Sustainability at Broadleaf Midlands Tree Care
We work with trees every day. That means our relationship with the natural world isn’t a marketing position – it’s the foundation of everything we do. This page sets out honestly and specifically what we’re doing to be a better business for our planet, our community and our people.
500+ Trees planted through our Planet and Review Promise
2 Years as Green Growth Awards finalists
Top 100 UK Green Growth Sustainable SMEs – Small Business Britain & BT Group
━━ PLANET PROMISE ━━
🌱 Our Planet Promise
The Planet Promise started with a conversation. Brandon and Kimberley’s daughter Brooke, then 11, came home from school having learned about deforestation and asked a simple question: if we remove trees for a living, what do we do about it?
The answer became one of the commitments we’re most proud of. For every tree we remove above 2 metres in height, we donate to plant a new tree through our tree planting partners. It’s not a token gesture – it’s a core part of how we price and operate every single job.
To date, we’ve planted over 500 trees through our Planet and Review Promise combined.
We deliberately keep the flexibility to work with the best available planting partner – what matters to us is that the trees get planted, in the right places, by people who know what they’re doing. The commitment is ours. The trees are real.
━━ REVIEW PROMISE ━━
⭐ Our Review Promise
Every time a customer takes the time to leave us a review, we plant a tree. It’s our way of saying thank you – not just to the customer, but to the environment.
Reviews help other Leicestershire homeowners and business owners find a tree surgeon or fencer they can trust. And every one of those reviews results in something growing on our wonderful earth. We think that’s a pretty good deal for everyone.
━━ RECOGNITION & AWARDS ━━
🏆 Recognition for Our Sustainability Work
Green Growth Awards – Finalists, Two Years Running
We’ve been recognised as finalists in the Green Growth Awards for two consecutive years – a national award programme recognising small businesses making a genuine positive environmental impact. Being shortlisted once felt significant. Being shortlisted again confirmed that what we’re doing is real and consistent, not a one-off.
UK Green Growth 100 – Small Business Britain & BT Group
In 2026 we were selected as one of the UK’s first Green Growth 100 – a cohort of the country’s most sustainable small and medium-sized businesses, brought together by Small Business Britain and BT Group. Being part of this group has connected us with some remarkable businesses and sustainability thinkers from across the UK. As part of this recognition, we were invited to spend a day at BT headquarters alongside Ben Fogle – sharing what Broadleaf does and why it matters.
Willow Review – Logistics Recommendation
Our investment in route optimisation technology was highlighted as part of the Willow Review recommendations – an independently recognised example of a small business meaningfully reducing its carbon footprint through smarter logistics. As part of the Willow Review, we were also asked to feature in a Lloyds Bank and Small Business Britain promotional film about sustainable business practice. Link to film.
f:entrepreneur i:Also – Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs UK 2026
Kimberley Allen, our co-founder and Company Secretary, was named in the f:entrepreneur i:Also Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs in the UK for 2026. The i:Also campaign celebrates those who achieve great things alongside additional personal challenges – and for Kimberley, running and growing a business whilst living with Lupus is very much part of that story.
Lupus shapes how we run Broadleaf in ways that matter. It’s taught us that compassion isn’t weakness – it makes for better decisions, a more human business, and a team culture built on genuine care rather than performance for its own sake. We’re proud to be part of a movement that recognises the strength it takes to do great things alongside personal challenge.
━━ ENVIRONMENT IN PRACTICE ━━
🌍 Sustainability in Practice
Sustainability isn’t a section of our business plan – it’s embedded in how we operate day to day. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
Route Optimisation – Reducing Our Miles
Our single biggest source of carbon emissions has always been transportation – vehicles travelling between sites across Leicestershire every day. In late 2025 we invested in a route optimisation system that takes our daily quote and job addresses and calculates the most fuel-efficient routes for our teams.
We’ve extended our quote visit slots from one hour to at least two hours wherever customers are flexible, so our system can group appointments more efficiently and reduce unnecessary mileage. Customers who need a specific time slot always get one – but where there’s flexibility, we ask for it, and we’re grateful to the many customers across Leicestershire who’ve been willing to help.
The result is fewer miles driven, lower fuel costs, less time lost on the road for our team, and a genuinely reduced carbon footprint. Small changes, compounding every single working day.
Battery-Powered Equipment
We’ve invested in battery-powered tools and equipment for use on site wherever practical – reducing reliance on petrol-powered kit and cutting both noise and emissions on residential jobs. It’s an ongoing investment and one we’ll continue to expand as the technology improves.
Arboricultural Waste – Nothing Wasted
The waste from tree surgery work is entirely natural – and we treat it that way. Our green waste is taken to a local recycling facility. Woodchip is recycled into biomass or donated directly to schools, community spaces and the RSPCA. Usable timber is retained where customers want it. We use only peat-free compost for all planting work. Nothing goes to landfill that doesn’t have to.
RSPCA Leicester – Christmas Tree Chipping
In early 2026 we spent a day at RSPCA Leicester, chipping up donated and collected Christmas trees from across Leicestershire – all provided free of charge – to create fresh woodchip for the centre’s pathways and outdoor areas. It’s the kind of job that takes a day and costs us in time and fuel, but the value it creates for a charity and their animals matters more than the cost. We’re planning to expand this initiative next season.
