On Wednesday, April 7, 2021, Konica Minolta South Africa’s Polokwane branch together with, NPO, Food & Trees for Africa, planted 50 indigenous trees at Segoreng Primary School in Polokwane.
To continue greening this community and uphold Konica Minoltal South Africa’s carbon neutral status, a further 970 fruit trees will be planted within the province, bringing the total tree donation for this area to 1,020 trees. Beyond the shade, fruit and cleaner air that these trees will provide, they will help offset an incredible 376.38tCO2e (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) during their lifetime.
The eager learners from Segoreng Primary School enjoyed the morning’s activities as they learnt about the many benefits of planting trees, the role they play in our ecosystem, looking after the environment and the importance of being ‘green’ and eco-friendly.
“We are so grateful that we are able to give back to the community by donating shade and fruit trees to various schools in the province, which undoubtedly will make a noticeable difference to the school environment. We were honoured to be able to engage and plant trees with these learners. By looking at the school grounds, learners and teachers, we are sure that the trees are in good hands, this is one of the best looked-after schools we have planted trees at, with the rain water harvesting being done through tanks and the green grass,” says Morné Etchell, Polokwane branch manager.
Through its ongoing partnership with Food & Trees for Africa, Konica Minolta South Africa has been planting trees across South Africa for more than a decade and has been carbon neutral since 2013. In total 55,178 trees, including spekboom and bamboo, have been planted since the inception of this initiative, which have offset around 20,360.89 tCO2e. These trees have been planted across South Africa at 1,125 schools, 55 community centres and alongside 12,039 homes. More than 125 community educators have also been trained to educate the learners and community members around topics such as tree health and impact of trees on the environment, ecosystem and people. “We are so excited about our beautiful new trees and most grateful that our learners are able to experience the planting of trees and learn about their benefits. We are incredibly grateful to Konica Minolta South Africa for this generous donation and the effort they made to join us on the day. We feel honoured and privileged to be one of the schools chosen to receive trees and we are looking forward to taking care of our new trees, because these will make such a difference to our school and every learners’ school day,” explains Simon Molapisane, Principal at Segoreng Primary School.
