Protecting the climate is currently one of our greatest global challenges. As a company, we are also constantly questioning how we can make our processes more sustainable and climate neutral. This already starts on our way to work: most team members take the tram or cycle to the office. Since we not only sell the #ModernWorkplace with Microsoft Surface, but also live it ourselves on a daily basis, we often work remotely (especially at the moment) and generally mostly paperless. For us, every little step to protect our planet is important. With this motivation and mindset, we created our monthly bundle in December 2020 to be not only a great deal for our customers but also to be “greener”: We wanted to give something back to our planet at the end of the year.

A sustainable concept

After thorough research, we became aware of PLANT-MY-TREE® – the company takes care of reforestation, which includes projects for initial reforestation, forest restructuring and forest protection, mainly on their own areas in Germany. The aim of PLANT-MY-TREE® is to give individuals as well as companies a simple, sensible, and long-term opportunity to contribute to environmental and climate protection. This results in long-term CO2 compensation and thus sustainable environmental and climate protection. We did not have to think twice to cooperate with PLANT-MY-TREE® and bought a package of 20 trees.

Three pictures show images of pine trees and smaller plants in a forest
Impressions from the forest of Brandenburg

With every dispatched December bundle, the planting of a tree in Brandenburg's Heideland-Droessig was financed at the same time. The choice of the area was made in advance and since we wanted to attend the reforestation, we chose Brandenburg and by this the shortest way from Dresden to the forest.

The day of the tree planting

We received the invitation to the day of planting from PLANT-MY-TREE® in February. Of course, our management wanted to be there themselves. On March 2nd, 2021, Sascha Blickensdoerfer (CEO) and Melanie Graeff (COO) drove together from Dresden to Brandenburg. The day started out very foggy, but upon arrival in the woodland Soeren Bruentgens, initiator and managing director of PLANT-MY-TREE®, offered them a very warm welcome at the forest area, so that the weather conditions hardly mattered anymore.

While the forest was still covered in white frost, Sascha and Melanie made their way to the planting site together with Mr. Bruentgens and informative conversations about his project directly arose alongside the great scenery. When they arrived at the planting site, they started working and begun with taking the seedlings from the back of the truck.

Three pictures show how the seedlings are loaded from the truck
Preparations: The seedlings are unloaded from the truck and spades and protective gloves were prepared for our team

Sascha and Melanie have planted oaks since the Brandenburg forest area is a monoculture. In other words, the forest currently consists mainly of pines. This is partly due to the sandy soil, but of course it also has a historical background: a lot of overexploitation took place in Brandenburg's forests as a result of lignite mining. To make sure that the areas would not look barren for so long, pine trees were initially planted there. However, this resulted in a problem, because monocultures are generally more prone to pest infestation – Brandenburg's forests also developed widespread forest dieback caused by bark beetles. It is very difficult to prevent this process. Therefore, the aim of PLANT-MY-TREE® is to diversify the forests again and to establish mixed forests. If one tree species is attacked by pests, the other trees can compensate for the loss. That is why different tree species are now being planted in Brandenburg's forests. On the day, our trees were planted, ash and alder trees were also planted alongside oaks. There is also no specific scheme for the planting, as the areas are generously marked out by PLANT-MY-TREE® with fences. This measure is taken with regard to the game population in the forests, because the young shoots of the leaves are otherwise readily eaten by the animals.

Ready for planting our trees

Now it was time for planting: Melanie and Sascha received a bundle of small trees as well as gloves and Mr. Bruentgens showed them how to plant the trees: First, they dug a 20-30 cm deep hole, because the roots have to be properly planted in the ground. To avoid a hollow air space in the soil, which could cause the seedlings to dry out, the soil was then tamped down around the little tree. Now our seedlings can grow well.

The planting of the trees took about an hour. Sascha and Melanie transplanted a few more trees than the number originally purchased – meanwhile, colleagues of Mr. Bruentgens cut down pine trees in the forest so that all new and young trees can grow well due to more space and light. PLANT-MY-TREE® has also installed many nesting boxes on the trees in the region because the fauna is also monotonous due to the monoculture of the flora.

Three pictures show how three people plant cuttings in the forest soil
Melanie and Sascha are planting the seedlings carefully into the soil under the guidance of Mr. Bruentgens

At the end of the day, Sascha and Melanie received a t-shirt from the PLANT MY TREE APPAREL collection as a gift – most of the raw materials for the production of the clothes already come from organic agriculture. We were also very impressed by this project. All in all, the entire day was not only a welcome change to our daily Surface routine, but also a matter close to our hearts – once again we learned how important the issue of sustainable climate protection is. Of course, at Surface.Love we will continue to focus on this topic. Stay tuned!

The lettering Surface in black block letters is complemented on the right above the e by a green heart with leaves.
Surface.Love sustainability

Would you like to learn more about our project with PLANT-MY-TREE®? Then contact our marketing team at marketing@surface.love. Or are you looking for the right Surface for your daily work routine to make your workplace more paperless? Then visit our shop now or get advice from our Surface Experts at +44 207039-1515.