Why would someone who owns designer dog or cat house in the US care about a teak tree in Costa Rica?
Seems like everywhere you turn these days you are face-to-face with some “green” initiative. Some are better thought out than others. One such well conceived idea is TreeBanking Inc. It is a for-profit rainforest reforestation / carbon offsetting company. TreeBanking is about socially conscious investing.
Leifers, a pethome furnishing company and designers of the NeoClassic and Old Ruins designer dog & cat houses, partners with TreeBanking Inc to expand eco-friendly offering.
“Every one of our designer dog and cat houses comes standard with a plant bowl and we encourage our clients to plant a live plant here. Just by using a live plant, much of the carbon pawprint created in the manufacturing process is offset,” says Leifer founder, Karl Krieg. “We knew that the second we ‘manufactured’ something it would create an environmental issue and we wanted to take responsibility for this and do what we could to offset it.”
In addition to encouraging clients to use live plants in the bowl, the company also offers owners the option of having a tree planted in their name through TreeBanking.
What TreeBanking Inc. does is replant destroyed rainforest. They plant government protected land with temporary teak trees that will be cut down within probably 20 years. Why? Because it turns out no native tree saplings can withstand the sun’s rays at first. So they plant a temporary tree – one teak tree for every nine square meters of land. After it grows several years old they can plant a tiny rainforest-native tree sapling in its shadow. Then they both grow and create bigger shadows that native plants can sprout under and thrive in. Eventually, the non-native teak can be harvested and sold locally in Costa Rica, you make the profit on that, and nine square meters of rainforest is up and running – a carbon offset that just keeps giving and giving for 99 years at least! How great is that?
TreeBanking’s mission is to engage the public in the process of Rain Forest Reforestation and Carbon Offsetting by teaching them how to profit from their participation. For more information on TreeBanking Inc. go to wwww.treebankinginc.com
Leifers mission is to delight and inspire pets, their petarents and all those who serve the luxury pet and pethome furnishing industries. For more information about Liefers call 877-832-1325, kellis@leifers.com, www.leifers.com