Boldijarre Koronczay, president of the Hungarian-born, Vancouver-based Eminence Organic Skin Care, is a man who likes to watch things grow. First, his business: Eminence skincare products are now sold in 24 countries around the globe and the company was awarded the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award last year. And now, the forest and the trees.
Starting today, the company will demonstrate its commitment to the environment by partnering with Trees for the Future to launch Forest for the Future, a new tree-planting initiative where the company will support, one-for-one, the planting of one tree for every single individual product sold. In the first year of the program it is estimated that Eminence, working together with Trees for the Future, will plant the equivalent of over 1000 football fields of trees.
“We look for ways to reduce our carbon footprint at every turn,” says Koronczay, “and along the way I learned about the devastating impact deforestation has on our environment and the future of our planet. Planting even just one single tree can make such a difference, so we wanted our products to be a direct representation of that active contribution to the fight against global climate change,” he continues.
The world loses millions of acres of trees due to deforestation every year. In just a year, one tree has the ability to produce 260 pounds of oxygen and absorb as much carbon as a car produces driving 26,000 miles. Trees lower air temperature, stabilize soil and make land more fertile as they shed their leaves and decompose.
But deforestation is rapidly destroying the earth’s forests. It can be caused naturally, through wildfires. The majority, however, is caused by logging operations that cut down trees to provide wood and paper, and build access roads through remote rain forests to accommodate urban sprawl. Forests still cover about 30 percent of the planet, but areas comparable to the size of Panama are lost each year and our rain forests could completely vanish in 100 years if we keep up the current rate of deforestation. And it’s not only our flora that’s affected. Approximately 70 percent of the planet’s land animals live in forests. If their homes are destroyed, many will not survive.
“Deforestation is the leading cause of global climate change,” says Koronczay. “Trees clean up the air by producing oxygen and absorbing carbon, they lower the air temperature, helping to prevent global warming, stabilize the soil and contribute to the fertility of the land as well. If we want to protect the future of our planet, and our own health, tree planting has to be a part of the plan. We’re committed to rebuilding and restoring the environment one product–and one tree–at a time.”