Demonstrating its commitment to protecting biodiversity and supporting the natural environment, DS Smith announced Monday that it has funded the planting of 29,000 trees — one for each employee — in celebration of the International Day of Forests.

Bill Guthrie, general manager at DS Smith for timber, lumber and timberlands in Riceboro, Ga., said that DS Smith has always taken a proactive approach to addressing environmental impacts, but since the rapid growth of e-commerce in the last two years, the company has been expanding its efforts to protect the natural resources used to create its products.

“DS Smith is focused on the sustainable nature of not just what we do in the manufacturing setting, but also on how to improve the environment that our products come from,” Guthrie said. “We want to continue to see the benefits, through my lifetime and my children’s lifetime and my grandchildren’s lifetimes.”

The species for each tree-planting initiative have been carefully selected to best support the local ecosystem and enhance biodiversity, and planting trees helps combat the climate crisis by removing carbon from the atmosphere. They sequester, meaning capture and store, carbon for the entirety of their life.

In addition, DS Smith plants over 500,000 trees yearly across its 18,000 acres of timberland in southeast Georgia, as part of its reforestation efforts. The company plants three seedlings for every tree harvested to support biodiversity, increase carbon absorption and enable the transition to a circular economy with renewable, fiber-based solutions.

“There’s a pronounced emphasis on environmental responsibility by DS Smith,” said Sustainability Manager Allison Berg. “This reforestation commitment is on top of all the work we’ve been doing to meet strict standards. As ever, DS Smith is pushing itself to do more than what is required, and always thinking about the next action we can take to support biodiversity, especially in the areas we operate in across the East Coast.”

For example, DS Smith North America has made a commitment to meet a science-based reduction of 1.5°C across all its operations, as well as those of its partners and suppliers, as set out in the Paris Climate Agreement. These targets will keep DS Smith, which is a member of the UN’s Race to Zero initiative, in line with its prior commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. As part of DS Smith’s Now and Next Sustainability Strategy, the company is committed to funding 100 biodiversity projects across Europe and North America by 2025, from wildflower meadows and community gardens to bug hotels and ponds.

DS Smith’s Now and Next Sustainability Strategy includes a commitment to plant more than 50,000 trees across the North American and European countries it operates in over the next five years.