In brief: Deloitte Jersey has donated £18,000 to Jersey Trees for Life to fund the planting of hundreds of trees and the creation of new school gardens at primary schools across the island. The donation forms part of a wider partnership that has seen the firm contribute more than £20,000 to the charity since late 2025.
Putting Down Roots
Deloitte Jersey has handed over £18,000 to local environmental charity Jersey Trees for Life, with the funds earmarked for planting hundreds of trees at primary schools across the island this winter and creating new outdoor garden spaces for children. The donation, reported by Bailiwick Express, is part of a broader relationship that began when Jersey Trees for Life became Deloitte Jersey’s Social Impact charity partner in the summer of 2025.
Marc Cleeve, audit and assurance partner at Deloitte in Jersey, said the firm was “proud to see our donation will help create new school gardens and give the next generation more opportunities to connect with the natural environment.” He added that the aim was to give “hundreds of children the chance to learn outdoors and develop a real appreciation for nature that will hopefully stay with them for life.”
Alex Morel, chief executive of Jersey Trees for Life, confirmed that the cumulative support from Deloitte and its employees has now exceeded £20,000 since late 2025, providing the charity with the funding it needs to press ahead with its winter planting programme. “We now have the funding to plant hundreds of new trees at our schools this winter,” she said, adding that the firm’s wider involvement had made “a huge difference in helping us progress our ongoing woodland management projects.”
Running for the Trees
The financial donation was not the only way Deloitte made its presence felt. The firm also sponsored the 6km and 12km trail routes at Jersey Trees for Life’s third annual Run for the Trees event, held at Val de la Mare in September. The event drew around 200 runners, walkers, volunteers and supporters, and raised more than £5,500, which will go towards creating new paths through the arboretum and adding botanical labels to the specimen trees.
Thirteen Deloitte employees volunteered on the day, helping with preparations, marshalling the routes and supporting participants, while colleagues from the firm’s audit and tax teams took part in the 3km, 6km and 12km distances. Cleeve noted that the enthusiasm shown by colleagues “reflects our commitment to making a positive difference in the island community.”
Why It Matters for Jersey
For an island where green space is finite and development pressure is a constant backdrop, initiatives that bring trees and nature into the school environment carry real weight. Getting children outdoors and engaged with the natural world from an early age is something most parents, regardless of political persuasion, would heartily endorse. It costs nothing in ideology and, in this case, £18,000 in cold, hard cash from a private firm rather than the public purse.
The partnership also serves as a reminder of what the private sector can achieve when it chooses to invest in the community. Jersey’s finance industry is sometimes portrayed as a remote, abstract force, but projects like this one, planting trees in school playgrounds and putting volunteers on marshalling duty at a charity run, are about as tangible and local as it gets.
Source: Bailiwick Express
