2,000 trees a start to covering footprint of Duluth companies
Two Duluth businesses are planting trees around town as a way to offset the environmental effects of shipping their products.
Greg Benson’s shovel made a sharp grating sound as he worked it into the rocky soil along Chester Creek.
Benson, an owner of Epicurean Cutting Surfaces and Loll Designs, pushed through the glacial debris until he had created a small crater. He placed a seedling white pine in the hole and nudged soil around it.
“We tell our customers we’ll plant a tree for every order we get at Loll Designs,” said Benson, 45. “It’s to help with the carbon offset on the shipping.”
Epicurean Cutting Surfaces manufactures eco-friendly cutting boards and other products. Loll Designs makes furniture from recycled materials.
Benson and about
20 other employees of the two Duluth companies planted 2,000 trees along Chester Creek on Thursday morning. Last year, they planted 500 along Skyline Parkway near their offices.
“It’s our eco-initiative that we started a couple years ago, said Epicurean CEO Tony Ciardelli, 37. “We plant some trees and give back to the community.”
The companies buy the trees from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The city of Duluth approved the planting, city gardener Tom Kasper said. Employees and other volunteers spread out Thursday along both sides of the creek, toting shovels, hauling seedlings in plastic bags or buckets.
Seedlings included white pine, Norway pine, spruce, cedar, burr oak, elm, red oak and birch.
Planting trees has to be better than a day in the office or on the production line. A cardinal issues its sweet warblings from the forest canopy. Fledgling horsetail pushes up from the forest floor like soft, green bottle brushes. Mature cedars look down on the proceedings like kindly grandparents.
Through it all, Chester Creek tumbles through its canyon to Lake Superior.
Epicurean and Loll Designs have committed to using a portion of their profits to plant the trees, Ciardelli said.
“You could Google 10 reasons to plant trees, and all those apply,” Benson said. “It’s something everyone wants to do. We’re greening up our community. And it’s getting people to do something different than they do every day.”
