SIBUR’s volunteers have restored 1 hectare of forest near Tobolsk

3 october 2022

On October 1, a sapling planting campaign took place in Tobolsk as part of the Forest Formula project implemented within the framework of SIBUR's social investment program, the Formula for Good Deeds. The campaign was made possible thanks to the support of Tyumen Oblast’s Forestry Department and the Tobolsk branch of the Tyumen Air and Ground-Based Forest Protection Service.

The campaign attracted 98 SIBUR employees and members of their families, as well as activists from school forestry teams. Thanks to the volunteers' hard work, another hectare of forest land was reclaimed where the participants planted some 4,400 pine saplings.

Taking care of the environment is one of the priorities of SIBUR's Sustainable Development Strategy, with the company planning to plant at least 5 million trees by 2025. More than 2.7 million new trees have been planted in the vicinity of Tobolsk since 2014 thanks to a succession of SIBUR's projects.

We have been carrying out sapling planting campaigns in Tobolsk since 2019 with the help of SIBUR volunteers, their families and our partners. Over this time, we have already managed to restore 6 hectares of forest land and plant more than 26,000 saplings. We are very pleased to see that our employees actively support the company's initiative; bringing their whole families to these events, and that a whole community of eco-activists is taking shape within SIBUR. Sapling planting initiatives is a good example of caring for the environment, a cornerstone for building an eco-friendly lifestyle, Elena Snezhko, manager and head of the Formula for Good Deeds social investment program, commented.

Before the campaign kicked off, employees of the Tyumen Air Base gave the volunteers a master class explaining how to properly handle the Sword of Kolesov (a special tool for planting seedlings) and how not to damage the root system of the seedlings.

Together with our students, we have been participating in such annual seedling planting campaigns since 2019. Our school forestry team’s activists really enjoy being part of these events. They are interested in ecology, and the environment being their number one priority, such campaigns allow them to acquire new knowledge and experience new emotions, and learn the process of reforestation firsthand, Tatiana Shchidlovskaya, head of the Forest’s Friends school forestry team at Tobolsk’s School No. 14, noted.

This is not the first time we've been involved in a campaign such as this. It's always a family occasion for us, but today we were only able to come here just the two of us, myself and my son. It's great that such campaigns do take place here. It is a great experience for the children, an opportunity to be out of doors and do something good for the nature and the urban environment. I am sure that we will continue participating and will plant more than one extra tree, Yulia Silchenko, a leading expert with ZapSibNeftekhim’s Design Department, commented.

We decided to take part in the campaign as a whole family in order to show our children how important it is to plant forests and to spend time outdoors at the same time. This is the first time we took part in the campaign, but we will definitely do it again, Evgeniya Pahnutova, spouse of Oleg Pahnutov, head of ZapSibNeftekhim’s polyethylene production unit, emphasized.

I wholeheartedly support our company's environmental policies, and I especially enjoy the planting process. This kind of campaign is an opportunity to leave a mark. It will be interesting to drive through this area a few years later and to see how the saplings are doing. We always try to take our children to all these campaigns to teach them to take care of the nature and to do menial work, Alexander Aul, head of the power supply department at ZapSibNeftekhim LLC, noted.