Oil companies have traditionally had a yen for baking the earth for profit. But for a change, India’s largest refiner and fuel retailer IndianOil is saying “TreeCheers” to show it cares.
According to Times of India, the company’s latest marketing campaign underlines aims to mitigate the environmental sting of growing car – and fuel – sales by planting one tree for each new car, auto or two-wheeler that came to any of its petrol pumps for a refill between November 12 and 16, coinciding with the Diwali sales.
“More than 2.26 lakh customers with new vehicles visited out pumps during the programme. We have so far planted more than a lakh-and-a-half trees and plan to complete the rest within this year. Diwali is the time when people usually prefer to buy cars. The campaign is our effort to join hands with our consumers in helping the environment,” company chairman S M Vaidya told TOI.
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These 2.26 lakh trees will result in carbon sequestration of 1.36 lakh tonne CO2 emission. “The plantation in such significant numbers across the country will cut pollution and enhance the green cover,” Vaidya said.
He said the trees are being planted at the company’s refineries and other installations, including petrol pumps. “We considered planting trees in cities but there’s only so much space in many. So we decided to do the plantation at our installations as it will also allow us to take care till they grow,” Vaidya said.
IndianOil had also taken up an urban afforestation initiative, ‘Lungs of City’, in 2019-20 and planted over 80,000 trees to create extensive green cover in 13 cities.