Emma Brings Treeplanting Online for Arbor Day

NASHVILLE - Email marketing and communications service firm, Emma®, has chosen to celebrate National Arbor Day with the launch of a quirky website with a serious goal: to help plant up to 5,000 trees.

The website, www.votefortrees.com, encourages visitors to show their support for trees, which are tall and leafy. For each YES vote cast, Emma will donate a seedling through the organization Trees Water & People (www.treeswaterpeople.org) – up to 5,000 total. Visitors can see a running tally of seedlings donated to date and even choose to receive a personal thank-you email from a cedar.

Visitors to votefortrees.com can also find answers to some of the most common questions about trees (Are they dangerous?) and a handy guide to the things trees can (provide shade) and can’t (learn kung fu) do. It’s all part of a belief that serious environmental initiatives can also have fun.

“As more organizations move part or all of their print newsletters and updates to email, the paper savings can be quite substantial,” says Suzanne Norman, Emma’s director of community relations. “We regularly hear from schools and non-profits who are thrilled about having cut down on their use of paper,” says Norman. “And because we’re so caught up in more advanced elements of email delivery and strategy, we tend to forget one of the most basic benefits of email: that it means less paper. Donating 5,000 trees is a way to connect those dots and honor the great work our customers are already doing. That, and charts about trees learning kung fu make us giggle.”

In addition to donating trees for votes, the site also provides links to organizations doing their own great work to help trees. One such resource is the blog project These Come From Trees, which encourages people to place small stickers on napkin and other paper dispensers as a subtle reminder not to take more than necessary.