Health & Safety
Working in arboriculture is three times more dangerous than the construction sector, making it one of the highest risk sectors in the UK. The typical arboriculture professional undertakes difficult, dangerous work regularly, often at a height; managing their own safety without causing unnecessary harm to the trees, local environment and anyone nearby. Read on to find out how we ensure the very highest standards of health and safety.
Choosing and maintaining the right equipment is essential for the safety of those doing the work and teams on the ground. We use the most modern equipment, maintaining it meticulously with a vigerous servicing and inspection schedule.
Our management team are accredited with both IOSHH and a level 6 certificate in Health and Safety, further studying for the level 6 diploma.
We are CHAS accredited, SMAS accredited, Construction Line Gold accredited, Arboricultural Association Approved Contractors & a ROSPA Silver Award Winner. We are also hold ISO 45001, ISO 14001 & ISO 9001 with UKAS.
This extensive knowledge and the time invested into our H&S allows us to maintain a safety record that we are extremely proud of.
Environment
We operate in compliance with all relevant environmental legislation, and we strive to use best sustainability practices in all we do. As an environmental improvement business, we are aware of the need to minimise our own impact and use our specialist knowledge and expertise to enable clients and others to make the ‘best’ environmental choices and improve their own carbon footprint, harnessing wherever possible our expertise in forestry, tree, and landscape management to maximum benefit.
Our work philosophy is to actively promote the use of ecological, conservational, and sustainable practices as much as possible, including the re-use of waste materials. We feel that diverse, healthy natural resources (e.g. fresh water, oceans, air, forests, grasslands etc) are an important component of social and sustainable economic development. Consequently, a vigorous and diverse tree population is vital to both water and air quality and to help regulate the climate. The wildlife habitat value of trees is immeasurable and irreplaceable, and a major challenge for today’s society is to manage human demands on land, soil, and vegetation without adversely affecting the ecosystem. With this in mind we promote reduction rather than removal of trees, where possible, and encourage re-planting.
Our team are experienced in completing wildlife surveys including nesting birds and bats and we regularly work with ecologists on projects.
As a SME Climate Hub member we strive to future-proof our business by committing to halve greenhouse gas emissions before 2026 and reach net-zero emissions before 2030.
Sustainability
We ensure sustainability plays a key role in our business decision making. Our Company policy is to recycle 100% of our waste material. Whether it’s for sawmill timber, or wood energy, all of our waste is reused and does not go to landfill. We are actively purchasing electric tools and vehicles where possible and as part of the SME Climate Hub have committed a pathway to net zero status by 2025.
Sustainability plays a key role in our day to day purchasing and supply chains and we fully engage our staff and clients in promoting, executing and improving our policies.
Social Enterprise
Upton’s partner with a number of charity organisations to provide tree planting services and offer advice and support with regeneration projects. We have recently started working with ‘Trees for Wimborne’ and we will be supporting them on annual planting projects and assisting with training of volunteers and assisting with the fundraising efforts. In November 2022 we were able to commit a three staff team and equipment for a day to carry out clearance work and we will provide £500.00 worth of trees/tree planting materials and a manager for 4 hours per year.
‘Trees for Wimborne’ are a new group working with Local Authorities and Landowners to increase the tree cover in Wimborne. “We want to see the canopy cover increase from its present 14% to 20% in the coming years. We have exciting plans for tree planting as well as growing our own trees. We will need help to grow and to plant the trees, but more importantly to nurture them whilst they are young and vulnerable. The more support we have the more we can achieve.”
If you would like to support the group, please donate to their gofundme page https://gofund.me/44bfa9d7
Mind Dorset Christmas Tree Collection 2023
In January 2023 we supported Mind Dorset with Christmas tree recycling. For a donation to Mind Dorset, trees were collected for recylcling and all chip produced from these trees was sent to power stations as biofuel.
All money raised will help towards continuing efforts in supporting the current Mental Health crisis.
