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The Frankfurt School Sustainability initiative organised a Tree Planting event on the 22nd of November in collaboration with Frankfurt School’s corporate partner and donor CHOM Capital and the Hessen Forest State Management at Königstein im Taunus.
The day started off early at 9am at Frankfurt School where all students met up for a short briefing about the day to follow and to check if we all had proper gear! Very interestingly, the day before the event was one of the few days when Frankfurt saw snowfall and since the temperature had still remained in the range of 0-2° Celsius we expected to find some snow still leftover in the forest.
After our briefing we car-pooled to our planting area which was only 20 mins away from the University. Königstein, a picturesque and undisturbed locality, had remained largely unexplored by many of us until that moment. It was a very beautiful car ride with a lot of nature and beautiful scenery along the way, and of course very good music to start the day! (The author was playing the songs, claims about the quality of music have not been confirmed).
After reaching the parking lot, we were greeted by Ms. Martina Neske, CFO and co-founder, CHOM Capital. Since she had already established an annual tree planting initiative through her company with the Albert Einstein School (AES), Frankfurt, she assisted us in connecting with the forest officers and to kick-off a new project for our university. We were also very grateful to have Ms. Angelika Werner, VP of Strategic Relations, Frankfurt School, join us for our event. From the parking lot we first took a 20-minute hike into the forest to meet up with the pupils from AES, who had already been planting in their reserved area. We started off by helping them set up fences to protect their chestnut trees from deer and planting some more pear (birne) trees with them. We had the chance to get to know the pupils and had some very interesting and fun exchanges with them.
After helping the pupils, we walked to the Frankfurt School designated area where we were all set to plant 400 red oak trees! To start off we got a detailed ‘on-site workshop’ from the local forest officer, where we learned about the influence of topography and soil conditions in determining the choice of trees we would plant, and how they approach the puzzle of maintaining biodiversity. We also received many interesting insights into how climate change is playing a role in forestry and finally of course we were taught how to plant the trees and the specificities involved around the process (it was trickier than it sounds).
The entire activity was an incredibly rewarding experience for all of us. It allowed us to connect with so many members of the community we might not have otherwise had the chance to meet, while also forging new friendships along the way. Escaping into the forest made for a truly delightful and memorable day.To get a bit quantitative and mathematical as finance people tend to do, I did a mental exercise to assess the impact we made as an institution and the future potential we hold. Considering we planted red oak trees; these are my calculations:
Annual Emission offset: 10 – 20 Kg of CO₂ per year (young tree)
Number of trees planted: 400
Expected Emissions Offset: 6000 KGs / 6 tonnes of Carbon offset per year.
These emissions are theoretically enough to set off the carbon footprint from eating 2,222 quarter-pound beef burgers or producing 340 new smartphones (roughly speaking). Not bad, right? Though now considering scaling up efforts, how far can we go?
A good first place to start with could be setting off Frankfurt School’s Carbon emissions. To give a number to this picture, here’s an estimate of Frankfurt School’s Scope 1 and Scope 2 Carbon emissions in 2023.
Scope 1: 24,000 Kg CO2e
Scope 2: 373,749 Kg CO2e
If this project scales up at university scale, maybe we can have enough trees to set off Scope 1 & 2 emissions within 2 years? Should all graduating students plant a tree for the incoming batch as a symbol of community and care?
We are deeply grateful to everyone who joined us for this and supported us even when the weather was not the most pleasant. We are thankful to Ms. Katharina Brämer from HessenForst who helped us arrange this event and to the local forest officers who took the efforts to take us through the entire process in English. And of course, we’re very thankful for the heartfelt support of Ms. Martina Neske and Ms. Angelika Werner. Finally, from a writer’s perspective, I am truly grateful to my department heads, especially, Valentin Hofmann, for helping me organize this, and Jasmin Hellmich, for supporting us during the event.
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