Peace-of-mind investing

Recently we celebrated Earth Hour, the International Day of Forests and Singapore’s Green Plan 2030.

One of Singapore’s key targets is to plant 1 million more trees in Singapore.

Globally, each week, nearly 475,000 acres of forest are senselessly cleared, releasing millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere destabilizing the global climate and leaving the future of our planet uncertain.

The destruction is overwhelming, with many of us feeling helpless to stop it.

But what if we had the chance to save an entire forest?

How much would it cost us if that forest were the size of Singapore (728 sqkm = 180,000 acres)?

• 1 acre of mature rainforest contains about 500 trees.

• The cost to conserve 1 acre of rainforest: 𝟮 𝗨𝗦$ (check this out: Rainforest Trust Projects)

=> Investment = 180,000 acres x 2 US$ = 360,000 US$ = less than 500,000 S$.

So for the cost of one shoebox apartment, you could protect a rainforest the size of Singapore!

How many trees would that be?

180,000 acres x 500 trees = 90 million trees.

How much does it cost the Singapore government to plant 1 million trees? Is it 20S$, 50S$ or 100S$ per tree? I don’t know. You tell me.

I only know that for a small fraction of that cost, we could protect 90 times more trees and help to absorb and store even more CO2 (mature trees vs young trees or saplings).

Should Singapore go beyond its little red-dot-shores & make a real impact on climate change?

Should you?

Well, if you want to make a real impact, you should do it.

That forest would also store 26.5 Mio metric tonnes of CO2 equivalents (1 acre stores average 147.5 metric tonnes of CO2 equivalents).

In 2016, Singapore emitted 48.4 Mio metric tonnes (0.14% of global emissions).

The CO2 emissions per capita in Singapore are equivalent to 8.56 tons per person.

So with 2 x 0.5 Mio S$ you could conserve a rainforest that would store the equivalent of Singapore’s annual emissions.

Quite a big bang for your green-dollars, right?

Now where are all the altruists and philanthropists here in Singapore?

And if we want to look beyond individuals, where are the Companies looking for a “nice story” to pep up their marketing messages of “doing good” and “being sustainable”?

Thoughts?