250 MILLION ‘ONE SHOT’ TREE MAN TAKES ON THE UK HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

Award winning author, United Nations advisor, and global authority on agroforestry, John Leary, takes on mission to help solve UK hospitality industry sustainability crisis. 

 

Leary is author of One Shot, widely considered a seminal work on solving the world’s broken food system and greatly reducing carbon levels through single strategy initiatives and has spearheaded the planting of more than 250 million trees in more than 25 countries. 

  

He joins GiftTrees as Planting Lead to drive restaurants to ‘DO’ something to address the role the role they play in producing disproportionate levels of CO2 and contributing to the global broken food system. 

 

GiftTrees goal is to fund the planting of one billion trees and lift one million people out of extreme poverty by working with restaurants. The food production and supply chain are one of the biggest contributors to the problem and one of the most able to help solve it. 

 

Since the initiative was launched, the planting of more than 3.6 million fruit trees, hardwoods and agroforestry trees have been funded by GiftTrees partner restaurants. 

 

Leary, from the United States, is the founder of Mother Trees, an organisation that implements rapid solutions to climate crisis and loss of biodiversity through landscape restoration programmes around the World. He also trains and advises government leaders, communities and companies on rescuing eco systems hand in hand with carbon reduction.  

 

The role of Planting Lead at GiftTrees, is to ensure that as the organisation’s activities scale up, the maximum sustainable and social good is generated from customer contributions made via a wide range of hospitality outlets. As well as technical lead on planting, Leary sees his role as that of weaving environmental responsibility into the fabric of the restaurant industry and connecting diner food and drink experiences with the renewing power of agroforestry.  

 

‘Restaurants need to act, and act now,” says Leary. 

 

“More than one GiftTrees partner restaurant has enabled the planting of over 250,000 trees. Those trees have the potential to sequester an estimated 250,000 tons of carbon over their lifetime, and we plant them in food forests using our Lifetree program that lifts whole families out of extreme poverty 

 

‘Every single diner and restaurant business leader has the chance to make a massive impact by something very small, and they must.” he concluded. 

 

‘John has exception pedigree in creating achievable strategy to solve the broken food system in parallel with very positively changing the lives of those that live in some of the poorest communities, whilst also making a real impact in reducing carbon levels,’ says GiftTrees Director, Rachel Marshall. ‘We feel very privileged to have John as part of the team. It signals the UK hospitality industry is moving forward in contributing to both social and environmental impact”.

ENDS