By Insight UK / 7 Oct 2020
This year, Insight introduced an initiative to plant trees to recognise teammate work anniversaries and value award winners. I know the benefit of a tree planted in a distant location may be hard for some to feel strongly about. For me though, all of this made perfect sense over a steaming cup of hot chocolate.
In 2019, my family and I went on a once in a lifetime holiday to Costa Rica over Christmas and New Year. One of the scenic pitstops we made was to the dramatic green volcanic hills of Arenal in the Northwest. One day, we visited a small family-operated cocoa plantation in the countryside. Surrounded by lush green hills and dramatic volcano peaks we learnt about the history and craftsmanship of the cocoa bean. Being Swedish, we soon touched on the topic of Greta Thunberg and her actions to create a more sustainable society.
The owner of the plantation said, “Well, it’s not the first time our environment has been helped by Swedish school children”. At first, I thought I heard him wrong, but he explained that during the late eighties, thousands of acres of rainforest were saved from deforestation by Swedish children that bought plots of land through a NGO-project. I remember being one of those children receiving a certificate for my birthday stating that a football field of rainforest in a country I knew nothing about had been preserved. At the time, being 8 years old, this wasn’t quite as exciting as receiving plastic action figures or boxes of LEGOs! It was a popular gift in Sweden for a couple of years and quite a few certificates were sold and gifted.
But then, standing there, 30 years later with my own children, enjoying a cup of organically grown hot chocolate, looking out over those green hillsides, it all made sense. Those certificates preserved the rainforest, its biological diversity and producing clean air and drinking water. Saving those forrests gave this farmer the means to run sustainable farming and other thriving businesses for locals. We made a difference! So I am so thankful that Insight is taking on this initiative. It too will make a difference.
Find out more about this initiative and Insight’s fight against Climate Change by partnership with organisations like Tree-Nation and Waste to Wonder, here.
