Volunteers planting trees

May 12, 2022

Stericycle Commits $100K to the Arbor Day Foundation to Replant Trees and Help Make the World Greener and Healthier

Stericycle has announced a $100,000, one-year partnership with the Arbor Day Foundation. Our commitment will support tree replanting efforts in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Together with its partners, the Arbor Day Foundation is replanting forests across the globe, helping to restore deforestation and damage from human activity, disease, insects, wildfires, and weather. These efforts help improve water and air quality, enhance carbon sequestration, provide critical habitat for wildlife, and preserve nature for recreation and wellness. In 2021, the Arbor Day Foundation has planted over 140 million trees across more than 50 countries and 100 projects, providing vital reforestation to their local communities and ecosystems.

In 2022, Stericycle’s reforestation efforts with the Arbor Day Foundation will replant tens of thousands of trees in the following locations:

  • Lake Louisa State Park (30 miles west of Orlando), Fla., United States
  • Longleaf Private Lands (38 miles southwest of Gainesville), Fla., United States
  • Wailer Woods (150 miles south of Indianapolis), Ind., United States
  • Longleaf Private Lands (10 miles outside of Lufkin), Texas, United States
  • Agricultural land near New Tecumseth (55 miles northwest of Toronto), Ontario, Canada
  • England Community Forests (between Manchester and Liverpool), the United Kingdom

“Shaping a healthier and safer world through environmental sustainability is an important issue in the healthcare industry and a key initiative at Stericycle,” said Cindy J. Miller, president and chief executive officer at Stericycle. “Last year, we securely shredded and recycled 1.1 billion pounds of paper globally through our Shred-it® secure information destruction services. By partnering with the Arbor Day Foundation, we’re taking another meaningful step to support the circular economy by revitalizing areas that have suffered from deforestation and helping to restore forests back to their natural state.”  

The Arbor Day Foundation’s mission is to inspire people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees. With the help of its members, donors, and partners its programs help make our world greener and healthier. This aligns with Stericycle’s mission to protect health and well-being in a safe, responsible, and sustainable way. This partnership builds on our ongoing efforts to protect communities from harmful waste and help the healthcare industry make progress towards its sustainability and climate goals.

“Trees play a vital role in the fight against climate change and restore the health and wellness of our ecosystems,” said Dan Lambe, chief executive of the Arbor Day Foundation. “We are proud to partner with Stericycle and applaud its commitment to drive positive change through tree planting that will have lasting benefits for years to come.”

Each of the selected locations and ecosystems offer a unique habitat and home for a variety of species and are situated near where Stericycle team members and customers live and work.

Project Locations

Lake Louisa State Park spans more than 4,300 acres of central Florida. The park has significant impacts on water quality throughout the state, and it also supports a wide range of unique wildlife. Efforts are underway to restore the park’s native sandhill ecosystem, ensuring those benefits can continue for generations. The Arbor Day Foundation will support this important conservation work by planting 30,000 longleaf pine seedlings in the area in 2022.

Longleaf pine, once the dominant tree species in the South, has now dwindled to cover only small patches of land. That loss of ecosystem has been devastating to the nearly 600 animal and plant species that depend on it. The Arbor Day Foundation is currently helping replant more than 400,000 longleaf pine trees in Florida. These trees will be planted across 13 different private lands, reducing forest fragmentation and protecting endangered wildlife like the red-cockaded woodpecker, indigo snake, and gopher tortoise.

Bats play a big role in the health of our planet. Unfortunately, many bat species in the United States are in serious decline, and reforestation is needed to protect them before it’s too late. To aid in this crisis, the Nature Conservancy has created a new Indiana nature preserve—Wallier Woods—dedicated solely to bat conservation. The Arbor Day Foundation is funding the planting of nearly 29,000 trees in Wallier Woods in 2022, restoring habitat for the northern long-eared bat, gray bat and the federally endangered Indiana bat. This work will also benefit bird and rodent species and improve the water quality of the nearby Ohio River.

Land located near the town of New Tecumseth, Ontario, which has low forest cover (less than 8%), is under tremendous pressure from both development and intensive agriculture. The goal of our reforestation project is to convert open agricultural land into a functional forest to provide habitat for wildlife and help control soil erosion. In addition, reforestation will buffer Beeton Creek, as well as expand forest cover within the Simcoe County Greenlands System. This project will aim to completely fill the open fields in 2022 and 2023, which will add a total of 21 half acre forest cover to the municipality.

Finally, England’s Community Forests is a growing network of woodlands and green spaces that connects people with nature. Collectively, these 12 community forests form England’s largest environmental regeneration initiative. As tree planting efforts in this forest increase, so do the benefits—including environmental, health, and economic benefits that will ensure a better future for area communities.

Learn more about Stericycle's environmental sustainability efforts.

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