━━ OUR PEOPLE ━━
👷 Our People
A sustainable business isn’t just one that looks after the environment. It’s one that looks after its people too. Here’s what that means at Broadleaf.
Pirkx – Benefits Beyond the Job
We provide every member of our team with access to Pirkx – a platform that gives them access to GP appointments, physiotherapy, financial advice, mental health support and shopping discounts. Tree surgery is physically demanding work and our team deserves proper support, not just a wage. Pirkx is our way of investing in the people who make Broadleaf what it is.
Supporting Our Apprentice
We supported a team member from his first days as an apprentice through to team leader – investing in his training, his development and his confidence over several years. When he decided to start his own business to have more flexibility for his young family, we were proud rather than disappointed. That’s what genuine development looks like – helping someone grow to the point where they have the skills and courage to back themselves. We wish him well.
Team Culture and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2025 we held a company culture workshop where Kimberley introduced the team to the UN Sustainable Development Goals – what they are, why they matter, and how Broadleaf’s work actively contributes to a good number of them. Sustainability isn’t something we tell our customers about; it’s something we talk about internally, as a team, as part of understanding why we do what we do.
From protecting life on land (SDG 15) to decent work and economic growth (SDG 8), from climate action (SDG 13) to quality education through our community work (SDG 4) – we believe a tree surgery business in Leicestershire can contribute meaningfully to a global agenda. That belief shapes how we make decisions.
━━ COMMUNITY ━━
🏘️ Our Community
Broadleaf is a Leicestershire business, run by a Leicestershire family, serving Leicestershire customers. The communities we work in matter to us – not as a PR exercise, but because they’re ours.
St Winefride’s Catholic Academy – Forest School
We worked in partnership with St Winefride’s Catholic Voluntary Academy in Shepshed to help create a Forest School – a dedicated outdoor learning space designed to get children outside, connecting with nature and developing skills that a classroom simply can’t replicate.
We provided materials, woodchip, logs and practical support to get the space off the ground, and contributed activities and resources to help the school’s ‘Planet Protectors’ learn about sustainability, biodiversity and the natural world. Watching children discover their curiosity about trees and nature is one of the most rewarding things we do.
Schools Donations – Logs and Woodchip
We’ve donated logs to another local Shepshed school and woodchip to a school in Leicester – providing free natural materials for outdoor learning spaces and helping schools create environments that connect children with the natural world. It costs us relatively little and the impact for those schools is significant.
Free Tree Giveaway – Shepshed and Loughborough
We ran a free sapling giveaway for residents across Shepshed and Loughborough – providing trees and free planting advice to help local people put more greenery into their gardens and streets. Healthy towns have trees in them. We want to help make that happen, one garden at a time.
Grassroots Sport
We’ve sponsored grassroots football across Shepshed – both junior and adult Shepshed Dynamo teams – because strong communities are built partly on the football pitches and sports clubs that bring people together. It’s a small contribution to something that matters.
━━ UN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS ━━
🌐 The UN Sustainable Development Goals
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals provide a shared global framework for building a better world by 2030. As a small business, we don’t pretend to be solving global problems – but we do believe that how every business operates contributes, however modestly, to whether those goals are met or missed.
At Broadleaf, we actively work towards a number of the SDGs through our everyday operations:
- SDG 4 – Quality Education: Forest school partnerships, school donations and educational resources for children
- SDG 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth: Quality employment, apprenticeship support, Pirkx wellbeing benefits and team development
- SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities and Communities: Community tree donations, saplings for residents, RSPCA partnership and grassroots sport sponsorship
- SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production: Peat-free compost, arb waste recycling, biomass conversion and waste reduction approach
- SDG 13 – Climate Action: 500+ trees planted, route optimisation to reduce emissions, battery equipment investment
- SDG 15 – Life on Land: We carry out pre-work nest checks as standard for all hedge and tree work between March and August, actively educating customers about nesting season legislation and wildlife protection. We ask customers to explore retention before recommending removal, use only peat-free compost, and can recommend native species to support local biodiversity.
━━ CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT ━━
📈 Always Improving
We don’t believe sustainability is a destination – it’s a direction. We completed the Green Skills for Small Business programme with Small Business Britain and Oxford Brookes Business School. We’ve received mentorship from industry experts at Sustainable Pathways. We’re part of a growing community of businesses through the Green Growth 100 who are figuring this out together.
We’ll keep investing in better equipment, smarter logistics, stronger community partnerships and a team culture built on genuine values. When we add a new initiative, we’ll add it here. This page is a living document – not a one-time statement.
If you have ideas, questions or would like to work with us on something sustainability-related, we’d love to hear from you.
Work With a Business That Gives Back
Every job we carry out – every tree pruned and every hedge trimmed is done by a team that genuinely cares about what they leave behind. If you’d like to work with a tree surgery company that takes this stuff seriously, we’d love to hear from you.
📞 Call: 01509 733579
📧 Email: info@broadleaftreecare.co.uk
🌐 Website: broadleaftreecare.co.uk
📍 Based in Shepshed, serving Leicestershire and the East Midlands
