Ashland Global Holdings, Inc. announced the company’s commitment to support a collaborative forest restoration effort of The Nature Conservancy to help plant a billion trees by 2030, in support of broader development goals of the United Nations, specifically, the Sustainable Development Goal for Life on Land.
 
Ashland’s donation of $20,000 will be used to plant approximately 10,000 trees in Brazil, China, Mexico, and the United States. These are key regions where Ashland operates and there is need for reforestation and sustainable farming education, the company said. Mature trees can absorb up to 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year. Once mature, these plantings could result in up to an estimated 480,000 pounds of carbon dioxide offsets annually.
 
“Trees provide so many benefits to our everyday lives,” Bill Stanley, state director for The Nature Conservancy, Ohio, said. “Not only are they beautiful, they also clean our air, provide our water resources, help curb climate change, and create homes for thousands of species of plants and animals. Planting a billion trees can help save the earth from deforestation.”
 
In February, Ashland joined a global movement of companies aligning operations with the aim of the Paris Climate Accord, which seeks to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. The specialty materials company has also made the UN Global Compact and its principles as part of the company’s business strategy, culture, and day-to-day operations.
 
“Ashland is excited about supporting The Nature Conservancy’s mission. After planting trees, their staff and scientists work with a network of in-country partners including governments, forestry companies, local cooperatives, non-governmental organizations, and local communities to offer assistance and technical guidance using established conservancy projects as a model to accelerate reforestation results and minimize costs for long-term protection,” Guillermo Novo, chairman and CEO of Ashland, said. “Our global organization has an earnest and heartfelt approach towards sustainability and the local communities in which we operate. We will continue to intensify our focus on the environment, social and governance (ESG).”
 
According to Ashland, more than 1 billion people in 192 countries participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. As a global specialty materials company, Ashland’s sustainability efforts focus on three defined areas: sourcing, operations, and solutions.