Leaders Romans Group Extends Support for a Variety of Sustainability Initiatives

April 22, 2023 PR Officer

Leaders Romans Group (LRG) has announced an enhancement to its sustainability partnership with Green the UK. The partnership will now also encompass restoring wildflower meadows, planting wildflowers in local school grounds, helping migrate and restore native oyster populations in The Solent and supporting a project to restore kelp along the Sussex coastline.

In July 2021, LRG announced a partnership with Green the UK to plant one tree for every house sold or let through the company. To date, the partnership has planted over 16,000 trees on land equivalent in size to 16 football pitches. Those trees will sequester at least 35 tonnes of carbon annually, equivalent to almost 100,000 people breathing daily.

Kelp forms beautiful underwater forests, some of the planet’s most productive and biodiverse habitats. As a coastal ecosystem (salt marsh, seagrass and some kelp), it can sequester up to 20 times more carbon per acre than land forest.  In Sussex, an extensive kelp forest stretched over 40km of the coastline. However, by the start of the 21st Century, over 96% of the kelp bed had disappeared, following years of trawling and other human pressures decimating the seabed, which kelp depends on to colonise.

Two years ago, the Sussex Nearshore Trawling Byelaw was introduced to protect over 300 km2 from trawling. In partnership with The Sussex Kelp Recovery, LRG’s support will ensure extensive research is undertaken to monitor the natural recovery of kelp, marine life and the local fisheries they support and assess the impacts of other factors such as sedimentation that could hinder natural kelp regeneration.

David Wilson, Chief Operations Officer of LRG, said, “We are thrilled to be able to strengthen our partnership with Green the UK by adding these important local environmental causes. As a trusted name on the high street and passionate about local communities, it is important to use to ensure our partnership supports initiatives local to our branches.”

“These initiatives aim to promote a green ethos within the local communities that LRG loves and works in. They also aim to ensure that future generations understand the importance of protecting the environment and the need to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. As a nationwide company with local high street branches and their surrounding communities at their heart, these additional initiatives are an exciting step forward in LRG’s aim to become carbon neutral by 2030.”

“The team at LRG are very much looking forward to supporting all the initiatives across the country through volunteer days. We believe the passion we feel is equally important to our customers, staff and partners, and we are committed to helping everyone embrace a greener future.”

LRG has recently re-launched three branches in line with sustainable principles: Leaders in Brighton, Portico in Fulham and Leaders in Aylesbury. The group plans to upgrade more of its branches this year, with Maidenhead and Guildford due to open in the Summer. This follows previous announcements on a number of sustainable initiatives to help LRG reduce its impact on the environment, including using recyclable lettings and sales boards, introducing renewable energy across the branch network, reducing printing, offering remote working, a gradual introduction of hybrid and electric cars, reuse/recycle furniture and a zero to landfill strategy.