trees

10 Products that Get a Tree Planted

HunterGreen — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:20:04 -0400

“Going Green” has turned into big business for many. With the world consciousness becoming more aware of our destructive direction as a society, more businesses are turning to eco-friendly solutions to not only help the world, but also to help their reputation.

This article at We Heart World talks about buying products from companies that plant trees when you make some sort of purchase. It is an excellent way for people to do just a little more for the environment by supporting these companies in their initiative.

It shouldn't always be about price and convenience. We have the power to show confidence and consideration to those companies who are trying to make a difference.

Here are links to the companies in the article that DO make a difference. If you have any interest in buying the types of products that they sell, please stop by and compare. All things being equal, it makes sense to do the secondary things that make a difference such as showing your support with your purchases.

Computers: Dell

Plant a Tree for Me

Connectivity: IOGEAR

Road to a Million Trees

Maternity T-Shirt: UnButtonedMaternity

Plant a Tree Mommy

Surfboards: Loose Fit Surf Shop

Surf and Trees Campaign

Boots: Blundstone

Plant yourself in Blundstones. Plant a tree in Canada

Soap: JustNeem

Neem Tree

Shaving Oil: Pacific Shaving

Plants a tree for every bottle of shaving oil sold

Strollers: Baby Rain Inc.

Planting a tree for every stroller purchase.

Handbags: Ecoist

Plants a tree for every handbag

Books: Eco-Libris

Buy a book from them, they’ll plant a tree

Read more about businesses that help the environment on my blog.

Why We Need Trees?

Orbitmanifesto — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:32:28 -0400

Trees, unlike humans, take in Carbon Dioxide and release Oxygen. Humans make the opposite exchange. One acre of forest puts out four tons of oxygen – that’s enough to meet the annual oxygen needs of 18 people, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Since Carbon Dioxide is the major contributor to Greenhouse gases, the less CO2 in the atmosphere the better. Trees absorb some of the Carbon Gases that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. According to ColoradoTree.org, about 800 million tons of CO2 are stored in the trees that make up the urban forests of America. This means the more trees on our planet, the less CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere. If every American family planted just one tree, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would be reduced by one billion pounds annually. Planting trees is the cheapest, most effective means of drawing excess CO2 from the atmosphere.

Trees also reduce the greenhouse effect by shading our homes and office buildings. This reduces air conditioning needs up to 30 percent, thereby reducing the amount of fossil fuel burned to produce electricity. This combination to CO2 removal from the atmosphere, carbon storage in wood, and the cooling effect makes trees a very efficient tool in fighting the greenhouse effect.

My company Bizcard really cares about the world.

Make a Friend, Plant a Tree

jplatt — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0400

Everyone loves Facebook for social networking. But how many of you use it to do good?

One way you can enhance your Facebook experience is to add the Tree Planter application from the Arbor Day Foundation. Developed in conjunction with Toyota, the Tree Planter app aims to plant 1 million trees through your participation.

Here's how it works: You add the Tree Planter application to your Facebook profile. For one dollar, you can then send a virtual gift to any of your friends. That one dollar plants a real tree.You can choose from ten different tree species, which will be planted in 11 American forests affected by recent forest fires.

Toyota has pledged the first $50,000 to support the program, which means that the first 50,000 virtual gifts are actually free. Every user gets to give one free tree to a friend until that 50k is used up. After that, it's up to us.

If you're not on Facebook, you can always join (it's free, and fun), or you can just visit the Arbor Day Foundation online to buy a tree on your own.

Plant a Tree for Your Toyota

khallgeisler — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 01:00:00 -0400

Toyota and the Arbor Day Foundation have teamed up to create a new Facebook application that allows users to give real trees to their friends. For $1, Facebook users can use Tree Planter to send a virtual tree to other Facebook users, which becomes a real tree planted by the Arbor Day Foundation in one of eleven national forests.

Sites on the list include Custer National Forest in Montana, Hoosier National Forest in Indiana, and the Huron-Manistee National Forest in Michigan. Many of the forests on the list have been injured by forest fires, and the Tree Planter program hopes to give Mother Nature a hand in becoming healthy again without requiring actual physical labor on the part of Facebookers. Except for that strenuous mouse click.

Toyota is doing its part by purchasing the first $50,000 worth of trees, so 50,000 Facebook users can send a tree to a friend for free. After those are gone, the trees are only a buck a pop, so you can send one to every friend in the 'book.

About this post's title: Does anyone else remember those Arbor Day commercials where John Denver sang, "Plant a treeeeee, for your tomorrow ..."? Or did I spend too much time with my TV and not enough with trees as a kid?

Botanical Jewels

CanadaCactus — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 21:30:03 -0500

Plants For Life

This well-illustrated fifty page publication is written by Belinda Hawkins and published in January 2008 by Botanic Gardens Conservation International with ISBN 1-905164-21-1. The booklet makes the point that over 70,000 plant species are thought to be medicinal and that, through habitat destruction and over-harvesting, many are threatened.

Program Calculates How Your Trees Will Help Fight Climate Change

jplatt — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 09:00:00 -0500

One of my favorite charities is American Forests. Every dollar you donate results in the planting of a new tree. But have you ever wondered how much good a single tree will do for the environment?

Now you can find out. The free Tree Carbon Calculator from the U.S. Forest Service and the Center for Urban Forest Research lets you find out all kinds of cool things about your trees:

How much carbon will it sequester over the year, or over its lifetime?
If it's a shade tree, how much energy will you save thanks to it? And how much carbon dioxide will you avoid as a result?
What are the future benefits of any new planting project?

There is a catch (isn't there always?). The calculator is calibrated to California climates, so it's not 100% accurate elsewhere, but you'll probably be able to find a setting that's pretty close to your own neck of the woods.

The program was designed for Excel 2003 on Windows XP. It definitely won't work on a Mac, but it may work with other version of Excel or Windows.

But hey, it's free, and it's good information, so download it and give it a tree. I mean, give it a try.