Our Estates Technical Manager, Rob Scholefield, co-presented the event organised by tree valuation experts Treeconomics to promote the value of trees to other housing providers.
The webinar attracted people from around the UK and further afield, including the US, Mexico, Canada, India and Europe.
Rob Scholefield said: “We had an excellent response to the webinar. It’s great to use this platform to reach such a wide audience and promote the urban forestry work that we do at LiveWest.
“We’ve had an incredibly busy year. As more people have been at home this summer, we’ve been dealing with a much higher volume of enquiries than normal, reflecting how important the local environment has become.
“It’s more important than ever to value our urban forest and ensure it’s managed for the long term.”
Rob Scholefield was asked to share his experiences after we became the first housing association to launch a fact-finding mission into the benefits of our 26,000 trees.
By teaming up with specialist company Treeconomics, we were able tap into a software system called i-Tree, developed by the United States Forest Service and supported by the Forestry Commission, to calculate the benefits the trees provide.
With 153 different species of trees across our geography, figures revealed that the replacement value of our tree stock is £15.1million and the value of the amenity they provide is £148million.
Research also found that the trees removed 3.9 tonnes of airborne pollution and 109 tonnes of carbon from the air each year – a combined benefit valued at £72,000.
Elsewhere it was discovered that our trees absorb around a third of the carbon emitted from our 308 repairs’ vans.
The project valued the 3,618 tonnes of carbon stored by our trees at £862,466.
Our trees prevent 10,700 cubic metres of storm water going down the drain – an annual benefit of more than £16,000.
Watch the full webinar below.
The Asset Which Grows - a Treeconomics webinar for housing associations from Treeconomics on Vimeo.