should help you feel more at ease with a trip to enjoy the brilliant racing on show at the Revival, Festival of Speed and Members’ Meeting.
Goodwood’s planting scheme includes softwood trees: western red cedar and Douglas-Fir, which are all in short supply in the UK and can be sustainably used for gates posts and cladding on the estate as well as helping to offset carbon emissions.
The top of the firs are used for wood chippings to fuel the biomass boiler which powers the exclusive 10 bedroom Hound Lodge and private members clubhouse The Kennels. In addition, traditional English trees such as oak, sweet chestnut, hawthorn, hazel, beech and field maple are all being planted across the estate.
But donations won’t just help with the planting of trees. We’ll be using the money to continue to plant more hedgerows across Goodwood and the process of ‘rewilding’, which helps to return areas of the Estate to a situation where nature can take care of itself.
Speaking about the planting effort Darren Norris, Goodwood’s head of forestry, said: “We are just custodians, working to preserve the estate so looking after the trees is a vital part of the landscape for generations to come.
“This large scale project is essential to stop the decline of our wooded areas as they are vitally needed to produce oxygen, maintain wildlife habitats and reduce pollution.”
If you want to help make your trip to Goodwood sustainable, the £1 donation is now available at checkout when you book your tickets to each of the events. For more information on tickets and to buy you can visit ticketing.goodwood.com.
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How many hay bales are used at FOS?
For the last two years, 5,800 bales have been recylced into the biomass energy centre to be used for energy generation
