400 trees for 400 summer parties, team events and Christmas parties

The Essen-based event agency is planting 400 trees for its clients – strictly speaking, one for every event it delivers. The team-building specialists’ own project One Event – One Tree is already in its sixth year. 

“We’ve done it again!” laughs Anna Verhoolen, a student combining an event management degree with work at Teamio Event GmbH, referring to our regular tree-planting days. In early February this year, part of our team was in Ennepetal (North Rhine-Westphalia) planting trees. True to the motto “There’s no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing”, we braved truly dreadful conditions and, under the expert guidance of the district forester from the Regionalverband Ruhr (RVR), planted young beeches in the forest floor. The weather wasn’t the only thing that made this a challenging project.

Partnership with the foundation continues

Together with the non-profit foundation Stiftung Unternehmen Wald we have planted a total of 400 trees in Ennepetal in North Rhine-Westphalia and in Schallstadt (Baden-Württemberg). All of them are native species such as sycamore, beech, oak and lime. The aim is to establish or reforest ecologically sound mixed woodland that helps conserve and enhance biodiversity. The saplings come from regional tree nurseries and are three years old on average.

“We didn’t plant all the trees ourselves – we leave that to the professionals,” explains Anna Verhoolen. The soil in these parts is full of stones, which makes digging the holes even harder, as forestry engineer Jan Muntendorf of Stiftung Unternehmen Wald, who holds a Diplom degree, confirms. “The colleagues who do the planting are very experienced and familiar with the local soil conditions; as a team, they manage to plant up to 1,000 trees a day.”

Our sustainability matrix 

The campaign One Event – One Tree is just one part of the ecological pillar in our sustainability matrix. On top of that, we buy electricity from renewable sources, work with partners who share our focus on sustainability and take specific steps to minimise our ecological footprint.

Together with open-minded clients, we’ve already delivered distinctive corporate social responsibility projects, such as Kickerbau events (where teams build their own table football tables) or cajón workshops. The play equipment and musical instruments made during these events are then put to further use, for example in youth centres, primary schools and charitable organisations. That way, our events bring lasting joy. Of course, we can also win you over with gloves and spades…

Planting trees as a team event: your own company forest

In future, we’ll be offering interested companies their own tree-planting events. They suit groups of 100 people or more and, besides the planting itself, include team challenges and an entertaining forest quiz with questions on local flora and fauna. You can round off the CSR event with a healthy snack.

Good to know: the planting season starts in November and runs until the following March. That also means you and your team will need to put on the right clothes.