Forestry Partners
The mission
As part of our own corporate social responsibility promise, we take on a select number of pro-bono projects and Forestry Partners was a perfect fit with our own values and interests.
The concept for Forestry Partners (and its main initiative GoCarbonNeutral.ie) was born after its founder, John Beckett looked into what it would take to achieve carbon neutrality for his own company, ChannelSight. It can be a sluggish, complex and difficult process, with expensive consultant gatekeepers and red tape at every turn.
Enter Forestry Partners. After extensive research, John found a clear, simple path to carbon neutrality: planting forests to provide verifiable carbon offsets and restore native Irish woodlands. But simple doesn’t always mean easy. That’s where Neworld came in.
The question
How do you turn trees into an urgent priority for corporate Ireland?
The whole concept of offsetting carbon emissions is controversial. Forestry Partners wanted to bring the question of carbon neutrality back down to earth. Specifically, to Irish soil.
By raising money from Irish businesses to plant native Irish trees, Forestry Partners fights the climate crisis on three fronts: Capture carbon emissions from the atmosphere to help in the fight against climate change. Restore native Irish broadleaf forests (oak, etc. rather than commercial, invasive Sitka spruce) that have been decimated to the lowest level of tree cover in Europe (11% vs an average of 40%.) Protect and restore habitats to encourage the return of biodiversity.
They needed a visual identity that would resonate with the Irish business community, sparking a desire for action and buy-in for the project.
The process
We began with a vibrant but earthy colour palette: strong greens doing double duty as signifiers of both Ireland and the environment. We chose a suite of bold, straightforward fonts: typography that wasn’t here to mess around.
We developed the brand mark from a combination of instantly recognisable elements: a tree, a heart, the infinity symbol and an Irish shamrock, locked together. The concept was to evoke the perpetual re-greening and reinvestment into the environment of this beloved little island, one tree at a time. Swooping, curving visual elements brought life and movement to the brand, to be used digitally and in stationery and promotional pieces.
The transformation
We built a digital presence for the brand, setting up a website and implementing an online tool where businesses could calculate their carbon footprint. Originally, we just wanted something robust enough that John could get through the doors of influential potential partners, but the initiative caught on and gained traction faster than anyone expected.
What had begun as a modest initiative targeting the Irish technology sector exploded into a project with massive potential in all industries. Right now, they’re on track to meet or exceed their audacious goal of reforesting 1% of Ireland with native broadleaf woodlands: that’s 175,000 acres, and it seems like this is only the beginning. As it grows, John comes back to us for annual Forestry Partner campaigns and initiatives, and it’s our honour to revisit and contribute to this brand whenever we have the opportunity.
