Miranda’s Tree Planting Event

Tree planting campaign involving colleagues and their families to offset the firm’s carbon footprint from air travel.

LSA member Miranda and Associados decided to compensate the carbon emissions resulting from the firm’s air travels by planting trees that can chew up the gases that air flights release into the atmosphere. Tree planting events were organised involving around 50 Miranda professionals plus family and friends and colleagues also learnt about forest management practices in the natural reserve Mata da Machada.

Why we did it

Our network of law offices, the Miranda Alliance, covers 18 jurisdictions over 4 different continents. Moreover, our clients are located in dozens of different countries around the Globe. Although some of these locations are very remote, we work hard to stay close to our clients, providing local support whenever possible. The downside of our international scale is the fairly high carbon footprint associated to our frequent and long-distance flights. During 2018, the miles we traveled by air were equivalent to two round trips from planet Earth to the Moon!

What we did

We decided to compensate the carbon emissions resulting from our air travels by planting trees that can chew up the gases that air flights release into the atmosphere. The Firm’s Green Team organized two tree planting events which were tremendously successful: around 50 Miranda professionals, encouraged by family and friends, and in many cases accompanied by their enthusiastic children, spent a Saturday morning planting trees (240, to be exact), sowing acorns, and learning about forest management practices in the natural reserve Mata da Machada. In light of the success of this initiative, the Green Team is already working on other tree planting events to further mitigate the damaging ecological effects of our air travels.

What we learnt

We learnt how to calculate the carbon footprint resulting from our air travels throughout 2018, and we deepened our knowledge on land-based carbon sequestration mechanisms. We also discovered a way to fulfill our sustainability targets, whilst having fun as a team and inspiring and educating our children.

Results

Although we did not manage to fully offset our employees’ portion of carbon and other gas emissions released into the atmosphere as a result of business-related air travels, we were able to mitigate a part of our footprint and are very proud to have potentially contributed to the birth of almost 1000 new trees in our forest in the future.

How this has benefited our business

Although it is too early to measure the impact of this initiative in our business, the human element associated with our mornings in the forest was extremely positive and rewarding. In fact, people easily grasp the concept of trees absorbing the carbon dioxide that airplanes release into the atmosphere and feel very good about this type of forestry initiative. Also, this has proven to be the perfect team building event for our organization.