Our tree planting project is just starting
For all of us, the need to go “greener” and look after our environment is ever more paramount. The question for us is how? How does a handwriting company try to use less paper? When a core need of handwriting is to write on paper.
Why do we write on paper?
If you were to look up why we write on paper on the Internet answers such as price and availability appear. Firstly, paper is a cheap material. Secondly, it’s been around for centuries. But there is a benefit often overlooked. When the pen or pencil moves against the surface of the paper it gives muscle feedback to the writer. This helps a writer learn the amount of pressure they need to place through their pen when writing. Children learn how to form a letter by feeling of knowing whether the pen is going up, down or turned.
You cannot get this same type of muscle feedback when writing on a whiteboard. A pen against the whiteboard goes too fast for the user to be able to control the movement. This is particularly hazardous when young children are learning how to form letters. Wrongly, we may think that writing on the whiteboard is saving the environment. But it actually doesn’t help children to improve their handwriting.
So how much of a tree do we actually use when we write?
I confess this was something that I had to look up. I found some really helpful websites. Paper is often made from pine trees. One tree is equal to 10,000 sheets of paper. One ream of paper which is 500 sheets comes from 5% of that tree. Our ‘Make it Readable in 66 days’ course uses 198 pages of worksheets. It is our largest writing course. Here we are using under 2.5% of the tree. Could we reduce the course and its paper content? We tried but every page is valuable. It gives a wealth of information that cannot be replicated digitally.
The question then comes back to how can a handwriting company help the environment.
We’ve had a long look at what is available out there. How can we do our “bit”?
We already work online and do not offer lessons in people’s homes. This means that we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint. Since 2016, we have on purpose created worksheets that use only black ink. If there is ever a colour version, there is always a black-and-white version that supports it. As an online business we work from our homes and all our team meetings happen via Zoom.
This is why, as a company, the biggest difference that we can be making is by planting trees. From April 2023, you will always see a logo on the bottom of our pages titled Ecologi. For every new student, we will plant a tree.
The countries where the trees are being planted include the UK, reforestation projects, USA and Australia. You’ll be able to see the number of trees we have planted on the logo on our web pages. We aim to use this to help offset the amount of printing and paper used by our students.
We hope that our project of planting trees helps reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And gives pleasure to those seeing them grow.
