Stop talking, start planting – in fact, plant trees: That is the slogan of the children of Plant-for-the-Planet. The Ulm-based company pervormance international with Managing Director Gabi Renner has therefore fulfilled the promise made on March 9, 2018 in Monaco by Prince Albert II and Felix Finkbeiner and realized the donation of 5500 trees in Ulm with partners. On Friday, June 8, the climate initiative “Ulm plants trees” will be presented by Lord Mayor Gunther Czisch at 12 noon on Hans-und-Sophie-Scholl-Platz as part of the opening of Climate Protection Day.
Stopping the climate crisis
In addition to pervormance international, partners from the very beginning include the Ulm-based companies Trivis and Volksbank Ulm-Biberach, unw (Ulmer Initiativkreis nachhaltige Wirtschaftsentwicklung e.V.), which took up and organized the initiative, and of course the city of Ulm with the local agenda Ulm 21. All together, they have already pledged 5500 trees. In addition, the Ulm basketball players from ratiopharm ulm are supporting the climate initiative. Team captain Per Günther will sign the “Trillion Tree Declaration” of Plant-for-the-Planet together with the other partners on Friday. The 11-year-old climate ambassador Ronja Stein from Plant-for-the-Planet will also be on site, explain the Trillion Tree campaign and plant the first tree for it in Ulm together with the initiators. It all started in 2009 with a school presentation by Felix Finkbeiner, who was 9 years old at the time. Today, Plant-for-the-Planet is a global children’s and youth organization that has already planted 15 billion trees around the world with 67,000 children in order to stop the climate crisis.
Celebrity support
On May 22, 2018, Felix became the youngest recipient of the Order of Merit to date to receive the Federal Cross of Merit from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Environmental politicians such as Professor Klaus Töpfer and many scientists such as Professor Franz Josef Radermacher from Ulm but also celebrities such as Harrison Ford or Gisele Bündchen, Til Schweiger or Peter Maffay support the organization. On March 9, the kick-off event of the “Trillion Tree Campaign” was held in Monaco, which aims to plant 1000 billion trees worldwide in order to meet the 2° limit after all. According to climate experts, this number is at least necessary to significantly slow down or stop the overheating of the earth, so that our children still live in a world as we love it. “The best time to plant a tree was thirty years ago. The second best is now,” says Professor Klaus Töpfer.
The average CO2 emission of a German is 12 tons a year. To offset that, 24 additional trees are needed. This is because each tree that Plant-for-the-Planet plants in Yucatán, Mexico, for example, binds 500 kg of CO2 over the course of its lifetime.
Ulm tree counter
The homepage of www.ulm-pflanzt-bäume.de provides more information and shows how everyone can easily participate or even become climate neutral. All trees of the climate initiative are added up in the common Ulmer tree counter, which then flows back into the Trillion Tree tree counter of Plant-for-the-Planet. Everyone who participates is thus part of the worldwide campaign to realize the largest reforestation project in human history.