planting trees for publicity—how much are they worth植树publicity-how多他们的价值.pdfVIP

Sustainability 2011, 3, 1022-1034; doi:10.3390/su3071022 OPEN ACCESS sustainability ISSN 2071-1050 /journal/sustainability Article Planting Trees for Publicity—How Much Are They Worth? Jakub Kronenberg 1,* and Joanna Mieszkowicz 2 1 Department of International Economics, University of Lodz, Lodz 90-255, Poland 2 Aeris Futuro Foundation, Krakow 31-141, Poland; E-Mail: jmieszkowicz@.pl * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: kronenbe@uni.lodz.pl; Tel.: +48-42-6330857; Fax: +48-42-6354810. Received: 11 March 2011; in revised form: 13 June 2011 / Accepted: 6 July 2011 / Published: 18 July 2011 Abstract: Corporate marketing departments use trees and forests for advertising and public relations (PR). Trees and forests constitute a tangible symbol of the environment, reinforced by the growing awareness of the role that trees play in preventing climate change. Although the carbon sequestration function of trees is valued in monetary terms, its derivative services to marketing, CSR or HR departments are not (‘greening the image’). We focus on voluntary carbon offsets and other tree-planting activities undertaken by companies, aiming to demonstrate that the value of these derivative services of trees should be considered in monetary terms. Based on a small survey and an analysis of financial data for 10 tree-planting projects in Poland, we estimate this value at USD 7.42 per tree. This value depends on external circumstances, such as the c