In an atmosphere where ESG reporting is becoming a part of the business norm and companies seeking to more than just simply ‘comply’ to the guidelines, a prevalent practice and growing trend among environmentally friendly businesses is told an annual tree planting event as a part of their CSR initiatives. But the real question lies in seeing the greater impact of this small activity on the ecosystem and to what extent these initiatives by businesses are actually making an impact or not.
Big brand names such as L’oreal, Ford and DHL are working on adding value to their already well established names by partnering up with a company called ‘One Tree Planted’ who run operations all over the world and act as a third party in ensuring that trees are planted in appropriate areas on behalf of a given company. [See more at https://onetreeplanted.org/]
This then brings us to the actual quantifiable impacts of tree planting- is this just a face value CSR routine or can it actually help amplify the ‘E’ in ESG? The answer definitely lies in the proven facts. While the actual amount each company contributes to the greater ecosystem cannot be quantifiable, what can be derived is that together, efforts of all these corporations put together can have a significant impact on the environment.
Tree planting is said to be one of the most effective ways to offset air pollutants- so for companies who are party to emitting large amounts of pollutants can largely offset this negative through a tree planting scheme. Tree planting also helps improve the direct air quality and this better air quality can lead to health benefits for the local community or residents in the surrounding areas. Especially for companies who invest large sums of money in the setting up and running of water treatment plants, planting more trees can in the long run reduce the need for such machinery as trees have their own water absorption mechanism. If a company is facing complaints of noise-pollution, tree planting in surrounding areas would be an eco friendly method to cut noise pollution by upto 50%. And finally, tree planting can help in the prevention of floods or reduce the severity of it.
We see that the benefits are almost innumerable, but companies cannot simply hide behind one such CSR friendly scheme to offset all other injustices they may pose. Tree planting may actually be a supporting scheme as its benefits can only be reaped in the long term. However, this should not stop businesses to keep investing in trees!
More Trees, Better Future.
