About

PLANT-IT 2020 CORPORATE PARTNERSHIPS:

Plant-It 2020 has a long and successful history of partnering with businesses and organizations desiring to engage in tree-planting events. These groups generally want to know the following:



What types of tree-planting events/programs are available?
We offer three general categories of tree-planting events; the forest tree-planting program, the city reforestation program, and the 'virtual-to-real' tree-planting program. Each can be heavily customized. Please read below for more information regarding each of these programs.

The Forest Tree-Planting Program

For every amount you generously provide us to cover the cost of a tree, we plant one indigenous tree. This is a tree-seedling (a baby tree - not a seed) that gets planted. You select where from the list of worldwide locations on our website.

Step 1
You customize the planting of trees according to what makes sense for your business. Some examples of what our clients do are as follows:

  • 'X' number of trees get planted related to the sales of various products o 'X' number of trees get planted related to services performed
  • 'X' number of trees get planted as a 'thank you' to suppliers/distributors
  • 'X' number of trees get planted as a 'thank you' to employees and/or customers
  • 'X' number of trees get planted as a way for the company to 'Go Green' and give back to their community or the world at large
  • 'X' number of trees get planted as a way for the company to assist fire-damaged areas within the United States
  • 'X' number of trees get planted as a way for the company to offset their use of wood/paper and/or their carbon dioxide emissions.
  • Any combination of the above.

Step 2
Now that you have figured-out the tie-in(s), the next step is determining where the trees get planted. It may be one or many locations. The location(s) selected have an impact on the customer's impression of the partnership so this is an important decision. Some of the more common choices are below:

  1. A single US location: A great choice for a company with a single office and clients in one state.
  2. Multiple US locations: A great choice for a company with a regional and/or national client base.
  3. Equatorial locations: Best for global warming reduction and carbon sequestration
  4. Multiple locations across the globe: Best for companies with an international presence/clientele.
  5. Humanitarian reforestation: Best for helping reduce hunger, thirst and malnutrition among people.
  6. Species preservation: Best for helping save an endangered species such as the Monarch Butterfly through reforestation.
  7. Fire-damaged forests within the United States: Best for companies and/or clients sensitive to the destruction of forests by fire.

Some companies prefer to rotate their choices every three months whereas others will 'split' their contribution between two or three of them in an ongoing basis.

'City' Reforestation Program

The second tree-planting approach is the city tree-planting event. This is where a company or organization sponsors large trees to be planted in a city or urban environment. The trees may go into parks, open space areas, school grounds or other public land areas.

City reforestation programs are far more complicated to design and implement than companies realize. There are a number of considerations as follows:

  • Timing: Most US locations only plant in Spring or Spring through Summer. A few areas plant even longer or year round. Quite often, Plant-It 2020 needs the funds in our hands the September or October before the next year's planting (usually for Spring and Spring/Summer plantings) so this is usually a long-range project for companies to invest in. Companies need to plan nine months to a year ahead in most cases. Cities planting year round or a few other locations can in some cases get buy with only one-to-several months of advance notice.
  • Content. A quality, customized, city tree-planting event would be a high-profile event generating tremendous 'good will' among the city residents along with generating tremendous positive publicity. Volunteers may include, neighbors, schoolchildren, civic groups, politicians, youths-at-risk, sponsor employees and so forth. Plant-It 2020 has a strong history of providing successful, custom city tree-planting events providing tremendous positive publicity for sponsors. These events do carry certain risks however. Delays due to rain and/or a busy news day can dramatically reduce publicity.

'Virtual' Reforestation Program

Plant-It 2020 has partnered with two organizations where clients plant a tree in a virtual environment (Second Life and a tween virtual reality) and a real tree gets planted in the real world. If you are interested in a 'Virtual-to-Real' reforestation program, we have the experience to help you implement it.


