The Dudley Building Society has become a carbon neutral organisation.

The mutual, based in the West Midlands, has donated to a carbon footprint project that plants trees in the local area, whilst also helping to protect the Amazon rainforest.

Having calculated that its carbon footprint for 2019/2020 was 73.78 tonnes of CO2, the Society decided it needed to do something immediately practical, while it formulated plans to build on environmental sustainability.

Sam Ward, the Dudley’s commercial director, said: “Although Dudley is a very efficiently run business, having recognised how our activity actually adds to the issue of global warming, we needed to take positive action. Our donation to the planting of trees in our home area was the most immediate response we could make in order to give something back to our community.

“Recognising the impact that our very existence was having on the environment made us particularly conscious of our environmental impact as a business and how, as an important part of the area’s infrastructure, we will now continue to build environmental sustainability into all of our future planning.”