Worldwide, about 180,000,000 Christmas trees are put up yearly, 140,000,000 in Europe alone. This vast consumption comes with a price. The trees are cut down after only five to six years of growth, so we can put them up in our living rooms for a few weeks. One-third of the trees are considered poor quality and sorted out directly by manufacturers or traders. The other two-thirds are then thrown away after Christmas. Independent from its religious background, we see this time of the year as a celebration of togetherness with our loved ones. But we don’t want to reduce the festivities to mountains of waste and consumption. Nor do we want to harm our environment.
Currently, there are some unfulfilling alternatives to a regular Christmas tree: The tree in a pot eventually becomes too fast to big. The tree for rent receives an unlively planting and temperature shock in different environments. The most popular plastic substitute must have been used for over 10 years. Before those years pass, the CO2 footprint is much larger than the annual purchased fir tree. Long transport routes (mostly) from China, the use of plastic and, of course, the lack of the Christmas scent of pine needles didn’t convince us either.
We all want a tree that smells like the anticipation in our childhood, that can be easily decomposed and is not produced from or wrapped in plastics.
So there is a new alternative, rooted in a famous Swedish childhood book and taken into reality from Germany!
The SustainabiliTREE combines the advantages of a classic Christmas tree with those existing alternatives. Thanks to the "Do it yourself" concept, the branches can be arranged however you want them to look - tailor-made for every home.
Using a wooden stand with holes made in Germany from sustainably certified and local wood, natural branches can be plugged in. The SustainabiliTREE is available as "fix"ed and straight of 80 or 170 cm version and also "flex"ible from 160-220 cm version with or without a standing foot - suitable for each need. For those who want to start with a try or are interested in a second small tree or perhaps a gift, the "Shorty" will be a fabulous hint.
So far, conifer trees are usually only used for regular small Christmas trees OR wood. But what if we could do both and harvest them partly annually without killing them? And what if the conifer trees are planted next to leaf or apple trees or even cabbages? This would mean more extended carbon storage, fewer pesticides, more biodiversity, and no one would need to dig out the roots. So, soils can stay happy and healthy, storing more carbon and providing our food!
This variant of the Christmas tree has the potential to permanently promote ecologically sustainable or even better regenerative change in agriculture and forestry.
On the plantations, trees can stand up a minimum of three to four times longer than conventional Christmas tree cultivation. There is also way less soil disturbance from digging out the roots of the felled trees. As a result, soil structure and soil life can flourish. This allows the trees and the soil to store water and CO2 for longer. As a result, resilient ecosystems can be created with more biodiversity and less interference with nature. Equipped to withstand the extreme weather conditions of climate change in future generations. Beneficial for nature AND the livelihood of the farmer.
The decentralised available producers of branches can provide insights into their work and offer their branches that can be shipped via our shop. We want to support them with resources and knowledge to create the best conditions to implement more environmentally friendly practices restoring nature.
With SustainabiliTREE, discarded (Christmas-) trees are given a second "experience" in our living rooms. The crooked, overgrown, misshapen or wrong-positioned trees no longer go to the shredder but shine in our four walls. As a platform, the SustainabiliTREE homepage also wants to make places visible where trees were felled and whose branches can still be used for a SustainabiliTREE. Like food rescue, but for Christmas trees.
Finally, the SustainabiliTREE is a symbol of a conscious treatment of people & nature and of the change in land use from annual to diverse perennial cultivation methods. It will carry the message into many living rooms this Christmas.