Company/Organization Benefits
The following are some of the many benefits our business and organizational partners receive:

  • Media publicity
  • Customer/employer/distributor respect
  • Public goodwill
  • Being seen as a 'green company'
  • Talking points/competitive advantage
  • Employee involvement (when planting trees)
  • Repairing a poor image (when applicable)

The benefits vary according to certain factors. For example, the first company in a particular industry to plant 100,000 trees will get a lot of press but the fifth or tenth company in that industry to do so will get less. If they increased it ten-fold to a million trees, they would get even more press than being the first at 100,000 so timing and amount are important considerations. There are various inexpensive or free ways to turn a 'ho-hum' event into one that generates significant positive publicity and Plant-It 2020 works with you to accomplish that.




Costs

City Tree-planting Program: Varies by project. Generally, this starts at $3,500, averages $6,000 and can easily be $10,000 or more.


Why should we choose Plant-It 2020 and not some other reforestation organization?

  • We only plant indigenous trees with a priority for non-harvest locations. Practically all other reforestation organizations plant seedlings only or almost exclusively in places where the trees will later be logged. This provides you with a 'talking point' absent when partnering with other companies, less chance of appearing to be 'green-washing' and increased carbon offset as the trees will be alive far longer.
  • We offer 1) the largest list of worldwide locations available and 2) the ability for the contributor to choose which location(s) they want their trees planted. Competitors usually plant in few locations and often no choice between them.
  • Highly customized tree-planting programs and events. The level of customization in our city and rural reforestation promotions is unmatched in the industry.
  • We perform both tree-seedling and urban tree-planting events. Almost no other groups do both. Those that claim to do tend to be weak or deceptive in one or the other.
  • We offer 'straight talk'. For example, we discuss how a sponsor can in some cases increase their good will and positive publicity far more by doing certain things that are free rather than throwing more money at us past a certain point. Competitors prefer to suck your money as much as possible. In addition, we educate our sponsors and the public about the fraud and greenwashing that goes on in this industry and what questions you need to ask in order to protect yourself.
  • At least 85% of income generated from our seedling and city tree programs goes towards the costs of those programs. We operate with 15% or less of such funds going towards administrative costs.
  • We have and have always had a sterling reputation. There are some organizations with the industry who's reputation is horrible and others who's reputation is constantly going up and down.

In summary, we provide more locations, more customization, more honesty and more types of events (urban, rural and virtual-to-real), with less waste than our competitors – with a priority for no-logging locations.

When is it appropriate to choose another reforestation organization?

There are various situations where we happily refer potential clients to other reputable tree-planting groups. This mostly occurs with urban reforestation events. Sometimes, there is an established group with an excellent reputation located where the sponsor wants their trees planted. While we frequently partner with such groups, it makes sense in some situations for the sponsor to work directly with them.

Some companies also have no interest in having the trees planted in an environmentally-sound manner. They are only concerned with getting the maximum PR value for the buck. We enjoy referring such companies to a particular national tree-planting organization whose ethics are clearly in-line with such clients.


How do payment issues work?
For ongoing promotions, we expect payment monthly or quarterly through either a mailed check payable to Plant-It 2020 or through Paypal (trees@plantit2000.com), which is linked to a credit card. One-time payments can be through the same methods.


How do we get started and form this partnership?
First contact Michael Thau by telephone at (303) 221-0077 or by email at plantit@mac.com and go over any questions or issues you may have. For example, using our logo is OK once we agree upon the partnership. Second, we ask for a letter of intent. This can be a simple one (see below) or a complex contract depending upon your needs.
Sample letter of intent (simplest form):


Dear Plant-It 2020,

The ACR Company wants to enter into a project partnership with Plant-It 2020 where we tie-in the planting of trees to the sales of various products. We will pay the cost of the tree as is on your LOCATIONS page on the Plant-It 2020 website and direct where the trees get planted as per your list of locations. We agree that any published (web or print) written content mentioning the partnership be pre-approved by Plant-It 2020.

Thanks,

Mr. John Doe
CEO of ACR


If you want to make it a contract signed by both parties, we usually ask that the following clauses be put in:

  1. Either party can cancel the partnership at any time for any reason.
  2. Both parties need to get permission from the other before they provide any written copy mentioning the partnership to the web or in promotional materials.
  3. Payment will be monthly or quarterly.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we use your logo?
Yes, once you have given us your 'Letter of Intent' or when we have a signed contract.

