Environment Articles

  I recently came in contact with a small firm – CarbonFree Cards (www.carbonfreecards.com)- that makes note cards with no net impact on global warming and plants one tree for each card purchased. As FAWCO’s Environment co-chair, the concept was intriguing and appealing. The cards were of a very nice quality, so I ordered 250 cards that were well received (and sold) at the Conference. The low cost of a nice note card plus a tree being planted is surprising, and some explanation is required.  The tree planting done for each card sold is carried out by an organization called Trees for the Future (www.treesftf.org) and as I learned more about this organization,  the more enthusiastic I became about their philosophy. (Look at the 8-minute video on their home page – it’s excellent!) As they say on their website:

• Since 1989, Trees for the Future has been helping communities around the world plant trees. Through seed distribution, agroforestry training, and our country programs, we have empowered rural groups to restore tree cover to their lands. Planting trees protects the environment and helps to preserve traditional livelihoods and cultures for generations.

While their main goal is to plant trees, they try to integrate their projects into the community by training and educating the population so that the benefits of the tree planting will be social and economic as well as environmental. While tree planting is a great and positive activity on its own, it has a much better, more long lasting effect if the local communities are also educated as to the importance of trees and given some simple means to use the project to help their economic situation as well.  By using local people and their own nurseries, Trees for the Future can keep their costs per tree very low which keeps the combined cost of the card+tree planted affordable. In talking with the owner of CarbonFree cards, the idea of designing cards that would be exclusively for FAWCO came to mind. Since the Holiday season is a time when many people send many cards, the idea of creating exclusive FAWCO Christmas/holiday cards was a logical second step and I’d like to share some ideas on why this would be a good idea and give some details on just how it would work:

• The back of the cards could be personalized with the FAWCO logo, basic info about the organization and information about our tree planting challenge.
•  We would choose the photos on the front of the cards and I have sent a notice out to all the clubs asking the photographers among them to submit photos (their city in winter?) for consideration. A little contest.
• Depending on cost factors, we could put text on the inside – Merry Christmas in the native languages of all the countries where FAWCO has a club.
• If the cards are ordered in a large quantity by FAWCO, the price goes down (about $1.50 is my guess) which would allow the individual clubs to sell them for $2.00 - $2.50/card and use the project as a fundraiser as well.
• The designs for the cards should be finalized before the summer so that samples, sign up sheets and ordering information can be sent to the clubs at the beginning of the club year,(by August at the latest!) along with a sample card. The individual clubs could take orders among their members (and for sale at a Christmas Bazaar?)
• While CarbonFree Cards is a Canadian firm, the owner has many connections with printers in Europe and he suggests having the cards printed in Europe and then sent to the individual clubs directly from the printer.
• While the actual mailing of the cards to the clubs will be a cost, there are creative ways to do this as low-cost as possible.  

I am very excited about the creation of exclusive FAWCO Holiday cards and am really looking forward to working on this project to make it a success! As I mentioned earlier, I am very enthusiastic about the integrated approach to tree planting and sustainability that I see at Trees for the Future and feel very good about supporting them. I hope you can join me in working within your clubs to support this initiative which has multifaceted benefits:

1. 1. One tree planted for each card sold.
2. 2. Exclusive product to promote FAWCO (which is 15 years older(!!) than 3. UNICEF should anyone mention that they always buy UNICEF cards.)
3. 4. Money making opportunity for individual clubs.
4. 5. Shows FAWCO’s continued commitment to the UN’s Millennium      Development Goals.

Please contact me at with your thoughts (positive or negative) on this project. Any comments and suggestions you may have are welcome - it’s always a pleasure to hear from you! Anne, Environment Chair