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FTSE water and waste company Severn Trent is backing the Woodland Trust’s Big Climate Fightback which takes place tomorrow.

The new campaign is a call to action to get everyone planting trees to help the fight against climate change, with November the start of the tree-planting season.

And, to back the campaign, Severn Trent has already announced plans to plant 1.3 trees in the next five years in partnership with the Woodland Trust and other organisations.

The company has already planted a massive 700,000 trees in the past five years, most of which are in Derbyshire, in and around the Derwent Valley, but those locations are now going to be widened to include areas such as Shropshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire.

Dr James Jesic, Managing Director of Production at Severn Trent, said: “This is a fantastic initiative by the Woodland Trust and we’re delighted to be able to be part of it.

“For us, planting trees not only helps improve the environment, it also helps to control flooding and reduces run off from farmers’ fields, meaning we get improved quality of river water into our treatment works, so it’s a real win-win for us, for customers and for the environment.”

The 1.3m trees, which are all native species, will be paid for by Severn Trent but supplied by the Woodland Trust and other organisations, which will be hosting public tree planting days across the UK tomorrow. The focal event will be held in Derbyshire at the Young People’s Forest at Mead.