AN IT consultancy business, has partnered with Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust to follow their dream of becoming the greenest IT consultancy in the UK.

To celebrate their tenth anniversary, Illuminet, which are based in the south of England, are supporting planting one new tree for every week one of their consultants is in post. They have already funded 600 new trees and aim to plant a further four to six thousand a year.

CEO of Illuminet, Greg Wood said: “We are delighted to be working with YDMT to plant trees. As a business we wanted to take responsibility for our environment, and what better way to do it than through supporting our woodlands.

“We look forward to planting hundreds more trees before Christmas, and many more after that.”

The partnership is part of the ‘Together for Trees’ campaign which aims to plant 100,000 additional trees across the region.

YDMT Ambassador and TV presenter Lindsey Chapman supports the appeal. She said: “Trees are vital to the infrastructure of our countryside, to the wildlife that depends on them and to our own mental and physical wellbeing.

“For me trees and woodlands are a symbol of hope; a natural line of defence against man-made climate change, a connection to our cultural heritage and a place to wonder.

“By creating new areas of woodland, we can expand the opportunity for people to connect with trees. That connection with nature is vital if we are not only to conserve but also to improve our natural environment for the future.”

Since the appeal was launched in summer last year, the Trust has supported the planting of 30,000 trees and are well on the way to reaching their ‘Together for Trees’ target in the next two years.

Michael Devlin, Development Manager at YDMT, added: “We’re really grateful to Illuminet and all their customers and consultants for their support in helping to restore native woodland to the Yorkshire Dales. We look forward to seeing the partnership develop in the future.”