Yorkshire Building Society has taken a step towards being a greener business.

The Bradford-based society has started a scheme to offset the carbon dioxide emissions produced by its car fleet.

In partnership with Future Forest, the Society will plant 2,500 trees to neutralise the 550 tonnes of carbon dioxide which its car fleet produced in 2001.

World-wide, nearly 1.5m trees have already been planted by the environmental group and its planting partners in the fight against global warming.

Yorkshire Building Society is adding to this by planting in Sundhope Forest in the Scottish borders.

Over the last two years the Society has introduced a number of initiatives to make its company cars more environmentally friendly.

These include a car-sharing scheme, incentives for staff to choose cleaner, more fuel-efficient company cars and encouraging use of public transport.

Other initiatives include reducing the amount of business travel with increasing use of telephone and video conferencing, rather than face to face meetings.

Mary Blackwell, fleet manager for the society, said: "We are very focused on making the society's car fleet more environmentally friendly and so joining with Future Forests was a natural next step. As we have many environmental initiatives in place it is likely that the number of trees that we plant in future years to offset the emissions produced by our company cars will reduce."

Jonathan Shopley, chief executive of Future Forests, added: "Our aim is to encourage people to take responsibility for some of their contribution to global warming - by reducing their CO2 emissions and then compensating for non-reducible emissions through a whole range of projects, including tree planting.

"The whole process is known as carbon neutral. Tree planting is particularly popular, we support indigenous trees in native woodlands, so that there are real benefits to wildlife and local communities too. Yorkshire Building Society has gone a long way in reducing their emissions from their car fleet and we really commend the lead they are taking in the financial services sector in offsetting the remaining CO2."

The Society is looking at extending the scheme to enable all staff to offset their own carbon dioxide emissions.

Using an emission assessment, which was prepared by Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management (ECCM) for Future Forests, staff will be able to calculate the number of trees they would need to purchase to fully neutralise the levels of CO2 they have produced and assist in combating global warming.