ABOUT SCERIS

Environmental Initiative - What Our Goal Means

One 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:

One 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 

 

One million trees, over one year, will: 

 

 

The paper made from one million trees, over one 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