8 Ways to Celebrate Arbor Day at Work

With so much of our day spent in front of a screen, we risk losing touch with our most important asset: the natural world. Zoom meetings, email notifications, and Teams messages command our attention, making it difficult to find the time (or energy) to appreciate all that the outdoors has to offer.

The month of April affords us the perfect opportunity to break out of our routines and dedicate time to appreciating our shared planet. By engaging your employees, customers, and the greater community around Earth Day (April 22nd) and Arbor Day (April 29th), you can lead by example and drive positive impact for the environment. Earth Day and Arbor Day at work can mean different things for different companies but the goal is the same: to get your employees meaningfully engaged and outdoors.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Coordinate a tree planting event on your corporate campus or at a local park, trail, or green space. This is a great opportunity to engage your employees through a mental wellness boosting outdoor activity.

2. Develop social media content to get both customers and employees engaged. Then you could organize a tree scavenger hunt, host a tree photo contest, or share educational content about tree planting and care. 
3. Recognize employees and customers by planting trees in their honor or providing them with trees to plant in their yards. 
4. Organizing a tree walk is a great way to team up with your wellness department. Search for the biggest tree, the oldest tree, and different tree species at a nearby forest, in a local park, or along city streets. Also contact your parks and recreation department, city forester, extension office coordinator, or girl/boy scouts to inquire about tour guides. 
5. Put together a gift basket that includes items that encourage more sustainable practices or contribute to an earth-related cause. For example, check out Arbor Day Foundation coffee, apparel, and other gift items here. 

6. Bring in a speaker to educate employees about ways they can contribute to the earth in your community. Local tree planting or beautification organizations, parks and recreation agencies, and businesses promoting environmentally friendly or carbon-neutral products are all great places to start looking for speakers. You can also give away earth-friendly goods and information about sustainability during the presentation. 
7. Encourage earth-friendly donations from customers and employees. Then consider matching donations to nonprofit, environmentally focused organizations. 
8. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Save money AND trees by creating a campaign to reduce paper usage. Be sure to recycle what you do use.

Read More: 150 Ways to Celebrate Trees on Arbor Day

Need Help With the Details?

However you decide to celebrate Earth Day and Arbor Day at work, we're here to help. We can assist you in organizing tree planting events, tree giveaways, trees planted in honor, and more. Just reach out!

Note: Some states celebrate Arbor Day at different times of the year to coincide with planting seasons. Find out when your state celebrates Arbor Day.