Excellent! - excellentdevelopment.com

For those of us who worry about our carbon emissions but love our cars, Excellent Development is proud to announce the launch of its Car TreeDuty® carbon offsetting programme. TreeDuty donations plant protected forests that act as ‘living seed banks’ for the use of community members, conserving indigenous medicinal and endangered trees.

By answering three simple questions you will learn how much you need to invest in our protected forests to offset the carbon emission from your vehicle. You can then choose to sign-up securely on-line to make either a one-off annual donation or a monthly payment on an ongoing basis. Either way you will receive a green TreeDuty window sticker that proudly proclaims ‘I’ve Offset my Carbon with www.treeduty.com’. The stickers can be stuffed into Christmas cards and make wonderful presents for the car enthusiast who has everything – or the driver who wants to do something to help the environment.

According to Simon Maddrell, Executive Director, “Excellent Development has established these forests to act as 'living seed banks', providing a source of seeds and a centre for traditional medicinal knowledge for the community. While aiding the conservation of both endangered species and sources of medicine, the forests also increase regional biodiversity and act as a carbon sink, helping the global carbon balance.”

Whilst planting trees is not the solution to global warming caused by carbon emissions such as those produced by our cars - planting trees in Africa does help to reduce it. 20% of human induced CO2 emissions are caused by deforestation. In countries like Kenya where Excellent Development works, 70% of total energy use is provided by fuel wood - 90% in rural Kenya. Planting trees is therefore essential to protect the environment – in fact it is only trees that are planted 30 degrees either side of the equator that help reduce global temperatures. Excellent Development supports farmers to become self-sufficient in fuel wood harvesting but also to invest in long-term tree planting of fruit, fodder, medicinal and endangered trees.

The Working Group on Climate Change and Development have acknowledged that mitigating the impacts of droughts and floods, combating desertification and diversification of agriculture are critical to overcoming the impacts of climate change. The key to avoiding the negative impacts of severe droughts and floods is soil and water conservation. This is where trees come into the equation. Trees can achieve so much in changing people's lives and transforming environments. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, fertilise soil, prevent erosion and help to absorb rainwater, whilst at the same time providing fuel, food, fodder, compost, building materials and even medicines from their wood, leaves and fruit.

Whether you drive for business or pleasure, TreeDuty offers you a simple and easy way of estimating its impact on the environment and a convenient means of offsetting while at the same time increasing biodiversity in semi-arid Africa. TreeDuty for vehicles with its identifying sticker offers a unique present this holiday season whether for an associate, friend or loved one… or even yourself.