Any state or organization that has the goal of planting ten million trees within the next 3 years is taking an aggressive and ambitious approach to environmentalism and that is exactly what the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership is setting out to do. With such a lofty goal in mind, it will be interesting to see if this tree planting milestone will be met by 2025 in the state of Pennsylvania. When looking at the various ways to accomplish this task the foundation has called in farmers, landowners, volunteers, partners, sponsors, local businesses, and government agencies to help with the cause. One such partner is the Pennsylvania American Water Due who recently completed a successful month-long campaign for paperless billing customer enrollment and in turn were able to donate $19,470 (the equivalent of 2,000 new trees for a variety of Pennsylvanian communities) to the charitable organization. As part of that paperless campaign, Pennsylvania American Water customers were also able to request free trees from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for their properties, which resulted in 645 new trees being planted. So will strong partnerships like this one allow for the benchmark to be met?

At the current writing of this environmental and paperless blog post the Chesapeake Bay Foundation had planted 4,260,000 trees meaning they are already almost halfway to their ten million tree goal which seems encouraging and promising for what is a very progressive idea. With a mission and motto of “TREE“ work makes the dream work” and a strong team behind the campaign one has to think that planting 10,000,000 trees since the organization’s founding in 2018 might be possible if more national, regional, state, and local agencies, conservation organizations, outdoors enthusiasts, companies, and citizens join in on this environmental crusade. If we start to see more paperless partnerships like the Pennsylvania American Water’s e-billing campaign which not only decreased unnecessary paper waste and carbon footprints but also helped plant trees across Pennsylvania for a brighter future for the state. So what are some of the benefits of creating a paperless society while at the same time replenishing the land with healthy and vibrant trees?

 Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership Benefit #1: Water Health

Pennsylvania is a water-rich state with over 85,500 miles of rivers and streams and trees help these waterways stay clean and function appropriately. By reducing water pollution and increasing nutrients and organic matter for bodies of water this tree campaign hopes to work wonders for Pennsylvania’s various natural water systems.

 Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership Benefit #2: Community Happiness

For starters, Pennsylvania has a massive outdoor recreation industry in which trees play a huge role, and having more trees only encourages further economic prosperity through the use of the land’s natural resources. Research has also shown that trees can filter the air we breathe, limit stress, lower blood pressure, improve moods, and reduce residential costs like heating and cooling, water treatment, and flood and stormwater treatment while decreasing health care costs and increasing property values all of which help make for a thriving community that cares about the environment.

 Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership Benefit #3: Farm Prosperity

It’s well known that farmers love trees for their ability to provide healthy roots in the soil, and woody debris, improve soil health, stabilize streambanks, and shade animals in pasture and farmers at work. Farming is a lot easier and more fruitful when there is a healthy amount of trees supporting the food production and resource planting ecosystems.

While they still need to plant around 5.5 million trees in just the next 3 years the Chesapeake Bay Foundation seems confident they will meet this monumental environmental feat. If more and more help comes in from campaigns like the Pennsylvania American Water paperless billing initiative it becomes easier to see a path to the project’s success. Would you ever consider converting a portion of your business to a paperless document management system and donating some of the business savings to a local charity?