GREATER Anglia has signed up to the Meters for Trees carbon reduction initiative, removing pay and display machines from its rail station car parks and swapping them for trees.

The initiative is run by PayByPhone, which offers easier ways to pay for rail station car parking at all Greater Anglia’s car parks.

The move has seen Greater Anglia remove 71 pay and display machines at 52 of its NCP-run car parks across the east of England and plant eight trees in the Amazon rainforest.

Meters for Trees is the first award-winning carbon footprint reduction initiative of its kind in the UK. Launched in June 2019, Meters for Trees sees participants reduce the number of parking machines in favour of PayByPhone’s cashless parking payment technology.

For every 10 parking machines, PayByPhone donates one tree to the client and offsets one tonne of carbon dioxide through Portel-Pará REDD, a Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) audited project in the Amazon rainforest that combats deforestation.

Simone Bailey, Greater Anglia’s Asset Management Director, says, “Rail is already the greenest way to travel but we are always looking to become even more sustainable, in line with the industry’s aim to become carbon neutral by 2050.

“Joining PayByPhone’s Meters for Trees, we are taking another step forward in making our customers’ journeys as simple, clean and green as possible.”

In the first 12 months alone, 50,000 miles will be saved by not having to maintain machines or to collect cash from them, and PayByPhone will offset 9 tonnes of CO2 on Greater Anglia’s behalf.

To make Meters for Trees even more powerful, all the PayByPhone stickers under the Greater Anglia contract are ReActivair ‘pollution eating’ signage. Made from naturally occurring materials, ReActivair’s revolutionary technology means PayByPhone’s signage uses the energy from sunlight to breakdown harmful pollutants and odour molecules in the air surrounding the area where it is placed, helping to improve air quality and to reduce pollution.

Rebecca Maisey, UK Client Director for PayByPhone, says, “We are delighted Greater Anglia has joined Meters for Trees. Each time we welcome a new client to the programme, we are contributing to a cleaner environment and better local air quality. At a time when the need to combat deforestation has never been more urgent, Meters for Trees offers parking operators a straightforward way to create a more environmentally sustainable future.”

For more information about Meters for Trees, please visit www.metersfortrees.co.uk