The Queen’s Green Canopy

A nationwide tree planting initiative to honour Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth.

The project

To mark Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022 a unique tree planting campaign, The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC), was launched to encourage people all across the UK to “plant a tree for the Jubilee”.

The website needed to:

  • Engage and inspire people from all walks of life to get involved in planting trees as part of the initiative
  • Give people information on tree planting best practice and a simple process to follow
  • Highlight the positive impact that trees and green spaces have on the environment.
  • Celebrate the late Queen Elizabeth who had planted over 1,500 trees all over the world during the course of her 70 year Reign

The website needed to meet the highest SEO standards, be accessible and built to be technically robust, to ensure everyone who visited the site could identify a way they could engage with this unique project.

The Queen’s Green Canopy

The approach

Launched towards the end of lockdown in 2021, the website played a vital role in helping to communicate with people across the nation, acting as a hub of inspiration and practical information.

We worked closely with the QGC communications team to create a website which reflected the uplifting nature of the campaign and supported the call to action to “plant a tree for the Jubilee”.

Leading with a delightful image of the late Queen Elizabeth in nature, the tone was elegant and celebratory, befitting the occasion. To encourage people to learn about tree planting best practice, a simple PLAN PLANT PROTECT model was developed to provide information which was presented alongside instructions for people from all walks of life to get involved.

To encourage participation, a bespoke, interactive QGC map was developed with a partner agency, GGMR, which enabled people to pin their trees in a fun and user-friendly way and receive a “virtual plaque” to become part of the growing canopy across the nation.

The map was very popular and generated a lot of activity at a grassroots level. When the project concluded, Pixeled Eggs supported a stunning mosaic artwork in collaboration with The People’s Picture. The mosaic was created using thousands of images of people and their jubilee and memorial trees.

This project was an excellent example of cross-agency collaboration, bringing experts together with the common goal of creating the best possible digital and design experience to celebrate the campaign. We supported a process of discovery and UX/UI design and worked as part of an extended team to make it happen, all within a strict timeline and working remotely during the Covid pandemic.

Queen's Green Canopy Map view

The results

The website was a success in celebrating and supporting people and communities to plant jubilee trees. Following the sad passing of Queen Elizabeth, the campaign was extended for a further tree planting season to enable memorial trees to be planted.

We created a user experience that felt inclusive, celebratory and positive. And a design that felt clean and complimentary of royal initiatives.

The campaign inspired over three million trees to be planted in honour of the late Queen Elizabeth.

The Queen’s Green Canopy highlighted the significant value our trees and woodlands offer, as a natural defence against climate change, to help clean the air we breathe and create new habitats for wild creatures. We are thankful to have been part of this inspirational campaign to help achieve these extraordinary outcomes.

Environmental facts:

  • British oak trees support an estimated 2,300 species, an incredible variety of wildlife
  • A mature tree can absorb up to 150 kg of CO2 a year
  • UK Green spaces remove up to 1.3 billion kg of air pollutants each year
  • Well-placed trees can help cool the air between 2 and 8 degrees in urban communities

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