Green lights for an ingenious project: Learn, how 12 metric tonnes of paper can be saved with a simple idea.
T rees, not letters! It might sound a little crazy, but Deutsche Telekom has already shown that it works. The idea behind it is simple. Deutsche Telekom typically sends its employees their pay slips in the mail. At a major corporation like Deutsche Telekom, that means several tons of paper each year. It takes an unbelievable 7.5 kilograms of wood and 103 liters of water just to produce 500 sheets of new paper. Valuable resources that are easy to conserve.
Every year, we consume 1400 soccer fields of forest and 4.7 million bathtubs of water to produce the paper that is sent as letters in Germany
To contribute to this process, Deutsche Telekom made a deal with its employees in 2016. Those who clicked the option to have their pay slips sent electronically to their De-Mail inbox would be supporting a "green" environmental project. In return, Deutsche Telekom created more woodland right at its own front door in the German city of Darmstadt. The company planted 13,000 new trees, which will become a mixed woodland of pine and hornbeam covering an area the size of 4 soccer fields. Young trees were planted from seeds coming from regional, certified standing timber. The trees, which are still young, will become a robust mixed woodland over the next several years, just like those native to Germany, something that is sorely needed. Woodland protects the soil, filters fine particles from the air, minimizes the sound of motorways and provides recreational space for people. Every tree helps! And Deutsche Telekom's employees recognize this. With a click of their mouse in July 2016, 20% of our employees helped reduce paper consumption and costs for printing and shipment. Some even picked up a shovel themselves and helped plant the trees. The forest is growing, to the benefit of man and nature!