2. Facts about trees
Trees filter our air and
Trees improve water quality keep it fresh by
by slowing and filtering rain absorbing carbon
water as well as protect dioxide and producing
aquifers and watersheds oxygen
Trees are carbon sinks, Trees offer protection
accumulating carbon as they from the downward fall
grow and acting as stable of rain, sleet and hail
carbon stores upon maturity as well as reduce
storm run-off and the
possibility of flooding
Three-quarters of the Trees provide
world's people rely on food, shade and
wood as their main shelter to humans
source of energy and wildlife
Deforestation is contributing almost 20% to the overall greenhouse gas emissions in the
atmosphere, more than the world’s vehicles and aircrafts combined
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3. Why trees ???
ü Offset the continuous increase in carbon emissions
ü Clean energy solutions like solar lanterns or windmills first increase carbon emissions
and then contribute to a solution; each tree absorbs about 20 Kg of carbon dioxide
per year and contributes to the solution immediately
ü With a life of over 40 years, a tree provides benefits to current and future
generations of living creatures and beautify surroundings
ü Tree planting creates low-skilled jobs
ü Governments are becoming more serious about afforestation initiatives
ü For example: In a bid to increase the forest cover, a Parliamentary Panel in India has
recently suggested that government makes it mandatory for corporates to spend 50% of their
CSR (corporate social responsibility) funds towards afforestation initiatives under the
guidance of Environment Ministry*
* Source: Hindu Business Line, May 05, 2010.
An area of rainforest the size of a football field is being destroyed each second
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4. About Grow-Trees.com
• Grow-Trees.com is a web-enabled social business that offers the service of planting
trees on government and community lands. The trees will be planted by our planting
partners, and their activity will be audited by independent auditors.
• Grow-Trees.com is an Official Partner of the United Nations Environment
Program’s (UNEP) Billion-Tree Campaign.
• Users of www.Grow-Trees.com can choose a specific location or ecological purpose
they wish to support, and send a personalized electronic greeting to the person
honored or obtain an e-certificate for reducing carbon emissions. Users can:
– Greet someone for birthday, anniversary, and any special occasion;
– Offset carbon emissions from daily activities; and
– Gift flowers, fruit, fodder and fuel to communities and living creatures.
Net forest loss per day is 20,000 hectares, an area twice the size of Paris
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5. How we work
• Customers pay Rs. 50 (about $1) per tree to Grow-Trees
• Grow-Trees coordinates with its planting partners to plant a tree for every order
received from the customers on government and community lands
– The planting partners activity will be audited by independent auditors
• Corporates can choose to dedicate trees to customers, employees, stake-
holders etc
– On milestones, birthdays, corporate anniversaries, memorials, achievements etc.
• Custom e-certificates are sent out to the person to whom the tree has been
dedicated for no additional fee
More than 1.8 million hectares of dry deciduous forest disappear every year, 40% of which is
lost in the Sudan, Paraguay, Brazil and India
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6. Our projects
This project will
plant 66,000 trees
on 177 hectares in
Jhadol, Kotra and
Girwa regions of
Udaipur District in
Rajasthan
The Sanctuary covers an area of This project
530.01 sq. km The sanctuary has about
38 mammals (including 11 tigers, 19
involves planting
leopards and 155 elephants), 126 birds, 50,000 trees in
28 reptiles, 4 amphibians (including the
endangered Gharial) and 183 species
the periphery of
of fish. About 400 species of plants Satkosia Gorge
have been recorded in the Sanctuary
out of which 126 are trees, 98 shrubs, Wildlife
125 herbs and 51 climbers. The Sanctuary in
Sanctuary has 35 villages in the core
area, 80 villages in the buffer zone and Orissa
105 villages in the periphery.
