Many of you know that Service Objects was founded in 2001 to support environmental conservation, specifically by reducing the massive waste stream of misdirected and unwanted direct mail.
Today we have grown to become a leader in the data quality industry, with a customer base that includes many of America’s largest companies. But we are equally proud of our environmental track record. Over the past 18 years, the data services we provide resulted in nearly two million trees and 200 million pounds of paper saved. Every month, our Address Validation products alone keep over 300 tons of paper out of landfills!
Conservation has always been central to our workplace culture, as well as a big part of the reason we come to work here every morning. We wanted to share one of our latest initiatives with you, partnering with One Tree Planted to support targeted reforestation efforts here in the United States and throughout the world.
The Orca Project
In addition to planting trees worldwide, One Tree Planted promotes specific targeted projects, and one of the more interesting ones, Orca Project, involves saving the endangered Southern Resident Orca whale in the Pacific Northwest. Their numbers are down to 75 as a result of dwindling food supplies, particularly fewer Chinook salmon, a situation which in turn can be linked to development, pollution, and climate change. By supporting reforestation efforts along the banks of waterways where these salmon spawn, there is hope of reducing erosion and pollution, and providing a better environment for salmon to lay eggs, hatch and develop. This is just one example of where targeted reforestation can have an impact on an entire ecosystem.
About One Tree Planted
One Tree Planted is a Vermont-based non-profit organization with a simple mission: support global reforestation efforts by planting trees. Working with reforestation partners in North America, Latin America, Asia and Africa, they fund planting projects across their full life cycle from site preparation to monitoring trees as they grow, ensuring a tree survival rate of 80-90%. Their efforts have made a real difference on an issue that deeply affects our native California, where we lost over 18 million trees in 2018 to causes ranging from drought to wildfires.
One of the things we really like about One Tree Planted is that they not only do important environmental work, but make very efficient use of their funds. They have a very simple economic model: one dollar of donations plants one tree. Their message has caught on, and their model works: every year since their founding in 2014, they have doubled the number of trees they plant. In 2018 they planted 1.3 million trees worldwide, and so far in 2019 they are on track for planting over 4 million trees.
What we’re doing – and how you can help
We are proud to support the efforts of One Tree Planted, including planting ten trees for each new customer at Service Objects, as well as donations to programs such as the Orca Project. Aside from corporate support, this organization exists through the generosity of individual donors such as yourself, who can get involved in making a real change planting trees for as little as one dollar.
For more information on One Tree Planted, visit their website at onetreeplanted.org, and be sure to check out this great article about the Orca Project. I hope you’ll join us in supporting one of the most important causes of all – preserving the well-being of the planet we all share.
