SIBUR's eco-volunteers and partners planted over 13,000 pine tree seedlings in Tobolsk’s forest

21 may 2022

On May 21, a tree-planting campaign wend underway in Tobolsk as part of the Forest Formula project implemented within the framework of SIBUR's Formula for Good Deeds social investment program. The campaign enjoyed support of Tyumen Oblast’s Forestry Department and of the Tyumen Air and Ground Forest Protection Base’s Tobolsk branch.

More than 150 SIBUR employees and their family members as well as activists representing ZapSibNeftekhim’s Veterans’ Council took part in this conservation initiative. Thanks to the volunteers' efforts, over 13,000 pine saplings were planted on an area covering 3 hectares of a new forest.

SIBUR’s Sustainable Development Strategy identifies caring attitude toward the environment as one of the company’s top priorities, with the company now looking at planting at least 5 million trees by 2025. Since 2014, a total of more than 2.7 million new trees have been planted in and around the Tobolsk area thanks to a series of SIBUR-led projects.

Environmental protection is one of the key focus areas of our Formula for Good Deeds social investment program. As early as back in 2019, we decided that we need to have a reforestation project. Since then, thanks to the efforts of our employees and school forestries’ activists, we have been able to plant more than 13,000 saplings. This year, we took additional steps to clean up the planting area from any waste and trash because we couldn't stand idly by after we heard the crunching sound of empty bottles breaking and crumbling under our feet. I am very happy that increasingly more SIBUR employees and their children choose to join our campaigns. This is yet another proof that we have chosen the right trajectory for our company's social investments in the field of environment, Elena Belskaya, Head of ZapSibNeftekhim’s Department of Government Relations and Socio-Economic Projects, noted.

Prior to the campaign’s launch, the staff at the Tyumen Air Base put on a master class for the participating volunteers to demonstrate the appropriate planting techniques and explain how to avoid damaging the saplings’ roots and ensure their survival. In addition, the campaign’s participants gathered and disposed of 15 bags of trash. In the fall of 2022, the survival rate of the young pine trees is going to be assessed to help develop a care plan for the areas where previous tree planting campaigns had taken place.

Joining the campaign together with our colleagues was a spur-of-the-moment decision that we didn't regret one bit. We are very happy that we were able to help the environment by being involved in planting trees that will be growing thanks to our efforts, Olesya Milokumova and Evelina Bakiyeva, employees at ZapSibNeftekhim’s production parks responsible for receipt, storage and shipment of raw materials and finished products, noted.

This was the first time I've taken part in such a massive-scale campaign. And I have a lot of positive impressions of the magnitude of our joint work we did today. My partner and I thought that it was thanks to such campaigns that we will be remembered by future generations, Tatyana Bobova, member of ZapSibNeftekhim's Veterans’ Council, commented.

I gave my consent to take part in this campaign the moment my mother suggested it. I really like planting forest trees; we’re thus doing a great service to the city of Tobolsk. I will definitely take part in follow-on campaigns, Zhdan Urazov, a young volunteer who took part in seedling planting together with his parents for the second time, shared.

Upon the campaign’s completion, all of its participants were offered to support the #PlantATree eco-challenge that is taking place right now as part of the Formula for Good Deeds program. To participate, one needs to plant a tree, document it by taking a photo or a video, and publish a post on VKontakte using the hashtags of #PlantATree and # SIBUR’sVolunteers, thereby inviting their followers to repeat this good deed.