What types of pics or video can we get of the trees being planted?
For international tree-planting events, we can now get still pics (and sometimes video) of many-to-most of our locations. For US events, we cannot provide media for seedling planting in most locations but we can provide pics and video of our city tree-planting events.

Who coordinates and physically plants the trees?
This can vary extensively. Our Volunteer and State 'Coordinators' create and coordinate some tree-planting events with volunteer help but sometimes they may assist a city Parks and Recreation Department. There is a national organization that plants nearly all of the seedlings going into US forests and they use volunteer and contract labor for assistance. Our international seedling plantings are coordinated by a number of reputable reforestation organizations that train indigenous people how to do it themselves and become self sufficient in continuing the process. Sometimes, we will work with foreign city governments when planting city trees in non-US cities. All groups we partner with are carefully vetted and represent the 'cream-of-the-crop' of the reforestation industry.

What are some of the scams that go on in this industry?
There sadly are some organizations that are more interested in making money than in doing a great job. One way is for the crappy group to get a grant for say 100,000 free tree seedlings. Getting grants for free seedlings is remarkably easy to do. This tree-planting group is one of the many who have copied our dollar-per-tree idea.
Then, the organization rakes-in $100,000 to plant the 100,000 trees. Thus, 100,000 trees are planted rather than 200,000 and they profit $100,000 (100%) if they donate the trees or get volunteers to plant them.

Another scam is to direct the seedlings to a particular national municipal organization that plants trees. The seedlings go into future harvest locations but some-to-many of those locations already have sufficient funding for the purchase of the seedlings so those excess funds then get redirected into administration. Thus, far less trees get planted than was initially funded. In this situation, it is not the reforestation group the sponsor is funding that is doing the scam but the municipal sub-contractor.

A third scam is for a reforestation organization to purchase the cheapest seedlings they can (sometimes they will even call a tree-seed a tree) and simply plant them as cheaply as possible. The seedlings may be inappropriate for the location, too young and so forth. The ultimate result is a very low survival rate.

Why don't you plant trees in more locations?
Within the US, our locations for seedlings need to be on publicly-owned land. There must be a Certified Arborist, City Forester, or Silviculturist who first analyzes and designs the project. The seedlings must be indigenous and grown from a location very near where they will be planted. There must be funding and a program for maintenance when required. The survival rate must be high. The location must either be a no-logging location protected by contract (our preference) or a special situation to restore denuded areas damaged by wildfire, beetle or other natural disasters. With all of these conditions, finding suitable locations is a long, hard process.

How can you plant a tree for such low cost?
Terrific question. Seedling costs vary by species, age and other factors. Hardwoods for example cost more than most other types. The costs also vary over time partly by the cost of gas. Seedling costs for our non-US planting locations may cost more or less than seedlings planted within the US. We average paying approximately $US 0.85 cents per the purchase cost of a seedling overall when the actual purchase costs of US and non-US are averaged. If our average costs were to ever dip below $US 0.80 near then end of a fiscal year then we would direct sufficiently more trees to be planted until the actual costs are about $US 0.85 per seedling.

Additional costs can come into play. For example, if a seedling costs $US 0.75 but after talking to the Silviculturist we learn that if they had some extra funding, they could increase the health and survival rate, we might agree to pay $US 0.90 instead so that they grow the seedlings a little longer, add beneficial fungus to the roots, etc. Thus, costs can increase when you want to do the job properly.

Why don't you hand-out or mail tree seedlings?
Industry experts are deeply unimpressed with this type of approach. First, the long-term survival rate is low. Second, the trees given out do not always 'best match' the species that is most appropriate for the altitude and zone where they are going into the ground. We view this as a 'feel good' PR tactic used by some tree-planting groups.


Thank you for considering partnering with Plant-It 2020. Our goal is to serve your needs better than any other reforestation foundation ever could. Please feel free to discuss how we can move forward.