Plant a Tree Cool the Globe

"Being successful with social and environmental work is not an easy thing. It takes a dedicated organization. It takes clear goals, strategies, time plans and responsibilities. And above all, it takes a vision to create a better everyday life for the many people." Anders Dahlvig President of the IKEA Group

Plant your trees now!

IKEA, an international leader in promoting sustainable business practices, has teamed up with American Forests to clean the air and sequester carbon through tree planting. The average American family needs to plant 30 trees to offset the CO2 produced by their daily energy use. By planting your trees now, you will join IKEA and American Forests in planting trees to offset CO2 and cool the globe.

Our focus is to offset the CO2 emitted from cars traveling to and from IKEA stores. Each IKEA store will plant enough trees (about 33,100 trees each year) to offset the annual CO2 emissions produced by IKEA co-workers and IKEA visitors driving to the store each year. IKEA's offset trees be planted in AMERICAN FORESTS Global ReLeaf projects around the US.

To find out how you can plant trees to offset your "carbon footprint" click here.

Global Climate Change is an issue that affects all of us on the Planet. The first step is to understand the issue and then consider taking steps to reduce our "carbon footprint" through lifestyle changes.

Whether in coal, oil or gas, carbon is an essential ingredient of all fossil fuels. When these fuels are burned to provide energy, carbon dioxide (CO2), a "greenhouse gas," is released into the Earth's atmosphere.

As we've become more dependent on carbon-based fuels, we've seen an increase in the atmospheric concentration of CO2 from around 280 parts per million (ppm) before the Industrial Revolution, to about 380 ppm today. If current trends of fossil fuel use continue, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that the the concentration of CO2 could exceed 700 ppm by the end of this century. According to the IPCC, this could lead to global warming of between 1.4 and 5.8°C, more frequent severe weather conditions and damage to many natural ecosystems.

To achieve stabilization, we all need to ask ourselves some tough questions: What exactly is our current relationship with carbon? How can we reduce our dependency on carbon emitting technologies and fuels? What steps are others taking around the world?

IKEA North America has partnered with AMERICAN FORESTS through the Global ReLeaf Tree Planting program for ten years and has planted over 500,000 Global ReLeaf trees in environmental restoration projects.

Addressing a Problem
Air pollution is a global problem that has local solutions. Burning fossil fuel adds pollutants including greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 33 percent. Most scientists agree that modern industrial society has added more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than the natural systems can quickly absorb. Carbon dioxide is a by-product of burning fossil fuels. A substantial amount of atmospheric CO2 comes from automobile emissions. Carbon dioxide is one of the most powerful of the greenhouse gases and is the principle contributor to increased global warming.

Helping to Solve the Problem
Plant trees. During photosynthesis, a tree "inhales" CO2 from the air and then separates the carbon from the oxygen molecules. The carbon is absorbed by the tree, which then "exhales" pure oxygen back into the air for us to breathe. This process, called sequestration is how forests have always helped regulate the earth's atmospheric balance.

Trees, then, are natural regulators of the Earth's atmospheric balance, sequestering carbon and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that builds up in the atmosphere. The less excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the lower the "greenhouse effect," and the less chance that we will suffer the devastating weather effects associated with a rapid shift in our planet's climate.