52 Trees for Life thanks to MNM Developments and Tours by Locals

When we were discussing the introduction of the launch of our new branding early in 2017, the idea came up to video the planting of Amos Beech ‘trees’ on various locations in Scotland. The locations that we choose were those where you normally would have to go through lengthy planning applications, only to discover to end up nowhere:

It was then that somebody here in the office mentioned the Trees For Life project. Trees For Life plants trees in The Caledonian Forest. Trees for Life helps nature to restore in the Scottish Highlands and helps people reconnect with their spirit, with hope and with the land.

Trees for Life

The Caledonian Forest once covered a large part of the Highlands as extensive stands of majestic Scots pines, interspersed with birch, rowan, juniper and aspen trees. It was the UK's equivalent of the rainforest but has been reduced to just a tiny fraction of its former range. Most of the surviving forests now consist of old trees reaching the end of their lifespan.

In 2008 Trees for Life purchased the Dundreggan Estate, an area of 10,000 acres of wild land near Loch Ness to establish a major forest restoration programme. To date the conservation volunteering charity have planted over 1.6 million trees!

(A film by The Big Picture, a non-profit social enterprise founded by a group of professional photographers, filmmakers, writers, designers and educators, motivated by the need to rebuild healthy ecosystems where wildlife and people flourish.)

Amos Beech contributed 474 trees to date.

Under the slogan ‘every little helps’, we here Amos Beech started our own grove in August 2017 and are proud to have recently added 52 trees for MNM Developments and Tours by Locals.

MNM Developments

MNM develop high-value, luxury properties that respect and enhance their surroundings and have a minimal environmental footprint. We designed and fitted out their 1846 sq ft of new office space in Leith Edinburgh.

Michaela Teague receives the certificate for 24 trees.

Tours by Locals

Tours by Locals brings local people with their knowledge and expertise together with travelers who are looking for an authentic cultural experience. We designed and fitted out their 2153 sq ft of new office space in Glasgow.

Paul Melhus, CEO and Founder of Tours By Locals, receives the tree certificate (28 trees) from Kit-Har McLaughlin, interior designer @Amos_Beech, during a great office opening party in January 2019.

More trees to come!

Unsurprisingly, the tree planting scheme is very well received by our clients and we feel well doing it, so also this year we will be planting 13 trees per 1000 sq ft of interior design, office fit-out and furniture project.

But did you know that you can contribute yourself?

Amos Beech – improving every environment we touch

42 new trees planted thanks to Scotland Food and Drink

Today we were lucky enough to join the board of Scotland Food And Drink for lunch in their newly fitted out offices at Ratho Park Edinburgh.

The Scottish food and drink industry has become the best performing industry in Scotland, worth today about £14 billion. No surprise to us as we were enjoying the great tasting sandwiches from Patti & Jules, a recent addition to Edinburgh's catering scene. Obviously our experiences with the Scottish delicatessens don’t stop there.

So you could say that Scotland Food and Drink and Amos Beech were natural partners for their move to their new offices. Chief Executive, James Withers described the tremendous difference the new office layout made to their office life. The open plan space with plenty of natural light has a positive influence on internal communication. Facilities like a spacious boardroom, meeting spaces, break out area’s and hot desking make the new offices suddenly attract employees that previously preferred to work from home. As well as that the space is now more in line with their culture and branding, so now a perfect place to invite and meet people as well.

Corporate social Responsibility

What we didn’t know was that the chair of Scotland Food and Drink, Dennis Overton, lives close to Glen Affric and he has been following the great work of Trees For Live since it’s inception.

As part of Amos Beech’s Corporate Social Responsibility we plant 13 trees per 1000 SqFt of refurbished office space. In the case of Scotland Food and Drink’s new offices that equates to 42 trees!

Operations director Roy James hands over the Trees for Life certificate to Dennis Overton, chairman of Scotland Food and Drink

This brings the number of trees in our grove up to a total of 244 and there is more to come!

You can plant trees yourself!

We encourage you to plant trees yourself. You can add trees to our grove via the link under the image below or you can start your own grove. Why not consider giving somebody a dedicated tree? Planting a tree is a special gift for any occasion. It's the perfect way to celebrate an event or remember a loved one.

When you order your Tree via Trees for Life, a native tree will be planted for you by Trees for Life in the Scottish Highlands, creating a home for wildlife and forests for the future as well as improving the quality of the air we breathe every day.

If you click on the image above you will go to The Amos Beech Trees For Life page

Amos Beech – improving every environment we touch

Interior design Edinburgh, RBS Gogarburn

In May this year our interior design team set off for Clerkenwell design week in London for inspiration and to keep up to date with the industry's latest developments. Clerkenwell is home to more creative businesses and architects per square mile than anywhere else on the planet, making it truly one of the most important design hubs in the world. To celebrate this rich and diverse community, Clerkenwell Design Week creates a showcase of leading UK and international brands and companies, presented in a series of showroom events, exhibitions and special installations that take place across the area.

Interior design Edinburgh

You don't always have to travel far for inspiration, as our designers discovered at Clerkenwell when they were introduced to some of the team behind the interior design and space planning at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Just around the corner from Amos Beech (from a national perspective), the world class headquarters for RBS are located, Scotland's largest company and the fifth biggest bank worldwide. The team were invited to come and have a look at their recently revamped spaces. Obviously, that offer was accepted enthusiastically and today we went to have a look.

Commercial interior design Edinburgh

RBS is located on a site that is named Gogarburn. The remains that were discovered in 2003 near the site suggest the site was used for agriculture in medieval times. The architects for the RBS Gogarburn development were Scottish based Michael Laird Architects and London based RHWL Architects. The concept was that of a business community with offices, restaurant, shops, leisure facilities, nursery and a training/conference centre. The main building at Gogarburn therefore has a clear social/community focus and circulation pattern.

Technology equipped meeting areas throughout the building are used to encourage collaboration with other business partners around the world as well as being an area where colleagues can “meet, focus, huddle, present or chat” depending on the project in hand.

“Scrum” areas are situated within departments where ideas, processes and improvements can be discussed robustly and advanced by using a simple step by step process allowing them to “fail faster, more of the time” – an expression that demonstrates their committal to “discover, design, develop & test” anything they create, before it is launched internally or externally.

Working environments play a key role in the attraction and retention of staff and  it was great to see how RBS implemented this at their Gogarburn site in Edinburgh!