On Arbor Day (April 27), Dell, Carbonfund.org Foundation and The Conservation Fund are pleased to share the success of our Plant-a-Tree Program. Since 2007, thousands of customers have donated more than $2.3 million to plant native trees and restore deforested areas.
Trees provide many environmental benefits: they help trap CO2 from the atmosphere, filter water, prevent soil erosion, slow flooding and create habitat for animals. Thanks to your donations to Plant-a-Tree, we’ve helped plant more than 528,000 seedlings, which will trap more than 400,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent in their lifetime — the equivalent to annual greenhouse gas emissions from 80,228 passenger vehicles*. *Source: Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.
“While every individual donation to Plant-a-Tree is relatively modest (it’s only $2 to offset the CO2 emissions of your notebook, for example), we know that even ‘small change’ can change the world,” said Jena Meredith with The Conservation Fund. “With each gift, we can clean the air we breathe and filter the water we drink – and that’s no small feat. It’s something that each of Dell’s customers can be proud of.”
Together with Dell and its customers, The Conservation Fund and Carbondfund.org have used Plant-a-Tree donations to restore 1,629 acres — almost twice the size of New York’s Central Park.
“Each Plant-a-Tree location has tremendous need,” said Meredith. “These lands used to be fertile forests, and they can be again – with your help. Together we can bring these lands, and the wildlife that depends on them, back to life, one donation at a time.”
You did it! More than half a million trees planted in the course of five years.
On behalf of our customers, Dell was pleased to accept an award from Carbonfund.org, in the Lifetime Achievement category of the 2011 For Planet and People Awards. “Carbonfund.org is thrilled to honor Dell for their leadership helping to solve climate change by developing an innovative program that is having real and positive effects for our planet,” said Eric Carlson, president of Carbonfund.org. “The ‘For Planet and People Award’ highlights the extraordinary efforts of Dell, their employees, customers and stakeholders to be part of the solution to climate change.”
Go to Dell Plant-a-Tree to participate, and share your experience with people so you can help us regrow forests again. Plant-a-Tree is about more than planting trees; it is the connection between people and their environment to create a better world for the present and future generations.