19th July 2021
National Highways has today released Net Zero Highways, a wide-ranging strategy to make the national road network carbon neutral by 2050. The agency’s own operations will be net zero by 2030, through a plan which includes planting at least 3m trees — a target set using analysis produced by Verna’s ForestFounder system.
In a joint project with consultancy WSP, we used ForestFounder to scan all of the land owned and managed by National Highways, which runs alongside the nation’s motorways and A-roads. This enabled an assessment of the carbon and biodiversity benefits of planting different types of trees on the land identified by ForestFounder as suitable.
As a result, National Highways was able to make confident decisions about the role tree-planting could play in its net zero and sustainability strategies.
Announcing the Net Zero Highways plan, National Highways’ Chief Executive Nick Harris said: “National Highways recognises the threat of climate change and the risks it poses for us all. That’s why we’re pledging to take effective action to take carbon out of roads.”
You can see the 3m trees target, and all of National Highways’ net zero plans, in Net Zero Highways.