Newcastle has been home for Greater Bank for 75 years and now the city will be the major beneficiary of its anniversary celebrations,\u00a0receiving more than 20,000\u00a0native\u00a0trees and shrubs to be planted\u00a0at\u00a0sites across the area.
\nGreater Bank\u00a0announced in August that it was\u00a0planting 75,000 trees in the areas it calls home across regional NSW to mark 75 years of growing greater together.
\nLord Mayor of\u00a0Newcastle, Cr\u00a0Nuatali\u00a0Nelmes, along with\u00a0Greater Bank\u00a0Chairman, Wayne Russell, and Chief Executive Officer,\u00a0Scott Morgan,\u00a0swapped their corporate attire for gardening gear\u00a0to\u00a0launch the\u00a0Newcastle\u00a0planting program today at\u00a0King Edward Park. They\u00a0were\u00a0joined by\u00a0Greater Bank employees\u00a0and members of the community\u00a0to\u00a0plant\u00a0the first of\u00a04,000 trees earmarked for the site.
\nTaking place on the iconic park\u2019s sea cliffs and coastal headlands, the planting will enhance a protected and endangered ecological community known as\u00a0Themeda\u00a0grassland\u00a0and also\u00a0re-establish habitat for local wildlife, including\u00a0birds,\u00a0small\u00a0marsupials,\u00a0insects and reptiles.
\nOver the coming weeks and months, the program will also see plantings undertaken at\u00a0Bull &\u00a0Tourle\u00a0Street Reserve, Mayfield West,\u00a0Heaton Park and\u00a0Maclure Reserve, Jesmond;\u00a0a unique and important freshwater wetland in Wallsend; Wallsend Park\u00a0and\u00a0Ironbark Creek, Wallsend.
\nA mix of seedlings and more established plants that are native to the region have been selected to complement the flora already on these sites.
\nLaunching the planting project, Lord Mayor\u00a0Nuatali\u00a0Nelmes\u00a0said\u00a0City of Newcastle\u00a0was committed to creating a greener\u00a0local government area and\u00a0thanked the Greater Bank for its support.
\n\u201cThanks to support from Greater Bank, we\u2019ve been able to significantly add to our bushland, watercourse, street and park tree planting programs to ensure our community continues to benefit from our urban forest,\u201d Cr Nelmes said.
\n\u201cThis partnership is another example of the City\u2019s commitment to becoming an ICLEI City with Nature, recognising and enhancing the value of\u00a0our natural surrounds, as well as our efforts to be a global local government leader in sustainability.
\n\u201cThe greening of our urban landscape has\u00a0a positive impact for Newcastle and our community. Enhancing our natural areas, planting in streets and parks create spaces where people can\u00a0relax\u00a0and be more active.
\n\u201cGreen spaces are cooler and\u00a0improve\u00a0liveability\u00a0while providing\u00a0environmental improvements\u00a0such as\u00a0air quality,\u00a0protecting and filtering our water,\u00a0and also\u00a0providing natural habitat, food and shelter for native wildlife.\u201d
\nGreater Bank\u00a0CEO,\u00a0Scott Morgan, who said\u00a0the tree planting projects are symbolic of the role Greater Bank has played in growing together with its communities over the past 75 years.
\n\u201cAs we reach our 75th year of operation, we’re proudly celebrating\u00a0the role we have played in\u00a0helping\u00a0this region we call\u00a0home,\u201d Mr\u00a0Morgan\u00a0said.
\n\u201cGreater Bank was established in Hamilton in 1945 and we are still headquartered there today. While our operations have grown significantly\u00a0over the past 75 years, well beyond our traditional boundaries, the Hunter remains the heart of our operations and customer base.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0important for us,\u00a0that in celebrating the milestone,\u00a0we give back to a community that has given us so much and in doing so\u00a0contribute to a cause that is important to our customers.
\n\u201cThe need to protect and nurture the environment was a consistent message delivered by customers across\u00a0all\u00a0our areas of operation, which is why we\u2019ve committed to planting 75,000 trees throughout regional NSW.
\n\u201cThe trees will not only provide these communities with an ongoing legacy to mark this milestone, but as they grow, they will provide an enduring symbol of our commitment to social responsibility and sustained support of local communities,\u201d Mr Morgan said.
\n\u201cWe have been working closely with\u00a0the City of Newcastle\u00a0to\u00a0select\u00a0these sites\u00a0and\u00a0they have also\u00a0provided valuable direction as to the types and species of plants to ensure they complement and support the local habitats,\u201d Mr Morgan said.
\nOnce completed,\u00a0the project will have a significant impact on local environments. Beyond the flora regeneration of the respective sites across\u00a0regional NSW, collectively, the 75,000 trees will have the capacity to absorb 1,650,000kgs of carbon dioxide each year. That offsets 97 people per year and emissions from 600 cars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Newcastle has been home for Greater Bank for 75 years and now the city will be the major beneficiary of its anniversary celebrations,\u00a0receiving more than 20,000\u00a0native\u00a0trees and shrubs to be planted\u00a0at\u00a0sites across the area. Greater Bank\u00a0announced in August that it was\u00a0planting 75,000 trees in the areas it calls home across regional NSW to mark 75 … Continue reading “Greater Bank celebrations gifts trees to the City of Newcastle”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}