OREGON SOAP COMPANY PLEDGES TO PLANT ONE TREE FOR EACH 10 BARS IT SELLS, OFFSETTING ITS CARBON EMISSIONS MANY TIMES OVER
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Oregon Soap Company Goes Carbon Negative
Company Plants a Tree for Each Ten Bars of Soap it Sells
PORTLAND, OR- December 3, 2007 – Oregon Soap Company announced today that it has donated enough funds to plant 1,000 trees with Friends of Trees, a Portland Oregon nonprofit. While most businesses grapple with becoming “carbon neutral,” Oregon Soap Company takes the lead by offsetting its carbon emissions several times over. Since 1989, Friends of Trees has mobilized thousands of volunteers to plant more than 340,000 trees in the Portland metro area.
Noble Peace Prize Laureate Al Gore often points out that planting trees slows climate change. In addition, according to a recent study by the city of Portland, Portland’s trees intercept 25 million pounds of air pollutants each year and a half a billion gallons of storm water, greatly reducing river pollution.
Planting trees with Friends of Trees will offset not only the carbon emissions produced by Oregon Soap Company's daily business operations but also the greenhouse gases produced by the growing and transporting of its raw materials and final product.
Oregon Soap Company Founder Sat Atma Singh, known as Soapman, said, "These days ‘carbon neutral’ is not enough. If we are to have any chance of recovering from the increasing degradation of our natural environment, which is our life support system, each one of us must very quickly become ‘carbon negative,’ which is to say, that our actions absorb more green house gases than they generate.”
Oregon Soap Company has made close to 500,000 bars of soap since its beginning in 1994. The soap is certified organic, made with renewable energy, and the soap's packaging is printed on 100% post-consumer paper.
In addition to contributing to Friends of Trees financially, Sat Atma is an Assistant Crew Leader and will guide other volunteers during four planting events this year. His wife Surinder and Oregon Soap Company employees participate in the plantings as well.
“For many years I have had the dream of creating a nonprofit organization that plants trees and helps to restore wild areas. When I discovered Friends of Trees, I was elated because somebody else had already done all the work. I look forward to working with Friends of Trees for years to come,” says Sat Atma.
About Oregon Soap Company
Oregon Soap Company was started in 1993 when the founder was a struggling musician, playing in several Portland, OR bands and teaching music. One day, friend and artist Jamie Hayes told him he should start his own business—a soap company called Oregon Soap Company. After a rough start, Sat Atma went into full time soap production in 1997.
About Friends of Trees
Friends of Trees inspires community stewardship by bringing people in the Portland-Vancouver area together to plant and care for city trees and urban natural areas. The nonprofit plants trees along city streets and in urban natural areas. Friends of Trees has received numerous local and national awards in the past two years for increasing the Portland-Vancouver metro area's tree cover during a time when a dozen other major U.S. cities have lost significant tree cover.
Sat Atma Singh, Founder
Oregon Soap Company
503-493-4151
www.oregonsoapcompany.com