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When was the last time you climbed a tree?

For most of us, it’s probably been a while. But as a kid, didn’t you love the feeling of being tucked away between the branches, connected with nature and on top of the world?

Trees do make a wonderful place to spark the imagination. But they’re also much more than that. In fact, trees matter more to our planet now than ever before. And, sadly, they’re also facing more threats than they ever have.

In this article, discover why trees are so important, what challenges threaten trees today, and how you can help protect them.

Your company cares about the planet – and it shows. You encourage cycling to work, there are recycling bins throughout the office, and the employee Christmas gifts? Yup, you guessed it – sustainable, hand-picked products with low environmental impact.

In other words, you’re doing everything right. Or, are you? 

The sustainability jungle, which is complicated as it is, can be even harder to navigate from the office chair. One thing, in particular, trips most of us up – namely, composting. And as it happens, it’s also one of the most important things to get right.

As climate champions, this day has been marked in our calendars for a long time. Each year, as Earth Day rolls around, a new theme is announced to spark important conversations around some aspect of the climate crisis, and you can bet we’re here for it. 

This year, the theme is Invest In Our Planet. So, we wanted to take this opportunity to dig into something we see more and more of in the sustainability world – namely, carbon offsetting. 

At Lochtree, we talk about product life cycles a lot. But we know that may have some of you scratching your heads wondering what a product life cycle really is. To make it a little bit easier to understand, we’ve dedicated this whole entire blog to explaining the complexities of a life cycle. 

Assessing a product life cycle requires in-depth monitoring, accounting, and analysis of every step along a product’s existence. It starts the moment we extract raw materials to produce the product. It ends whenever consumers decide to throw it “away” or when it can literally no longer be used. 

Here’s a more comprehensive look at the beginning, middle, and end of a product life cycle.

At this point, it’s no secret – we love our recycling. 

But once we’ve dropped our items into the recycling bin, most of us don’t stop to think about where they go. We’ve done our part – from there, someone else picks up the torch, right?

But recycling is more than just a bin in your kitchen. It’s a global, billion-dollar industry. 

And you may have heard little whispers that the recycling industry is broken. That somewhere along the way, recycling went wrong. But what, exactly, happened? 

Recycling is one of the biggest topics in the sustainability world. It's also one of the first steps people take when they want to live with less impact on our beautiful planet – and with good cause. 

For one, it’s fairly easy to do, and once you’ve learned how to recycle, you’ve got your bases covered. Right?

Well… about that. There’s one thing we rarely discuss when it comes to recycling – the fact that some materials are easier and better to recycle than others.

Finding a durable, sustainable doormat can be, well, a pain. Some of the most durable outdoor mats come with a plastic coating on the bottom. As you probably already know, plastic isn’t great for the environment. At the end of a doormat’s life, whether due to being made of mixed material or being straight up plastic, doormats often can’t be recycled or composted. Instead, you have to send them off to a landfill and live with that little bit of extra environmental guilt. Yikes.

In the sustainability world, recycling has long been everyone’s favorite pet. And for good reason – it’s impactful and simple to do, which is guaranteed to give us earth-lovers a good kick.

But the world is always turning, and new solutions are constantly being invented. So, while you might be very familiar with recycling… have you heard of upcycling?