Tag: business partnership
Get To Know Laughing Planet Cafe
Laughing Planet is donating $1 for every kids smoothie sold to trees + community
When Laughing Planet CEO Franz Spielvogel decided to partner with a local organization, he quickly thought of Friends of Trees. For an entire year, Laughing Planet are donating $1 for every kids smoothie sold in the Portland region to Friends of Trees.
“Keeping it local was a big impetus for this partnership. We asked ourselves: Who’s local? Who does good things?” Franz says. “How could you not love Friends of Trees?”
Having first volunteered for us over 20 years ago, and having planted five trees in his own yard, he knows first hand the impact that trees can have on a community. He even volunteered as a summer inspector.
“I’ve turned a little bit into a tree nut,” Franz says. “When you walk down a street without trees, it’s shocking. It can sound a bit cheesy on a bumper sticker, but trees are the answer.”
Because Friends of Trees’ mission aligns with the values of Laughing Planet, Franz is excited that the partnership can expose more people to the benefits of planting trees, especially young people, which is why kids’ smoothies are at the center of the partnership.
“I witnessed a mother and daughter in the cafe talking about the importance of trees. When you teach the kids while they’re young, they’ll care about trees for life.”
“Planting trees is super awesome!” Franz says. “I remember all the trees I’ve planted and I love to go back to see how they’re doing.”
Get to know our partner: Portland General Electric
PGE has supported Friends of Trees since our beginning, contributing time and funding toward our shared goals of greening our region and building community.
As Friends of Trees has grown, PGE’s support has grown. PGE has sponsored hundreds of tree planting events over the past three decades, and its employees have donated hundreds of volunteer hours. And in honor of 30 years of trees + community PGE has announced a special gift that will help Friends of Trees reach the milestone of one million trees planted since our inception.
“To celebrate Friends of Trees’ significant impact on our beautiful state, we’re investing $100,000 and volunteer power, over the next five years, coming together with the community and our customers to reduce carbon, strengthen neighborhoods and improve our environment.” -Kregg Arntson, PGE’s director of Corporate Social Responsibility
In addition to donating time and money, PGE partners with Friends of Trees to plant the right type of tree in the right place. This helps prevent tree-related power outages, contributing to safe, reliable power for customers.
Friends of Trees cannot plant 50,000+ trees and native shrubs every year without the support of sponsors like PGE. Their support, since our founding, has been key in our ability to plant 800,000 trees and native shrubs to date with tens of thousands of volunteers. We are just thrilled that PGE’s $100,000 pledge will help us get to the incredible milestone of one million trees planted.
This story is from the Summer 2019 edition of our e-news, Treemail; check out the rest of Treemail here.
PGE announces $100k, 5 year grant to reach 1 million trees planted
This Saturday, April 13th, Friends of Trees volunteers will plant more than 1,000 trees and native shrubs in Tualatin with longtime partners Portland General Electric (PGE) and the City of Tualatin. PGE employees, including Maria Pope, PGE’s President and CEO, and their friends and family will be planting alongside representatives from the City of Tualatin and its Mayor Frank Bubenik, and community members.
This year, PGE announced a special gift of $100,000 that will help Friends of Trees reach the milestone of one million trees planted since its inception. PGE has supported Friends of Trees since its founding in 1989; PGE is sponsoring a total of 10 planting and tree-care events, bringing the total of PGE-sponsored plantings to more than 100 since 2005.
A press release with event details and contact information is here.