The Fuelcard Company is celebrating the second anniversary of its successful partnership with local charity, the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust (YDMT).

Together, these Yorkshire-based organisations are helping to support the planting of much-needed trees through The Fuelcard Company’s ‘EcoPoint’ package; an environmentally-friendly upgrade for its fuel cards. Customers can balance their carbon footprint and enjoy greener driving through contributions towards YDMT’s invaluable woodland restoration work across the Yorkshire Dales.

Through EcoPoint, The Fuelcard Company has raised a total of £6,260 for YDMT since the partnership began in 2011, making a vital contribution towards the charity’s woodland restoration project. £3,651 of this total was raised in the last year which is equivalent to just under two acres of new woodland with approximately 1280 trees and shrubs planted on the site.

The Fuelcard Company will continue to make a contribution to the YDMT tree planting programme over the coming years, in support of the Dales Woodland Strategy’s aim to almost double the amount of broadleaved woodland in the Yorkshire Dales National Park to 5,000 hectares by 2020. The long term benefits of planting trees are well documented, including absorbing carbon dioxide, enriching the landscape, providing spaces for people to enjoy, and creating habitats that support hundreds of wildlife species.

David Sharrod, YDMT director, says, “We’d like to say a huge thank you to The Fuelcard Company and its customers for continuing to support woodland restoration in the Dales. If you care about the environment tree planting is one of the best things you can do. Businesses like The Fuelcard Company and their customers are not only supporting the environment, they are also helping to restore wildlife habitats, creating spaces for people to enjoy and restoring a natural feature of the Dales landscape that has been lost due to deforestation.”

Jakes de Kock, marketing director at The Fuelcard Company, said: “Every business has a responsibility to play its part in protecting the industry, including those of us within the fleet sector, yet even the most responsible and environmentally aware companies can find it hard striking the right balance between managing the costs of running their fleets and being kind to the environment. 

“As a business committed to a greener future, we are always looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint and that of our customers; EcoPoint enables our customers to enjoy all the cost-saving benefits of their fuel card as well as being secure in the knowledge they’re playing their part in protecting the environment.”

Working closely with partners including the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and the Forestry Commission, YDMT has planted just over one million native broadleaf trees so far.