In February 2018, Meejana joined the growing numbers of Carbon Free Dining restaurants across the UK who embrace the challenge of creating a sustainable future for the planet.

This is a partnership with the Green Earth Appeal and the United Nations Environment Programme’s Billion Tree Campaign who, for a small additional fee of 99p on your bill, guarantee to plant at least one tree in a developing nation to provide food, education, income and shelter for the local community and end poverty where they operate. The fruit tree also benefits the environment and fully offsets the CO₂ footprint of your meal.

Please accept a big thank you from everyone at Meejana and the Green Earth Appeal.

Here’s a short video about the project in Haiti …

Green Earth Appeal

The Green Earth Appeal was formed to provide the poorest communities in the developing world with the opportunity to remove their dependence on unsustainable aid. Through the provision of education, infrastructure and practical resources they plant high volume high yielding fruit trees which creates a sustainable environment for future generations.

They call the aid process ‘Exit Strategy Aid’ because it is designed, from inception, to be self-financing following an initial period of investment. Traditional aid development models are failing because projects generally only last as long as the external funding does. By empowering communities to create co-operatives, the need for ongoing financing and support reduces significantly.

The Billion Tree campaign

The Billion Tree campaign aims to address the multitude of issues associated with deforestation and to return global temperature rises to within two Celsius of pre-industrial levels through the reforestation. Approximately seventeen percent of greenhouse gas emissions are the result of deforestation and forest degradation.

Whilst planting trees may seem like a simple solution to a massive global problem, this one action can lessen the impact of global warming and enhance biodiversity. Trees are key to protecting the environment for future generations. In planting trees, it is possible to increase the production of oxygen, absorb CO2, reduce soil erosion and its damaging effects, and ensure the provision of habitat for wildlife.

A Sustainable Process

Smallholder farmers are taught through workshops about the benefits of Agroforestry, a system which combines agriculture and forestry technologies to create a more integrated, diverse, productive, profitable, healthy, and sustainable land-use system that is especially beneficial to the small-scale farm. Part of this process identifies which species of trees will best suit the individual farmers.

Central nurseries are built for all the local participating farmers. The tools and appropriate seeds are given to the communities for them to begin the life-transforming work.

Saplings are transferred from the nurseries to the “forest gardens” using the Agroforestry methodology. This can be anything up to 4000 trees for each farmer, consisting of 20 varieties of trees.

Over a period of around 4 years, the farmers will continue to receive education and assistance with their “forest garden”, by which time their lives will have changed beyond recognition from when the journey began. Once they are empowered and have achieved sustainability they can continue their lives without the need for handouts and aid.

Carbon Free Dining

When paying the optional 99p on your bill, the Green Earth Appeal guarantees to plant a fruit tree in the developing world. Not only will your tree provide empowerment and opportunity for some of the developing world’s poorest communities and ultimately, help bring an end to poverty, but it will also counterbalance the entire environmental impact of your meal.

Mr Satinder Bindra, whilst Director of Communications for United Nations Environment, described the Green Earth dining initiative as ‘an outstanding initiative which successfully merges the luxury of eating out with the joy of knowing we are simultaneously giving something back to nourish our planet.’

How are we doing?

To date, our total number of trees planted is shown in the tree ticker to the right. We joined the campaign in February 2018 and are steadily offsetting our carbon footprint as well as providing essential food, education, income and shelter for communities in the developing world.