Plantation Drive held in Bengaluru India in association with Olive Gaea and SankalpTaru
Dubai, UAE, April 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Leading travel management company ATS Travel kicks off its sustainability initiative Go Green in association with Olive Gaea, MENA region’s first carbon offsetting platform, and SankalpTaru, one of India’s leading IT enabled NGO, by planting a sapling each for every employee of the company at the Open Air Prison, Bengaluru India using the Miyawaki technique.
“This event is to be the first of many to be organized by ATS under its Go Green initiative, which aims to help both corporate and individual travelers assess their environmental impact and take necessary steps to address concerns over global warming” informed Mr. Saleem Sharif, Dy. Managing Director of ATS Travel.
“In a bid to enable our clients to compensate for their carbon footprint and become more sustainable in the long term, ATS intends to help reduce the impact of travel emissions without restrictions to daily business by offering various carbon offsetting options,” added Mr. Sharif.
Mr. Vivek Tripathi, Founder and CEO of Olive Gaea who has partnered with ATS Travel to implement the sustainability drive commented: “With local and global organizations and communities racing against time to address climate change and reach Net Zero Carbon targets, we are pleased to play our part and help ATS Travel take climate action. Not only are they minimizing their environmental impact and supporting new plantation activities, they will also empower their clients with innovative and sound sustainability tools.
“Change starts with awareness; that’s why we trust our reporting and carbon offsetting initiatives will go a long way in fostering a greener travel industry in the UAE, led by ATS Travel”.
Mr. Sharif, added “We saw the effect of reduced carbon emissions during the pandemic when the entire world had come to a standstill. Do we really need a pandemic to see the effects of our daily activities? Let us together build a world where we don’t just think about our needs being met. It is time to think about how we can take what we need from the land, but also find ways to compensate for it, so we can leave it as we found it. Our work here today will ensure that there are lush and diverse forests here in the next 2-3 years which will be self-sustaining thereafter.”
The Miyawaki methodology implemented by SankalpTaru in Bengaluru during the ATS tree plantation drive helps create native urban forest ecosystems much quicker. Pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, it involves seedlings planted densely with two to four trees per square meter. The plantation becomes approximately 30 times denser, grows 10 times faster and becomes maintenance-free after a period of 3 years. This helps lower temperatures, reduces air and noise pollution, attracts local birds and insects, and most importantly, creates carbon sinks. The method advocates planting of diverse native species, thereby bringing in more biodiversity.
About ATS Travel
ATS Travel is a 45-year-old travel management company owned by Jamal Ghubash Investments, headquartered in Dubai with branches across the UAE, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Far East and the Indian Subcontinent. ATS Travel offers complete business travel solutions, airline tickets, holidays packages, luxury travel, cruise, travel insurance, car hire, Logistics solutions and all travel related services. The company offers Meetings. Incentives, Exhibitions and Events (MICE) services through its fully owned subsidiary company 5th Element Events. By virtue of its association with ATG USA, ATS Travel is part of a global consortium of travel management companies across 158 countries worldwide. ATS Travel represents ATG across 14 countries within the region. Khaled Ghubash is the Managing Director of the company and the business is headed by its Deputy Managing Director, Saleem Sharif.
About Olive Gaea
Olive Gaea is the first carbon offsetting platform in the MENA region, helping both businesses and individuals to measure and offset their carbon emissions in a couple of clicks. Olive Gaea’s platform provides users with the tools to track and check the impact they are making and rewards them with redeemable points. It also provides REST API solutions for e-commerces to meet their customers’ sustainability needs, Certified Climate Action Labels, and the first Employee Engagement Mobile App to drive sustainability performance.
