Hastings gym owner aspires to create a Te Mata Peak forest

TREE FIT. Aspyre Fitness owner Jamie Loughran from Hastings with gym members Christel Jager, Aimee Fisher, "Beef" and Aron Noble. PHOTO / PAUL TAYLOR.

A Hastings gym-owner is hoping to create a whole forest of native trees on Te Mata Peak by buying one tree every time a new customer joins up.

Aspyre Fitness owner Jamie Loughran said he had contacted the Te Mata Peak Trust, who were "very enthusiastic" about the plan, and now hoped to plant 500 native trees at an approved area of Te Mata Peak by the end of this year.

"It's an idea I had several months ago but it takes a bit of jumping through hoops to get the right permission from the right people.

"The idea is I have created a separate account, so every time somebody buys a membership a portion of that is transferred to a separate account to go toward the cost of a tree.

"I have not increased the costs of my gym memberships, each tree works out at an average of $6 per tree.

"Really I'd love to cover the whole peak in trees but ideally I'd like to put up 500 trees this year, and I don't really intend to stop. Once we run out of space available on Te Mata Peak I would like to do it again somewhere else - ideally I'd like to create a forest.

"The planet is not someone else's problem, it's our problem. Nobody can solve it on their own but we can all do a little bit."

Mr Loughran said he felt compelled to introduce the scheme through a sense of social responsibility.

"I just wanted to give back to the planet and the community.

"Last year I started thinking about why I am in the fitness industry and what I want to achieve. Of course that involves all the normal things like getting fit and healthy but it also involves helping people to enjoy their lives more and that means being more active in the community to improve the quality of our community as a whole.

"I'm also a great fan of the planet we live on, and we like to be more carbon neutral as well, and it uses electricity to keep a treadmill running all day, so it is good to balance that out.

"Just like in business lots of small things add up to a big difference. So I thought that if I could do one small thing to help it might encourage others to help as well."