A CANADIAN multinational tech group has launched a UK-wide initiative – No Planet B – to help the environment and tackle climate issues by planting 5500 trees in the Scottish Borders.

The trees mark one for each CGI worker in the UK as part of a scheme to reforest land in partnership with Forest Carbon and Borders Forest Trust during National Tree Week.

Lindsay McGranaghan, CGI’s business unit leader in Scotland, planted the first of the native trees and shrubs – including birch, oak, rowan and willow – on former farmed land owned by Borders Forest Trust at Talla and Gameshope Estate, near Tweedsmuir, part of a programme to create a 250-acre public access native woodland. McGranaghan said: “CGI’s Scottish members wholeheartedly backed the planting of trees as a way to offset some of our carbon emissions and are excited to be taking part in local tree planting initiatives in their local communities.”