What Our Goal Means

1 million trees are difficult to imagine. What this means to the environment cannot be completely quantified as all of the benefits of reduction become difficult to identify and quantify. By not using a sheet of paper, you are not only avoiding the use of ink / toner, printing equipment, storage space and waste disposal; but you are also preventing the use of the materials and equipment to produce, transport, and store that paper. Beyond that you see the impact of the tree you helped save producing clean air that would have otherwise been methane from decomposing paper, and controlling greenhouse gases that would not have been used by the tree to flourish. Then there are the benefits to the ecosystem that would have been disrupted had that tree been harvested and processed.

To give a sense of what this goal means, here are some other ways to think of it:

 1 million trees, over one year, will do the work of:

 

The paper made from one million trees will cost: 

 

  •  $1,240,000,000 worth of air pollution controls and processing,
  • $51,650,000 to purchase the paper alone before transporting, using, and disposing of it.
  •  $750,000,000 worth of water recycling,
  • More than $2,000,000,000 to process, file, ands store and 80% of that filed paper will never be referenced again until being discarded. 
  • $625,000,000 worth of soil erosion prevention. 
  • $1,400,000 to dispose of, not including the costs to repair environmental damage created by landfills. 

 

1 Million Trees, over 1 year, will: 

 

 

The paper made from1 Million Trees, over 1 year, will: 

 

  • Produce 130,000 tons of oxygen while removing 1,120 tons of pollutants from the air and storing 13,000 tons of carbon. 
  • Produce 116,000 tons of carbon dioxide during production, which is equivalent to 22,778 passenger cars being driven for a year using 11,985,584 gallons of gasoline. 
  • Absorb 1,925,000,000 of stormwater each year. This absorption reduces flooding, erosion, and pollution from stormwater runoff. 
  • Produce 791 million gallons of waste water during production which is enough water to grow food to feed 1272 people for a year, or hydrate 4 million people for one year. 
  • Act as an integral element of local and global ecosystems.
  • Fill 137,500 cubic yards of landfill space once the fibers can no longer be recycled. As it decomposes it will emit between 4,000 and 6,000 tons of CH4 (Methane) which is 25 times more potent of a greenhouse gas than CO2.