FUEL UP IN ALEXELA AND PLANT TREES

Planting new trees considerably helps to lower one’s carbon footprint that results from driving a car. We believe this is the chance for everyone to contribute to the reducing of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere in the process of burning of fuels. A growing forest has the capacity to absorb carbon and produce oxygen. Thanks to photosynthesis, a medium sized tree can store over 600 kilograms of carbon within its lifetime and produce a two-year supply of oxygen needed per one person.

The purpose of the Alexela community programme is to reduce the carbon footprint resulting from travel kilometres. Calculations show that on average, one tree can reduce the carbon footprint of a car owner by 3700 kilometres during its life cycle.

Joining the programme is easy. If you fuel up in Alexela and you have joined or are applying to join our loyalty programme (you are the owner of the Home Card e.g. the Alexela loyalty card), you can activate the membership of the community programme on our website: https://www.alexela.ee/et/kogukond. After that, choose the county where you would like the trees earned from refuelling to be planted. You can start gathering trees to reduce your carbon footprint if you contribute 1 cent of your loyalty discount into the community programme. Alexela will also contribute the same amount – meaning that buying ca 14 litres of fuel will get you one tree. A tree costs 25 cents.

The tree species are selected to forest areas according to their growth conditions. The choice whether to choose container or bare-root plants is done by specialists and it depends on the conditions of the forest area. For grassland areas, larger bare-root trees are preferred.

The tree species are selected according to the peculiarities of the forest to be planted. The selection is done by a forest association.

The trees are planted by forest associations who are the contractual partners of Alexela. Alexela is currently cooperating with 4 forest associations: the non-profit association Joint Forest Owner’s, Vardi Forest Association, Rakvere Forest Association and the non-profit association Põlva County Forest Association. The activity areas of the associations cover the whole territory of Estonia.

The forest plants planted in Estonia have been grown in Estonia and/or from the Estonian forest seeds. Growing forest plants and using forest seeds is strictly regulated in Estonia. It is only allowed to plant trees that have grown from forest seeds from nearby areas.

Twice a year, in the spring and in the fall planting period.

According to the Forest Act and the Forest Management Regulation, private forest owners are responsible for the maintenance and management of the forests. Forest owners may perform regeneration felling only after the trees are fully grown. A fully grown forest is usually near its maximum capacity of carbon sequestration. Keeping a fully matured forest growing does not considerably increase the carbon absorption capacity of trees.

The trees are planted into the forests or land (grassland, low-value agricultural land) of private forest owners. This enables us to grow a lot of new forest in Estonia through our common contribution.

After planting the trees, the forest association forwards Alexela the exact locations and the number of the planted trees. At the moment, it is possible to display the location of the trees according to counties. We are working towards finding a technical solution that would enable to see the more accurate location of the planted trees.