Toyota is one of the 3,000 companies that have already chosen Treedom in order to make a concrete gesture on behalf of the planet. We talked to Roberta De Rocco (People Development & Internal Communication at Toyota) to find out more about a collaboration that is reaching its third year in 2020, with increasingly ambitious goals.
Roberta, tell us how the collaboration with Treedom came about.
We were looking for a new idea for our "Green Month Campaign", the corporate environmental awareness campaign that's held each year in June to coincide with World Environment Day.
We knew about Treedom and we thought it was the right partner to build an original activity that involved all our staff and had the potential to "last" over time – we didn't want a short-lived initiative.
That's how we had the idea of giving Treedom trees to our employees as birthday presents: we started three years ago with one tree each, and this year, given the success of the campaign, we decided to offer them two. We invited them to give the second tree to a friend or relative, as a token of gratitude to someone they have been close to this year.
It's a way for us to spread Toyota's environmental commitment and focus to people even beyond the boundaries of the company.
How has the Toyota Forest grown?
The Toyota Forest grows in Kenya and today has over 900 trees.
The collaboration with Treedom was included in the internal communication newsletter, and the codes to redeem the trees were sent to each employee in a simple email illustrating the initiative and explaining the procedure to follow.
We also talked about it externally via a press release all about the Green Month Campaign, as well as on our social media channels, reporting the results we'd already shared with all Toyota employees: how many trees have been planted, how much CO₂ has been absorbed, and the benefits experienced by the communities that take care of them.
Treedom trees also helped us maintain a bond between people during the COVID-19 lockdown period: the birthdays we normally celebrate in the office became digital, and birthday greetings were sent through our company Facebook group – naturally, along with the Treedom trees and updates on the projects they help create!
Learn more about the Treedom business solutions.
