CORPORATE ANALYTICS and the great outdoors are a new perfect pairing thanks to Alliance Data, a leading global provider of data-driven marketing and loyalty solutions. A leader in their industry, Alliance Data, is on a mission to unlock the value of data to provide insights and drive efficiencies in global conservation efforts. To help accomplish this goal, they decided to offset the environmental impact of the company’s print productions by partnering with American Forests to plant trees in cities and large landscapes. Not only does this effort make a difference for the environment, but it also provides Alliance Data with a meaningful way to engage their associates and revitalize the communities in which they live and work.

After partnering with American Forests in 2012, Alliance Data funded a research study conducted by the Texas Trees Foundation to understand the impact of urban heat islands, which impacts metropolises, like Dallas and its surrounding region, where Alliance Data’s headquarters are located. As part of broader efforts to manage urban heat island effect, Alliance Data has been working to expand tree canopies in large metropolitan areas across the country in cities, such as Dallas, Chicago, Columbus and San Francisco.

Through American Forests, Alliance Data partnered with Speak for the Trees Boston, a new nonprofit dedicated to improving the tree canopy in the greater Boston area. Together, the organizations collaborated to transform a formerly empty lot into a community garden, food forest and gathering space in Dorchester, Mass.

“Empowering organizations, like American Forests and Speak for the Trees, to partner with municipalities to plan and use trees and green infrastructure in development will help deliver social and economic benefits to cities across the country,” said Danielle Ricketts, senior corporate affairs specialist at Alliance Data. “We recognize that our natural environment is under increasing strain, and we’re proud to help introduce Speak for the Trees into the Boston market, where it’s obviously needed and has the potential to have a huge impact.”

The H.E.R.O. Community Nurturing Garden in Dorchester is designed to be a community greenspace that connects youth and adults to nature while also providing opportunities to grow and share food. The trees planted in the garden will contribute to a healthier environment, help mitigate high temperatures and sequester carbon that would otherwise remain in the atmosphere.

“We always want to be thoughtful about what we’re doing,” Ricketts says. “We don’t want to just put trees in the ground. We want to completely understand the full impact of where we’re planting, what we’re planting and the effects it’s going to have 10 years, 20 years, 30 years down the road, as well as the environmental and economic impact.”