The Archiblox Commitment to the Plant-a-Tree Program The Archiblox Commitment to the Plant-a-Tree Program

At Archiblox we ‘walk the talk’ by our commitment to the Australian Native Reforestation to ensure that we can manage our own carbon footprint and to be a leader in bringing about change in the design and construction industry.

We are dedicated to our partnership with the Carbon Neutral Plant-a-Tree program and continue to support the cause
year after year.

Carbon Neutral is a carbon solutions provider and reforestation developer. They work with organisations across Australia to minimise their impact on the environment by working to measure, reduce and offset greenhouse gas emissions.

The Archiblox philosophy is centred around sustainability, which we incorporate into all aspects of our business from design through to construction. We are pro-active in our goal to promote solutions to help conserve our precious flora and fauna, to sustain this beautiful land for generations to come.

Our partnership with the Plant-A-Tree program is one of our much loved affiliations. Therefore, we are proud to announce our certification for another year as a proud supporter of the Carbon Neutral Plant-A-Tree program.

The Yarra Yarra Biodiversity Corridor was once a large and vibrant forest of York Gum and Salmon Gum trees. However, with the influx of europeans in the 1900s they cleared 97% of this land for farms. Since this destruction, the soil is no longer suitable for agriculture and farming in this region as it is increasingly uneconomic to sustain.

The Plant-A-Tree Program has been to developed to restore this land back to it’s natural state and connect these small patches of existing vegetation up to the 12 nature reserves to create a green corridor.

The trees and shrubs which are currently planted have since flourished and are re-invigorating the environment and local communities. This progress has also provided support for businesses in surrounding townships, including opportunities for aboriginal communities. Businesses developed from this program include sandalwood production and beekeeping, along with plans to incorporate eco-cultural tourism – such as bush tucker tours.

Carbon Neutral has developed a pioneering approach to reforestation. The method being direct-seeding. This process begins with provenance seed collection (to which they have already collected upwards of 66 different species), seed pre-treatment, equipment design and modification to control weeds and yield water. This greatly reduces the costs per stem, allowing for faster planting over large areas and better diversity, survival and growth rates.

There is also a wide variation of plant density across the sites. This is due to a high ratio of Acacia species – the program has a quantity allocation of 1,650 stems per hectare.

By partnering with Carbon Neutral, we are practicing what we preach. The trees we purchase as part of the program are planted to work towards sequestering carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere. As a rule of thumb it is estimated 10-15 trees (and shrubs) will sequester 1 tonne of CO2-e over 30 years.

Plantings are suited to the Mediterranean climate. Though climate change means reducing rainfall, the Mid West region of WA benefits from more valuable summer rainfall through low pressure tropical rain-bearing depressions from January through to April. The native seedlings sown are accustomed to these conditions and have prospered as a result.

Carbon Neutral also manages bushfire dangers by having a well researched fire management plan, this includes using sheep to graze between plantings to cut fire risk.

So far the program has restored over 300 ha of cleared land, benefiting the amazing richness and diversity of plant and animal species. There has been over 450 species of flora, insects and birds identified. This includes 13 bird species of conservation significance as well as threatened species such as Malleefowl, Bush Stone-curlew, Carnaby’s Black-Cockatoo, Western Spiny-tailed Skink and the Woylie (Brush-tailed Bettong).