Business News
Alcoa volunteers: part of the solution to climate change
Monday 06. July 2009 - The stream zones leading into the Swan River have been given a boost thanks to the planting of 25,000 trees, by a group of Alcoa employees, in the Wooroloo Brook catchment near Perth.
Around 50 Alcoa employees and their family members participated in Alcoas annual Tree Planting Weekend, working alongside the Wooroloo Brook Land Conservation District Committee to rehabilitate and revegetate the stream zones draining into the Wooroloo Brook and Swan River. Over two days, each volunteer planted around 500 trees each.
Alcoas General Manager of Carbon Strategy Tim McAuliffe said 2009 marked the 20th anniversary of Alcoa Tree Planting Weekends.
“Community volunteering and looking for ways to become part of the solution to climate change are integral to Alcoas values, which is a big part of why weve been holding tree planting weekends since 1989.
“Our people have demonstrated time and time again that they are absolutely committed to the community and the environment – in fact last year alone, Alcoans in Australia volunteered over 90,000 hours which is equivalent to nearly 10 and a half years,” Mr McAuliffe said.
Wooroloo Brook Land Conservation District Committee Chairman Bob Huston said: “The Alcoa volunteers have been planting seedlings for us for 18 years straight. Because of them, we have been able to plant in wet, boggy degraded areas where the planting can only be done by hand and not machines.
“Knowing we have 50-plus volunteers for a weekend has also meant we could take on a very big planting project each year. Alcoa employees have planted over 540,000 seedlings in our catchment alone over the years.”
Back in 2003, in response to global climate change, Alcoa launched its Ten Million Trees program in which Alcoa volunteers aim to plant ten million new trees by 2020. All the trees planted in the Wooroloo Brook catchment will be counted towards the Ten Million Trees goal.
“Those ten million new trees will absorb more than 250,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each year during their lifetime,” Mr McAuliffe said.
Ten Million Trees grew from Alcoas successful One Million Trees program which began in 1998 with the goal of Alcoa employees planting a million trees within 10 years. Employees, contractors and their families at more than 140 Alcoa locations in 20 countries raced to the goal in half the time expected.