Mitie Commits to Conservation With Plantlife

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19 August 2021

Mitie Landscapes has become a Corporate Patron of British Conservation Charity, Plantlife, as part of its commitment to help support biodiversity across the UK. Mitie is Plantlife’s first Patron in the facilities management industry.

As one of the UK’s leading landscapes providers, Mitie will be working with Plantlife to support its evidence-based approach to conservation. This will include sharing Plantlife’s conservation and biodiversity best practice with Mitie’s clients, as well as trialing techniques and equipment that will encourage more wildflowers and pollinators to flourish. Mitie’s Landscapes team will also be able to access training and resources to learn about how they can further support biodiversity in their day-to-day roles, kicking off with training on installing and maintaining meadows.

“With three-quarters of the world’s food crops depending on pollinators, supporting biodiversity is no longer [just] nice to have when it comes to sustainability.”

– Tim Howell
Managing Director, Landscapes, Mitie

Mitie’s Sustainability Commitments

Mitie’s commitment to become a Corporate Patron follows its previous support for the No Mow May campaign. As part of the campaign Mitie and its customers, covering some 50 sites across the UK, committed to not mowing their grass for the entire month of May to create more attractive environments for pollinators and encouraging biodiversity. The activity resulted in approximately a 70 per cent increase in flowers providing nectar for pollinating insects across sites. With many of these flowers having been able to seed, the number of flowers should increase again in May 2022.

The partnership is part of Mitie’s Plan Zero commitment to become net-zero carbon for its operational emissions by 2025, with one of the organisation’s key commitments being to "improve biodiversity at all of [their] sites using initiatives that help ecosystems flourish". Mike installed 100 bird boxes and 21 bat boxes in 2020, with a commitment to install a further 200 by the end of this year. It also planted 2,000m2 of wildflower meadows - the equivalent to two Olympic sized swimming pools - in 2020.

Tim Howell, Managing Director of Mitie Landscapes, said that “with three-quarters of the world’s food crops depending on pollinators, supporting biodiversity is no longer [just] nice to have when it comes to sustainability. We must all do more to create environments that support these vital insects, flowers, plants and other wildlife. We’re proud to be working with Plantlife to bring its evidence-based approach to help Mitie and our clients support conservation.”

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome Mitie as a Corporate Patron, thereby offering our highest level of corporate support,” said Ian Dunn, Chief Executive of Plantlife International. “At Plantlife we are committed to working in partnership across all sectors of society to tackle the major challenges we face in addressing the climate and nature crises. With such a large land management portfolio combined with a very progressive approach to looking at how landscape management can offer present day solutions, Mitie are an ideal partner for us to be working with to the benefit of plant conservation right across the UK.”

Mitie has identified four pillars of activity that facilities managers need to consider to ensure premises provide the most effective working environment for colleagues and visitors, providing a new guide to help businesses prepare their workplaces for the future post-pandemic.

Picture: planting by a hi-vis wearing employee.

Article written by Bailey Sparkes | Published 19 August 2021

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