Helping B&Q breathe new life into the UK’s woodlands

 

Understand - How can B&Q help the UK’s woodlands?

 

B&Q wanted to “give something back” as part of a major corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme. Working with the Sylva Foundation and BioRegional, Lantern  helped create Good Woods. The project had one ambitious goal: to improve the environmental, social and economic value of our woodlands.

 

Deliver - Putting down strong roots

 

As project managers, Lantern established and ran a network of 23 organisations to identify and provide support to 220 woodland owners, covering more than 10,900 hectares of woodland across the south east and east of England.  In addition to the network we:

 

• designed and facilitated workshops for community woodland groups

• analysed market opportunities for B&Q to increase the amount of UK timber sold in its stores

• prepared a route map for B&Q to achieve this.

 

Looking beyond the scope of the project, Lantern worked to maximise the long-term benefits of Good Woods. Collaborating with complementary initiatives, local, regional and national government, interest groups and trade associations, Lantern has raised awareness of support available to woodland owners, expanded knowledge and skills networks and developed a mechanism through which lessons learned from Good Woods can be shared  for future projects.

 

Evaluate - A project with room to grow

 

The Good Woods legacy is impressive. Not only does the project stand as a fantastic testament to how the Government’s national forestry guidelines and policy objectives can be implemented, but the comprehensive network of woodland stakeholders acheived through Good Woods has laid the perfect foundations to tackle future ambitious woodland projects. Lantern will be making recommendations on how to move the project into its next phase.