Bayer plants 300,000 trees around the world to combat climate change

Board Member Dr. Plischke: ”Another expression of our wide-ranging commitment to climate protection”

In 2007 the Bayer Group planted some 300,000 trees around the world to contribute to the fight against climate change. With these efforts the Leverkusen-based Group is supporting the “Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign” of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as one of its six official partners from the private sector. This campaign has been a complete success: The ambitious goal of planting a billion trees around the world in the course of the year with the help of organizations and individuals has already been exceeded, as more than 1.5 billion new trees have now been planted.

“We are glad to be able to contribute to the success of this ecological solidarity campaign spanning the world,” comments Dr. Wolfgang Plischke, the member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG responsible for Innovation, Technology and Environment. ”It is another expression of our wide-ranging commitment to climate protection”.

Only a few weeks ago the Leverkusen-based Group launched its “Bayer Climate Program”, with which it wants to further reduce CO2 emissions from its production facilities and develop new solutions for increasing climate protection and dealing with climate change. In the next three years the Group will invest EUR 1 billion in climate-relevant research and development and various projects.

“I am delighted to say that an initiative to catalyze the pledging and the planting of one billion trees has achieved and indeed surpassed its mark. Bayer is setting a good example and through its commitment has contributed significantly to the Billion Tree Campaign. We would like to thank Bayer for being one of the key corporate backers of the initiative along with governments, communities, NGOs and inidvidual citizens,“ says Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP, which along with the World Agroforestry Center catalyzed the campaign. ”The overwhelming success of the global tree-planting exercise is a further sign of the breathtaking momentum witnessed this year on the challenge for this generation – climate change”.

“I am elated beyond words at the global interest and action that was motivated by the Billion Tree Campaign. I knew we had it within us as a human family to rise up!” says a delighted Professor Wangari Maathai, Nobel Prizewinner from Kenya and patron of the initiative.

Planting trees is globally considered an effective measure to protect the climate and combat climate change. Trees not only bind the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, they also counteract desertification and soil erosion. According to estimates, the 300,000 trees planted by Bayer alone will reduce the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere by some 7,500 metric tons per year.

Almost two dozen Bayer Group companies around the world have joined the initiative. Working together with UNEP and more than 1,000 schools in the area of Nairobi, Kenya, where UNEP is headquartered, Bayer AG has planted 100,000 trees. Bayer Corp. in the United States contributed an equivalent number. At both locations Bayer employees lent a strong hand. This was also the case in many other countries where Bayer, often in cooperation with environmental organizations, participated in the global tree-planting campaign – Australia, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Venezuela. The just under 200 participants of the TUNZA International Youth Conference, which Bayer AG hosted this August under its partnership with UNEP, all planted a tree as a personal and symbolic contribution to the success of the campaign.


For further information on Bayer’s commitment to climate protection visit www.climate.bayer.com.