Accountancy plants 400 trees for World Earth Day

Preston-based MHA Moore and Smalley has planted 400 trees in Uganda to mark World Earth Day.

The donation represents a tree for each member of staff within the company and has been made through Ecologi, a B Corp accredited organisation helping companies support global reforestation, carbon avoidance and other schemes.

The Moringa Oleifera trees will be planted as part of the Mbale Trees Programme, which aims to plant one million trees annually in Uganda to tackle deforestation, which is resulting in declining living standards and unpredictable weather.

To mark the occasion, MHA Moore and Smalley’s managing partner Graham Gordon has also planted a symbolic tree close to his home in Lancashire.

The project officially launches the publication of MHA Moore and Smalley’s first ESG Impact Statement, a year on from its initial discussions about its ESG journey.

The Impact Statement contains a number of key commitments, including to be net zero by 2030, to be embedded in its communities by tackling financial and social mobility issues, to encourage diversity and inclusion in its workplaces and to build a robust governance framework.

The document contains a number of key goals for 2023 and 2024, including commencing the process of joining the B Corp movement and establishing its own charitable organisation focused on financial education for the next generation.

It also highlights the company’s progress on its ESG journey over the past year, including partnering with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’s Rise Initiative to help deliver workshops to secondary school children on key personal, professional and financial skills.

Graham Gordon, managing partner, MHA Moore and Smalley, said: “MHA Moore and Smalley has always been an organisation committed to investing in and making a difference in the communities we operate. However, we now have a clear set of objectives and goals to reach these.

“Improving our impact on the environment is a key part of our ESG strategy and, as well as our commitment to net zero, we have begun measuring our carbon baseline and asking our stakeholders about their own carbon footprint.

“We will also be measuring our ESG impact against the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and therefore it felt right to make this donation to Ecologi, an organisation that verifies its products by the UN Sustainable Development Goals 13 (climate action) and 15 (life on land).”