Tropical forests cover 23% of the Earth's land surface, but they are disappearing at a rate of 4.6
million hectares a year. Asia leads losses with 2.2 million hectares a year, Latin America and the
Caribbean together lose 1.9 million and Africa loses 470,000 hectares of rain forest every year
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7. Our projects
This project
Kanha National
Park is one of the
involves planting
India’s finest tiger 50,000 trees in
reserves. Kanha
also shelters one of
the periphery
the largest Kanha National
populations of
tigers in the country Park in Madhya
(131 tigers as on Pradesh
June 2006). Some
of the other larger
animal species
found in the park
are sloth bears This project
(111 as of 2000),
leopards (80 as in
involves
2000), wild dogs planting 50,000
(396 as in 2000),
striped hyena,
trees in the
spotted dear, wild periphery of
boars, jungle cats,
jackals and a Kumbhalgarh
variety of monkeys. Sactuary in
Rajasthan
About 6.1 million hectares of moist deciduous forest disappear every year, of which the largest
regional share is in Latin America and the Caribbean, with 3.2 million hectares lost
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8. Our projects
This is a 13,500 tree
project at Kotra
village in the
Panchmahal district
of Gujarat
This project, which successfully
planted 29,990 saplings over
an area of 100 hectares was
co-funded by Grow-Trees in
partnership with FES. This
project positively impacts the
lives of 3500 villagers in the
villages of Tegra, Karech,
Thadi Beri and Dhimdi in the
Udaipur district of Rajasthan
Annual losses of very dry forest total some 341,000 hectares. The Sudan loses 81,000 hectares of
this type of forest every year, followed closely by Botswana, with 58,000 hectares
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9. Corporate Social Responsibility
Key inferences from a CSR Branding
More than 75% of consumers say that responsibility is
Survey 2010
important for each tested industry
• CSR is a key differentiator for
products and brands
55% of the customers are more likely to choose a product
• Consumers willing to pay more for that supports a certain cause when choosing between
otherwise similar products
products with added social
benefits
38% of respondents plan to spend the same or more on
• Communications about social products or services from socially responsible
responsibility have significant companies
impact on favorability and
purchase intent
75% of those who have read about a company’s social
• Huge opportunity to create a responsibility agenda on its website say it made them
goodwill about a corporate brand more likely to purchase products or services from the
in the minds of consumers and company in the future
society at large
Source: CSR Branding Survey 2010, Penn Schoen Berland LLC, London
Hills and mountains lose about 2.5 million hectares of forest annually, 640,000 of which are lost in
Brazil, 370,000 in Mexico, and 150,000 hectares in Indonesia
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10. Benefits to businesses
Customer Acquisition Employee Engagement
– Plant a tree in the name of every – Project a positive corporate
new customer image to the employees
– Can be used as a welcome benefit through voluntary payroll
for attracting new customers contribution schemes
Offset Carbon Emissions Cost Control
– Plant trees to offset carbon – Encourage existing
emissions from business activities customers to switch to
– Helps build an environmentally electronic account
responsible corporate image statements from physical
statements in exchange of
a tree being planted for
Corporate Social Responsibility every accepting customer
– Convey in corporate
communications to your
constituents your company’s sense
of social responsibility and
positively influence existing &
potential customers
In Ethiopia, between 100,000 and 200,000 hectares of forest are cut down every year. Still, at least
200 million people lack enough wood to cook their food properly
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11. Corporate collaboration options
Welcome new customers on
purchase of company product
Welcome or service Corporate
Welcome new employees, Grove
distributors or franchisee
Encourage employees to plant
trees in the grove with matching
Honor contributions from the company
Stockholders, franchisee and
supply chain partners can also
Honor employees on retirement,
contribute to the grove
promotion or target achievement
Honor stockholders, franchisee,
supply chain partners on long
association
Partner
Join us as web partner by
exchanging logo on mutual
Celebrate Celebration of festivals like Diwali, Holi, Christmas,
website to support the cause
corporate events Annual Cultural Festival by planting trees Spread the awareness by
creating campaigns using co-
Commemorate corporate milestones like
branding opportunities
anniversaries, awards, performance achievement etc.
Deforestation is contributing almost 20% to the overall greenhouse gas emissions in the
atmosphere, more than the world’s vehicles and aircrafts combined
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12. Benefits of collaboration
E-certificate for every tree Place on the ‘Wall-of-Honor’
– A customized e-certificate with corporate logo that • Every corporate collaborating with
can be sent out to customers, supply chain partners us gets a permanent place on our
and other stakeholders website under the corporate
– This helps promote an environmentally conscious sponsors section
corporate image • The Corporate logo will be seen
– Targeted marketing promotions can be built using the by the millions of users worldwide
authenticated e-certificates issued by Grow-Trees who visit Grow-Trees.com
• Excellent promotional tool for
projecting a CSR sensitive and
environmentally conscious
corporate brand to targeted users
who value social responsibility
An area of rainforest the size of a football field is being destroyed each second
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13. Key corporate supporters
For every customer who opts for e-statements over paper
statements, Kotak Cards will plant a tree in association with
Grow-Trees.com
Piramal Healthcare is honoring 3,000+ doctors by planting
trees in their names
CEDAR Management Consulting International has committed
to plant trees to honor employees and customer on festivals and
other occasions
The Blackstone Group, India has honored its key associates worldwide by planting trees in their honor
Net forest loss per day is 20,000 hectares, an area twice the size of Paris
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14. 3 reasons why Grow-Trees.com
Reliability
– Careful selection of planting partners through a stringent screening
process
– Regular audits of all planting partners and projects
– Planting partners make best efforts to ensure the survival of the tree
Efficiency
– Various location options across India to plant trees
– Single point of contact
– User friendly and easily accessible website interface to place an order
– Electronic gift certificates (can be printed and framed)
Credible International Recognition
– Grow-Trees is an official campaign partner of the United Nations
Environment Program’s Billion Tree Campaign
Global annual deforestation for desert forest stands at an estimated 82,000 hectares, 60% of which
is lost in Mexico and Pakistan
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15. Pradip Shah is the
Founder of www.Grow-
Trees.com.
Pradip Shah was also
founding Managing
Director of CRISIL -
India's first Credit Rating
company.
info@grow-trees.com
Pangea EcoNet Assets Pvt. Ltd.
3, Scheherazade, Justice Vyas Road, Colaba, Mumbai 400 005
Tel: +91-22-2288 1301 Email: pradip.shah@IndAsiaFund.com
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