02 Feb 2022, Siniloan, Laguna, Sierra Madre Mountain Range.  20 super active Fleet Management Company executives traveled to the Laguna Quezon Land Grant, an over 9000 hectare protected forests located in Siniloan, Laguna to plant 5000 native Philippine forest trees, as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) advocacies to offset their carbon footprint.

Following a leisurely-paced trek to their allocation planting site, and a field demonstration on how to debag the seedlings (Bani, Lipote and Malaruhat), the Fleet team eagerly started planting, singing and picturing all their efforts, as this was quite a monumental task, to plant a average of 250 seedlings per person. Thankfully, they were accompanied by a team of 12 local/community based forest guardians from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB – FEED’s first Living Legacy partner) to facilitate the planting before the heavy afternoon rains arrived to water the seedlings.

One participant proclaimed – “We are young, wild and free and that’s why we can tackle 250 per person!”, which explains the title of this article. Thank you Fleet Management Company for giving your 100% to this climate change action program, we look forward to sharing with you the carbon sequestration data to help you achieve your carbon offset targets!

On Carbon Sequestration – How Much CO2 can our trees absorb?

Trees are often referred to as the “lungs of the Earth” as they are able to store carbon and produce oxygen, which is essential to many life forms. Trees also stabilise soil and reduce air temperature and humidity, whilst also reducing flooding and improving water quality. Without trees, most fauna and flora would not survive, what more humans?

It is widely accepted that a typical tree can absorb around 22 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year when in fully grown status, meaning that saplings, seedlings and younger trees – whether mangroves or primary or secondary forest trees – absorb around half, so conservatively say 11 kgs per year (also widely used by most international forestry agencies around the world).

So, over a lifetime of a tropical tree (100 years), one tree can absorb around 1 tonne of CO2. Although this figure seems large, it should be measured in perspective: to date we humans generate around 40 billions tonnes of CO2 each year on Earth. Which means, that we need to plant 40 billion trees annually to offset these emissions.

Even if we could, though, land availability for agriculture and farming, including livestock production – one of the largest, increasing land conversion threats worldwide aside from urbanisation – would be significantly reduced. Which then translates into water and food security challenges, among others, but not limited to e.g.: urbanization and lack of city spaces leads to housing and commercial developments in critical watersheds, thereby threatening our fresh water supply and declining forest cover; or agricultural pollution threatening crops and livestocks, affecting poultry, dairy, pork and beef food production systems, and so on and so forth.

Thanks to our Fleet Management ecowarriors, and every other FEED partner and patron who enable community based reforestation to take place. If we estimate the carbon sequestration of Fleet’s 5000 upland native Philippine trees have the potential to offset* 5,000 tonnes of CO2 in these trees’ lifetime.

*A CARBON OFFSET IS A REDUCTION OR REMOVAL OF EMISSIONS OF CARBON DIOXIDE OR OTHER GREENHOUSE GASES MADE IN ORDER TO COMPENSATE FOR EMISSIONS MADE ELSEWHERE. OFFSETS ARE MEASURED IN TONNES OF CARBON DIOXIDE-EQUIVALENT. ONE TON OF CARBON OFFSET REPRESENTS THE REDUCTION OR REMOVAL OF ONE TON OF CARBON DIOXIDE OR ITS EQUIVALENT IN OTHER GREENHOUSE GASES. (WIKIPEDIA, 2022)

Congratulations Fleet Management Company Eco-Warriors! May the Forest be with you always!

Photo Gallery

Additional Gallery

GPS Coordinates of Planting Site

Use any GPS (Global Positioning System) software / applications to input the latitude and longitude coordinates to be able to remotely see the location of your trees planted. Some examples include:

• https://www.gps-coordinates.net
• https://gps-coordinates.org
• https://www.maps.ie/coordinates.htmlhttp://www.mapcoordinates.net/en

GPS Data and Pics were sourced from the 2023 updated monitoring report for Fleet Management:

About Fleet Management Limited

Fleet Management Limited is one of the world’s largest independent third-party ship management firms with a 20-year history, over 12,000 qualified seafarers and over 350 vessels under management.

Headquartered in Hong Kong and supported by offices globally, Fleet Management is dedicated to maintaining the asset value of our clients’ vessels as economically as possible. We ensure the vessels under our management are kept in optimal condition in terms of mechanics, technology and crew management – and in a state of operational readiness and compliance.

Fleet Management manages a range of vessels including bulk carriers, container vessels, general cargo carriers, oil tankers, gas carriers, and chemical tankers, ranging from 20,000 to 319,000 DWT – with many being young and energy-efficient with an age profile below the industry average.

Fleet Management Ltd
For the last 20 years, Fleet Management has pioneered many of the crewing, safety, and technical standards that have become benchmarks in the industry. We understand that to be one of the world’s best ship management companies, we need to be continually innovating to stay ahead of the curve. That is why we continue to invest in technology – and today, through our proprietary PARIS software, we are able to provide ship owners with an online real-time dashboard showing every facet of the vessel’s profitability – an accomplishment we believe no other ship manager has achieved thus far.

Fleet Management offers a comprehensive range of ship management services that we tailor to each vessel owner’s needs. These include technical and engineering services, crew training and management, new building supervision, insurance, independent surveys, superintendence, audits and commercial management.

With a strong compliance team internationally, we observe the industry’s highest standards for classification, flag state, and local environmental regulation. Today, all of our vessels under management are assured by the industry’s highest standards, which include ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and ISM code compliance certificates from DNV.

As a leader in ship management, not only do we operate as an economically sustainable business, but also as an environmentally responsible organization. Safety, not just to our staff but also to the environment, is one of our key commitments to our clients, governmental organizations and other third-party stakeholders. As a result, Fleet Management has one of the best safety records in the industry and is leading the field in maritime pollution protection technology.

Fleet Management Limited is a proud subsidiary of The Caravel Group Limited – together we are dedicated to providing our clients first-class service with a wealth of knowledge and experience, and equally important, to expressing transparency, commitment, and integrity in our services and philosophy.

For more information, see: https://maritime-union.com/company/fleet-management-services-philippines-corp

NATURE IS SPEAKING (Narrated by Julia Roberts)

What can I do to stop climate change?

“As the world warms, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense, sea levels are rising, prolonged droughts are putting pressure on food crops, and many animal and plant species are being driven to extinction. It’s hard to imagine what we as individuals can do to resolve a problem of this scale and severity.

The good news: We are not alone. People, communities, cities, businesses, schools, faith groups and other organizations are taking action. We’re fighting like our lives depend on it — because they do.

In a world of more than seven billion people, each of us is a drop in the bucket. But with enough drops, we can fill any bucket.” –  David Suzuki

Check out some of the ways you can take more climate change action.

For example, Climate Action groups are the local solution to a global crisis. Right now people just like you are coming together to develop practical, local solutions and make their towns and cities more climate-friendly. Are you ready to join them? Find out what’s happening near you.

More here: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate-change/what-can-I-do-to-stop-climate-change

Contact FEED

In 2015, the Philippine government submitted to the United Nations the country’s commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The country committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030. The carbon dioxide reductions will come from the sectors of energy, transport, waste, forestry and industry.  Join us!  Help us reverse the Earth’s “hothouse climate” tipping point.

Tree-Planting with FEED

Contact us at FEED for more details, to join our regular activities or to design your own tree-nurturing event: info@feed.org.ph or call/text +63 (0)917 552 4722.

© Fostering Education & Environment for Development, Inc.