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Rugs.com Sustainability Initiative — Help Us Plant Trees

Did you know that trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), removing and storing the carbon while releasing the oxygen back into the air? For example, an acre of mature trees absorbs the amount of CO2 produced by a car driven 26,000 miles in one year.

 Did you know that we don’t have enough trees on the planet to keep up with the necessary removal and storage of CO2, so it’s released back into the air as oxygen?

 Here at Rugs.com, we feel we must do what we can to improve the quality of our air and our planet.

 We started this initiative because we know that committing to the sustainability of our planet by planting trees will make a difference.  So, we invite you, our valued customer, to help us plant trees while, at the same time, beautifying your home.

 Please keep reading to learn more about our initiative, our partner, Eden Project, and how you can help us plant trees to help our environment and create jobs worldwide.

The Benefits of Planting Trees

Trees are crucial for the health of our planet.  Trees have been in existence for 370 million years, and scientists estimate that there are approximately three trillion mature trees in the world. 

 Even with all these trees, there are interesting and disturbing facts that support the need to plant more of them:

 

  • The Paris Agreement target is to store carbon dioxide and help from warming the world beyond 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial temperatures.  According to environmentalists, politicians, and corporations, trees are a simple way to soak up carbon emissions.

 

  • There aren’t enough tree seedlings growing in the United States to keep up with these goals.

 

  • To keep up with reforestation efforts to help tackle climate change, tree nurseries across the U.S. have to increase their production to at least three billion seedlings per year.  This is double current levels.

 

  • U.S. nurseries produce 1.3 billion seedlings per year, mostly replacing existing trees harvested by the timber industry or lost to wildfires.

 

  • Expanding U.S. forests onto an additional 64 million acres ripe for reforestation and carbon storage would take another 1.7 billion seedlings a year.  This expansion is more than 130% of the current seedlings produced yearly.

 

*Mandel, K. (2021) Planting trees help fight climate change—but we need billions more seedlings, National Geographic, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/planting-trees-helps-fight-climate-change-but-we-need-billions-more-seedlings

 

As you can see, planting trees is paramount, and unfortunately, there’s a backlog of seedlings that need to be planted. 

 

This gap in the number of seedlings needed is where Rugs.com partnering with Eden Project becomes a way for you to contribute to the planet’s well-being while living in the environment you want with beautifully textured and colored rugs.

 

Our Partner, Eden Project

“We know that Eden can play little direct role in mediating climate change or biodiversity loss.  However, Eden can ground the lightning of thinking about these things and demonstrate that humans can have agency.  People on the planet know that things are wrong but don’t know what they can do to change them.  Eden is a shop window of hope.”  Sir Tim Smit, Co-founder, Eden Project

 

Eden inspires citizens’ overconsumption to care for the planet.  Eden shows us how our home, Earth, provides everything we need for rich biodiversity, fertile soil, and a stable climate.  Eden explores how the richness of the Earth interconnects and, hopefully, helps us see how we can work together and make a difference.

 

How Rugs.com Is Working with Eden Project

 

Edenproject.org is committed to reducing extreme poverty by providing jobs for local people to plant millions of trees every year.

 

Rugs.com sees this initiative as meaningful, influential, and crucial for the life of our fellow humans and our planet. 

 

We are honored to partner with Eden Project and give all our customers the opportunity to help us plant a tree when purchasing a rug with Rugs.com.

 

Eden Project has planted 340 million trees across its project nations.

 

To date, Rugs.com, in partnership with Eden Project and with the help of our nature-loving customers, has planted 59,896 trees and provided 599 workdays for local on-the-ground people.

 

A Final Thought

 

Today is an excellent day to spruce up your home and make it that much cozier and more welcoming.

 

At Rugs.com, along with 24/7 customer service, fast & free shipping, and free returns, we will plant a tree when you make a purchase.

 

We invite you to make a difference on our planet while making a difference in your home.  It sounds like a great deal, don’t you think?

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