Farming wood for good.

We are establishing the first sustainably grown Phoenix One® Paulownia tree plantations in the UK.

We are farming sustainable hardwood timber whilst encouraging biodiversity and wildlife from previously intensively-farmed land. Embodied carbon capture and enriching the environment are at the core of our business.

Our Forest to Front Door approach offers sustainable timber for the construction industry in addition to innovative solutions for boats, watersports and musical instruments.

The UK has set itself a target of reducing all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. In order to achieve this, we must not only become more resource efficient and use renewable energy, but also capture the carbon dioxide we produce.

Trees help mitigate climate change by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (carbon sequestration). Carbon Plantation's intention is to convert areas of previously intensively farmed agricultural land (such as the Euston Estate in Suffolk) into woodland pasture. One of our key objectives is to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere using woodland carbon, but also to improve soil health and increase biodiversity on the sites.

To achieve our goals and contribute to the UK Government's Net Zero Strategy, we have identified a fast-growing hardwood tree called Phoenix One®, a sterile (and therefore non-invasive) hybrid of Paulownia, which produces strong yet unusually light timber with attractive insulation properties.

The fast-growing nature of Phoenix One® makes it particularly effective at carbon sequestration, and also provides a regular supply of exceptional, locally grown timber with a wide range of uses. This makes such plantations commercially viable undertakings with many environmental benefits and in line with the UK Governments Net Zero goals.

The importance of growing forests and wood for society

"It’s a fact that our growing global population will need to use more wood. And that could be a good thing.

Wood is an extraordinary renewable resource and taking it from well-managed sources benefits forests and the planet. But on their own, natural forests cannot provide all the wood we need. So we also have to farm trees, just like we do other crops."

Sir David Attenborough

Pioneering projects

In 2022, Carbon Plantations established our pioneer project at Euston Estate in Suffolk. Covering 195 hectares, 75% is devoted to Phoenix One®, 15% to native woodland (equivalent to 33,000 trees) and 10% is open ground (as approved by an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) led by the Forestry Commission and key stakeholders).

Euston Estate itself has a strong track record of promoting sustainable projects, including renewable energy and environmental stewardship schemes.

In 2023, Carbon Plantations established a further 268 hectares on four sites at South Pickenham, Hockwold Fen, Westacre and Young. All permissions and contracts were granted following approval of individual EIAs, as per our pioneer project.

We have a total ambition to plant 2,500 hectares this decade (of which 375 hectares will be native woodland). This translates to nearly 2 million trees with the ability to capture over 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in the next 35 years. The Phoenix One® itself has a commercial coppicing lifespan of over 80 years.

Why Paulownia?

The Phoenix 1®, Paulownia hybrid species that Carbon Plantations is planting will produce the same commercial volume of timber in 5.26 years as UK Sitka spruce would produce over 20 years.

In year 10, Sitka spruce will produce 110 m3 of timber compared to 791.35 m3 from a Phoenix 1® Paulownia plantation. This is over 7 times as much by volume.

Forest management

Matthew Riddiford, Founder

Matthew founded the Aether group of companies to “drag through” renewable energy and sustainable timber into the construction sector. He has spent 5 years consulting on international forest projects under REDD+. It was this experience that led Matthew and the team to develop afforestation projects in the UK.

Nigel Couch, Managing Director

Nigel has over 30 years’ experience in banking including Managing Director and Head of Pan-European Equity Sales at Citigroup. Since pivoting from the financial sector in 2018, Nigel has been working on several natural carbon capture projects, specifically related to woodland and soil within an agricultural setting. Nigel has worked with various agencies including academic institutions, carbon credit agencies and government stakeholders, to research the delivery of carbon capture projects for landowners and the timber strategy for Carbon Plantations.

John Purslow, Technical Director

John leads the agronomy company, Farmacy plc’s Norfolk team and specialises in sandy soil root crops and combinable agricultural crops. John has 40 years’ of experience in agronomy within the East of England and has been focused on ecological agronomy where an understanding of biodiversity improvement and ecological gain is coupled with profitable production systems.

His work on soil carbon sequestration projects has been invaluable and his expertise in the local growing conditions combined with WeGrow’s specialist tree knowledge will help our woodlands to really thrive.

Tim Handford, Forestry Manager

Tim has over 30 years working forestry, both coniferous and deciduous plantations. He has a wealth of experience in quality timber production both in England and Scotland.

Andrew Patrick, Farm Manager

Andrew brings over 20 years of experience working in the agricultural sector, specialising in crop production, including soft fruits. Andrew is highly experienced in building and developing irrigation infrastructure.

Laura Handford, Office Manager

Laura has over 20 years experience in office and forestry management having previously been a Police Officer. She has ICB Accounting qualifications and plays a pivotal role in our team.

The commercial proposition for homegrown Paulownia

Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) produces sustainable timber that is engineered into mass timber and has a role to play in building carbon zero social/affordable housing in the UK.

Agile Property and Homes Limited and Carbon Plantations Limited have entered into a joint venture agreement, having identified a common aim to take advantage of the specific properties of Paulownia wood to enhance the delivery of panellised timber frame solutions in the built environment.