NORWAY: we already know they're good at wood from the fact we buy millions of Norway Spruce Christmas trees every year and, of course, the Beatles' classic Norwegian Wood.

Now, the Norwegians are bringing their trees to Oxford: 3,500 of them to be precise.

This week, staff from the Scandinavian country's low-cost airline Norwegian, visited the city to start planting a copse on Port Meadow.

The company is also planning to plant another 3,500 trees in Spain.

The foresting is part of Norwegian's efforts to offset its enormous carbon footprint.

The third largest airline flying out of London Gatwick, the company currently carries 4.6m passengers every year, and that is growing.

So this year, the firm teamed up with the Global Climate Institute to plant 7,000 trees – one for each one of its employees.

In the UK, Norwegian found the perfect spot on a part of Port Meadow owned by Oxford City Council called Burgess Field, which can easily accommodate the woodland.

On Wednesday, a team of staff including UK CEO Lennart Ceder came to Oxford to start digging.

Vice president for communications Lasse Sandaker-Nielsen said: "Norwegian is proud to add another sustainability initiative to our Corporate Social Responsibility work.

"By engaging in tree planting, we are strengthening our commitment to making aviation more environmentally friendly.

"At first, we will plant 7,000 trees in the UK and Spain to honour each of our fantastic colleagues. Later this year we will plant tens of thousands of trees across the globe to benefit the environment. We are looking forward to carrying on with this important work."

Norwegian boasted that it was "one of the first airlines in the world to engage in tree planting".

But Mr Sandaker-Nielsen also added: "The most important action an airline can take to reduce its environmental footprint is to invest in new aircraft."

Conveniently, he revealed that "with an average age of just 3.6 years, Norwegian has one of the newest and most environmentally friendly fleets in the world".

Burgess Field is a former landfill site that was closed in the 1980s and is now a rough grassland nature reserve.

Norwegian said its aim was to re-establish a natural woodland with native trees and shrub species, helping to increase biodiversity in the area.

The company said it planted 500 trees on Wednesday and would return in November to plant the other 3,000.