Earth Day 2019 – NIKIN joins in!
As it has every year since 1990, International Earth Day 2019 will take place on April 22. "Earth Day" is about strengthening appreciation for the natural environment, but also about encouraging people to rethink their consumer behavior.
This year, together with our partner, OneTreePlanted, and many volunteers, we will plant around 5000 trees in the US state of Colorado! We are incredibly happy to be there, lend a hand, and give something back to the Earth.
We'll keep you updated with this blog and report daily on what we experience during our time in Colorado. Follow us on social media too, where we regularly share impressions with you. (Instagram: @nikinclothing, Facebook: @nikinclothing)
Day: 1: April 17, 2019
06:40 AM Meeting point at Zurich Airport. Without major difficulties, we reached the city of Denver, in the central US state of Colorado, about thirteen hours later. At the hotel, Matt Hill and his crew from OneTreePlanted welcomed us. We will be planting several thousand trees with them at the foot of the Rocky Mountains for #EarthDay2019. After a cheerful dinner at a local brewery, we soon went to bed and recharged our batteries after a long day. We are excited to see what awaits us in the coming days!
Day 2: April 18, 2019
Refreshed and invigorated, we made our way to downtown Denver, where we met with Matt Hill, the founder of OneTreePlanted, and his entire crew to discuss past and future projects. Like us at NIKIN, Matt's team also saw some growth last year, and over 1.5 million trees were planted worldwide!
Afterward, we took advantage of the free afternoon and got lost in the streets of the 700,000-strong metropolis in the heart of the United States. Wonderful spring weather drew people outside – so it's no surprise that "Coors Field," the home of the local baseball team, the "Denver Rockies," was very well attended. A new experience for most of us and a great one, which even ended with a victory for the home team. Tomorrow, we're off to the place where we'll be planting around five thousand trees on April 20, together with OneTreePlanted and many other volunteers.
Day 3: April 19, 2019
At 7:30 AM, after a thirty-minute drive, we arrived at the aforementioned tree-planting site, a gigantic area in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. However, today's barren and rocky landscape was not always so lifeless. About nine years ago, a forest fire, originally started for ecological reasons, got out of control, destroying a large forest and leaving behind thousands of burned tree stumps. After several years of recovery, the time has come to breathe new life into this dead area with fresh saplings.
After visiting the tree-planting site, we drove through the seemingly endless expanses along the Rocky Mountains to the place where the soon-to-be-planted saplings have grown from small shoots to strong young trees – the Colorado State Forest Nursery. Zach, who is actually a trained chef, now manages the tree nursery, which cultivates several million saplings annually and supplies tree-planting projects across the USA. He guided us through the greenhouses, explaining how seeds are correctly planted and how nature is imitated as closely as possible in the nursery – so that as many strong saplings as possible can grow in the shortest possible time and then be released into nature.
In the afternoon, we visited the local "New Belgium" brewery and enjoyed cozy hours in the summer temperatures, getting to know our friends from OneTreePlanted better.
Day 4: April 20, 2019
At sunrise, we set off for the tree-planting site we had already scouted above the city of Boulder, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Preparations were soon complete, and promptly at 10 AM, the first volunteer tree planters appeared. Around 400 helpers were expected, from young to old, various partner organizations of OneTreePlanted, and also many locals who found their way to the tree-planting site. Some of them were not planting trees for the first time – someone explained that he had already planted over 100,000 trees in his lifetime.
Around 5,000 trees will be planted today – in ten years, a forest will have grown there again. But first, the young "Ponderosa Pines" must be carefully planted in the previously dug holes. For five hours, trees were planted under the scorching sun. Tree experts have marked some of the saplings with a chip and can return in one, two, and five years to see how the planted trees are doing in their new environment. With the return of the forest, air, soil, and water quality automatically improve, providing new habitats for rare wildlife such as the "Cougar" cat. Some of the 5,000 trees were certainly sponsored by our customers.
Cool and motivated people, wonderful weather, and a common goal made the Tree Planting Event a complete success and an unforgettable experience. It simply feels good to give something back to nature, and it's so much fun!
Day 5: April 21, 2019
Our trip to OneTreePlanted is slowly but surely coming to an end. We thoroughly enjoyed our great time with OneTreePlanted and are sure that these days have further strengthened our bond with our tree-planting partner. Many personal conversations and mutual exchanges give us a good feeling for further cooperation with OneTreePlanted. We look forward to many more joint projects with OneTreePlanted! THANK YOU GUYS!
