"ifm demands and promotes ecologically conscious decisions and conduct" - that's what is written in the ifm philosophy from 1990. With this in mind, the management selected the birthday presents for the employees for the calendar year 2020.

Next year ifm will have a very special birthday present for their employees: trees. From 2020 the ifm group will support "Plant for the Planet": Grown from a school project, this initiative has become a global movement with the aim to plant trees worldwide, fighting the climate crisis.

The details

In the past years the value of the ifm birthday presents for the employees was about 10 euros per person. The Foundation suggests splitting the sum donated: use half the sum for trees and the other half for the children's and youth work of the initiative. Here children inform other children about world citizenship and climate justice and encourage them to interfere in their own shaping of the future. And that's exactly what ifm wants to do. Planting a tree costs one euro. ifm will give another two euros per employee so that six trees can be planted per person and six euros will go to the children's and youth work.

Help where help is needed

The trees will be planted on the Yucatán Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico. Here "Plant for the Planet" bought a plot of land of 22,500 ha to ensure that no investor can ever use the land for other purposes. The Foundation is the largest local employer with about 100 people employed. The seeds for the trees are selected manually. Nine different native tree species will be planted such as precious woods from the mahogany family, almond trees, gumbo-limbo and catalpa trees as well as various timber and fruit trees. Three years after planting the trees will blossom for the first time. Moreover, the forests are also used for beekeeping, which is also useful for local farmers. And on top of that the trees contribute to a better climate worldwide.