July 17, 2023

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Small Things. Something Wonderful.

‘We can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful’. Mother Teresa

TREES PLANTED

290

Mother Teresa had it right when she wrote about the power of the collective coming together to creating something wonderful! And here at Fifteen Trees regularly see the power of the collective when we gather trees from numerous small businesses.

 

We can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful.

Mother Teresa

 

To date, this year 12 businesses and organisations have contributed towards our tree planting projects, and their generous support has enable us to plant 290 native trees. This generosity has made more epic by the fact that they are small businesses. Being a small business ourselves, we know the challenges they face. Out of this act, an epic amount of Australian fauna – right down to the tiniest insects – will have new habitat and future generations of humans will have cleaner air to breathe.

 

Shout-out to the following:

15 trees

  • Ilaira from La Ria Creations creates beautiful sustainable paper products. ‘For the people, for the planet, for you‘.
  • Rhiannon and Alex at Outdoor Adventure C0 have all your hiking and camping needs covered.
  • Ellisha McInnes at Refill’d Mornington is on a mission to reduce our landfill by providing refill solutions for your cleaning needs. Find Ellisha here.
  • Alex at The Missing Link will look after your IT needs (cloud, security and automation) as well as help look after the planet with a contribution of trees.
  • Sharp Accounting, Ballarat. ‘Our single focus is on you. Working with your goals and aspirations to secure your financial future through innovation, growth and going beyond the ordinary’
  • Melbourne University.

‘On 31 March MDAP hosted a panel discussion on the promotion process for academic specialists whose position may not follow the conventional career trajectory. This was a chance for academic specialists, and particularly women in these roles, to get practical advice to apply for promotion. We planted these 15 trees to say thank you to our star-studded line-up who led the discussion’. 

 

20 trees

 

30 trees

  • Eliza at GroundUp is collecting coffee grounds, soft plastics and food waste so that they don’t end up in landfill.
  • Ballarat Regional Beekeepers are the place to go if you need mentoring or advice on your bees.
  • Flicka at Little Oberon Cafe raised some funds for us over the summer months and together with her wonderful customers were able to purchase 30 native trees for us to plant on their behalf.

 

45 trees

 


 

Site A | Northern Grampians | 290 trees

 

Andrew and Deb Borg from Slaty Creek.

The trees (290) were planted at Slaty Creek, VIC. The trees were a mix of purposefully selected plants to complement the birdlife, insects, and other creatures who call The Grampians/Gariwerd their home on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Western Victoria. The trees were also selected to survive the cold winters and dry summers the mountainous terrain experiences. They will grow to varying heights (tall and understory) to ensure a variety of habitats for the local wildlife (including some of the bird species shown below).

 

Parrots of The Grampians/Gariwerd, Western VIC.

 

We are thankful for the expertise of the Buloke and Northern Grampians Landcare Network (BNGLN) in their support in helping to plant these trees. Here’s an interview we recently conducted with Andrew Borg, coordinator of this network.

A huge thank you to the sponsors of these trees.  You are helping to build habitat, fix erosion, increase soil carbon; and hopefully, together we can bring back the Black Cockatoos!

Andrew Borg | Coordinator | BNGLN

 

This planting will form a network of habitat bio-corridors while also alleviating the issue of creek erosion.

 


 

Here’s an interesting fact – you don’t have to be a big business to make a big impact. You can be a small business, even a tiny one, and still make a significant positive contribution to the environment. We already know that small businesses are vital for local economies, that they keep money in the community and support local interests in myriad different ways. They also provide opportunities for entrepreneurs, create meaningful jobs, and on the whole give greater job satisfaction than large corporations. Small business is powerful! The key to making an environmental difference has nothing to do with size, and everything with taking the right action, at the right time, with the right partners.

We have a handful of small businesses who purchase trees when they can. Small business owners are masters of ingenuity when it comes to incorporating tree planting into their business practices. Never underestimate small business. When it comes to reducing carbon footprints, they are a climate force to be reckoned with!

If you would like to know more about sponsoring community tree planting projects and how we can assist you in becoming a more sustainable business, please contact Colleen at <[email protected]>.

Writer: Colleen B. Filippa

With a background in Environmental Science, Colleen is the Founding Director of Fifteen Trees. In 2009, after 20 years in primary, secondary and tertiary education institutions, Colleen left the classroom to start the company. Fifteen Trees is a social enterprise assisting individuals and companies to reduce their carbon footprint by supporting community groups such as Landcare, schools and environmental networks.

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