Pukka continues its carbon reduction mission by planting trees for every Pukka product sold in independent health food stores this spring. And that won’t be the end of the story, as the company’s Co-founder, Sebastian Pole, explained.
Scientific evidence tells us that to keep the rise in global temperatures below 1.5C – preserving a liveable planet – emissions of carbon dioxide need to be cut aggressively by 45 per cent by 2030, and that forest reforestation (planting trees) is the “best climate change solution available today”, according to a recent study by Crowther Lab.
Put simply, trees are carbon made visible – when burnt or cleared, they release carbon back into the atmosphere and by destroying trees, we are destroying the very ecosystems and mechanisms that nature has designed for cleaning up excess carbon dioxide that is warming our world.
In light of this, and as part of its carbon reduction initiatives, Pukka Herbs announced it would plant a tree – through charity, TreeSisters – for every box of tea sold during September with participating retailers, at no extra cost to the customer.
Carbon reduction plans
Pukka has revealed ambitious plans over reducing its carbon footprint and for good reason.
“In September 2019, Pukka Herbs became one of the first UK businesses to declare a climate emergency. To declare a climate emergency, the business must be rethought in the context of a climate emergency. This includes a commitment to carbon neutrality before 2030 – a target Pukka had validated by the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) in 2018,” explained Sebastian Pole, Co-Founder at Pukka Herbs.
“Pukka was the first UK company of its size to set a science-based carbon reduction target. Last year, Pukka declared a Carbon Emergency, and by doing this, the company committed to making a meaningful commitment to address the reality of a climate breakdown by taking radical action and urgently reducing its own carbon emissions. By reshaping its short, medium and long-term strategy and business model, Pukka believes it can make a real change.”
In terms of how the latest initiative was developed, it was through an existing partnership. Sebastian explained: “The campaign idea came very naturally as Pukka and TreeSisters have been working together since 2017, when Pukka chose to spend money on planting trees rather than sending Christmas cards. In February 2018, Clare Dubois, TreeSisters’ CEO and founder, first visited the Pukka offices and spoke to the staff here. Clare’s talk was truly inspirational and motivated several Pukka people to sign up to personally be part of the TreeSisters’ initiative.
“Since Clare’s first visit, Pukka has worked closely with TreeSisters to find different ways to build tree planting into our day to day business activities. For example, Pukka donated trees for job applications submitted and staff surveys completed. Following this, Pukka and TreeSisters collaborated again in November 2018, when the two companies ‘turned Black Friday green.’ On this typically commercial day, Pukka donated 100 per cent of all sales made on its online UK shop to TreeSisters, helping to plant thousands of trees in locations around the equator.
“In 2019, we worked together to create our ‘buy Pukka and we’ll plant a tree’ initiative, which will continue through March and April. We want to work with independent health food stores to invite Pukka consumers to help us plant more trees in a bid to substantially increase the number of trees we have planted so far.”
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