Could your business support a greener Hertfordshire?

At Hertfordshire County Council , one of our key Sustainable Hertfordshire ambitions is to enhance nature across the county by 2050. Helping to improve biodiversity is vital in our efforts to tackle climate change and its impacts. We want to work with businesses across Hertfordshire to enhance nature and have several opportunities for you to get involved in this important work.

Delivering the Local Nature Recovery Strategy

The county council is part of the Hertfordshire Nature Recovery Partnership, made up of public, private and third sector organisations that are responsible for developing Hertfordshire’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

The partnership is currently looking for sites in Hertfordshire that can be used to deliver nature recovery, or where landowners and managers are currently delivering habitat improvements.

If your business owns or manages land that could be used to improve nature, you can fill out a quick survey to let us know the location of the site, any current and future projects, existing habitats on the site, important species on the site and your vision for the site’s future. By completing the survey, you will help us map out potential opportunities for nature recovery around the county, as well as potentially securing support to implement the habitat improvements on your site.

Visit www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/naturerecovery to find out more and complete the site identification survey.

Look out for in person and online events in July to tell us about where nature recovery action should be focused and how your business could contribute to Hertfordshire’s Nature Recovery effort

Opportunities and support for tree planting

Our Tree and Woodland Strategy sets out our plans to establish 1.8m trees across Hertfordshire by 2030. We will need to work closely with community groups and businesses to reach this ambitious target. If you own or manage a space on which you would like to plant trees, you can email our tree planting team at yourtree@hertfordshire.gov.uk with details about the land and type of planting you want to undertake and they will advise you on what opportunities might be available.

Join our sustainability network

Our Woodland Creation Officers provide bespoke advice and guidance on tree and hedgerow planting projects of all sizes. They can give advice on the appropriate species to plant, help to draw up plans and identify funding for planting schemes. They may also be able to help arrange volunteer support for the planting itself.

Find out more about our Woodland Creation Officers and the support they offer at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/woodlandcreation

If you don’t have land to plant trees on, we have recently launched the Hertfordshire Tree Fund, offering you the opportunity to donate money which will be used to buy trees, planting materials, or fund planting costs.

Any donations will help us plant even more trees than we are already enabling through grant funding or our own budgets, and every £1 donated will lead to a tree being planted.

Visit www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/treefund to donate.

We are keen to work with businesses across Hertfordshire that want to operate more sustainably, or that can help us tackle climate change and its effects in the county. If you are working to become a more sustainable organisation or want to help tackle climate change in your local area, drop our community engagement team an email at sustainable@hertfordshire.gov.uk