Planted 2021 - our founding year in retrospect
The most important area first: our trees. After all, what would Planted be without all the climate heroes that are made possible month after month? We were able to plant a total of 31,781 trees this year. Of these, 19,702 trees were planted by our corporate customers and 12,079 by our private donors.
In recent months, we have been able to expand the Hohe Taunus to include the Königsforst forest in Cologne as a new home for the trees. We have planted oaks, bird cherries, sweet chestnuts and red oaks there. The areas in the Taunus near Wiesbaden, on the other hand, are adorned with red alder, hornbeam, bird cherry, beech, robinia, fir, oak and hazel - perfectly adapted to the respective area. We did our planting with the children in spring in an area near Duisburg. Small oaks and Douglas firs grow here.
Flight of more than 3,000 times to and from the Maldives
The second focus area is our climate protection projects, through which we reduce our CO2 footprint. With your help, we were able to offset 16,315 metric tons of CO2 in 2021 and thus prevent it from being emitted into our atmosphere. Our private donors contributed 6,281 tons, while our corporate customers offset 10,034 tons of CO2. This reduction was made possible by various climate protection projects: The wind farm in western India, the renaturation of peatlands in Germany, hydropower generation in Indonesia, electricity from biomass and waste heat in India, and a solar farm in Mexico.
The climate protection projects we select are not only subject to the highest standards, but also support the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. The 17 goals of the United Nations are global objectives that aim to promote sustainable development on an ecological, social and economic level worldwide. With our climate protection and climate forest projects, we have already been able to support eight of the SDGs this year. These include Goal 7 - Affordable and clean energy, Goal 6 - Clean water and sanitation, Goal 11 - Sustainable cities and communities and Goal 13 - Climate action.
What else?
Another highlight of Planted's first year was the recognition of our non-profit status in the spring of this year. Not only for us, but also for Planted as an organization and you as donors, we can thus ensure our actions as added value for our environment. We were also able to move into our small but beautiful office in Cologne's Südstadt district and finally have a space for sharing ideas, teamwork and a quiet area. In October, we were able to hire Elena as our first communications manager and expand our team. Another highlight was our success at the 12th SpinLab - The HHL Accelerator Investors Day, where we took first place.
2021 may be over, but our work is far from it. As the year draws to a close, we would like to say a big thank you to all our planners, corporate clients and everyone who has supported us this year. We are really looking forward to continuing our work with your help in the new year and are excited to see what awaits us. Thank you for being part of Team Planted and wanting to make the world a better place with us. #WoodVibesOnly