Scotch & Soda links with Klarna for reforestation campaign

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 22, 2021

In honour of World Rainforest Day on Tuesday, buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna and Dutch brand Scotch & Soda have kicked off the fashion brand’s long-term partnership with Trees for All with a joint commitment to plant 10,000 trees as consumers shop with the brand.

Trees for All is a global scope foundation that has been carrying out reforestation projects in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia, as well as in the Netherlands for more than 20 years. 

The 10,000 trees Scotch & Soda and Klarna will plant are for two initiatives in the Carara National Park in Costa Rica and the Bongo District of Ghana in West Africa. 

As of this week, every first-time purchase made with Klarna on the fashion brand’s webstore will see a tree planted on behalf of each customer, certified by Trees for All.  

Scotch & Soda’s CMO Stéphane Jaspar said the move “is a very easy way for the Scotch & Soda community to do good and contribute to reforestation efforts in well-defined areas that need it the most”.

Of the 10,000 trees committed, half will be dedicated to restoration efforts in the ecological corridor of the Carara National Park. The park is one of the most biodiverse nature reserves in Central America but has suffered from large-scale deforestation. Trees for All aims to restore the cloud forests in the Turrubares Mountains.  

The Ghana project will come in one of the country’s driest areas that’s home to a significant water source that farmers and surrounding villages depend on for drinking water and irrigation. In the next three years, Trees for All will reforest 50km of eroded riverbanks, and train over 1,500 farmers in forest protection and sustainable land-use techniques, among other initiatives.

At the end of June, Scotch & Soda will start publishing the number of planted trees on a dedicated Trees for All page on its website and there will be further Trees for All projects this year and beyond.

Additionally, the brand has committed to further protect forests by partnering with charity Canopy that collaboratively focuses on forest product procurement to protect the world’s Ancient and Endangered Forests. That comes as the fashion industry has a large part to play in eroding forests due to its use of trees to create cellulosic fabric. By signing up to the CanopyStyle initiative programme, Scotch & Soda “pledges to have 100% of the forest-based fibres used in its collections from Canopy Hot Button ‘green shirt’ ranked producers like Lenzing by 2025.”