Gallery
KNYSNA NEWS - Educating the children of our country is difficult enough as it is these days, and when it comes to educating them about the environment and sustainability many people wouldn’t know where to begin.
Learning through having fun and getting the children physically involved in the process though makes it a lot easier and exciting, and that is the way a team made up of dairy producer First Choice and the environmental organisation GreenPop have gone about spreading their message.
Click here for a photo gallery.
On 30 November the team visited Rheenendal Primary School, situated just outside Knysna, and held a planting workshop as part of the First Choice “It’s all good” campaign, when about 30 trees were planted.
"They were also assisted by Peace of Eden based in Rheenendal, community members as well as PR councillor Shakespeare Arends.
GreenPop CEO Misha Teasdale – or "Tree-EO" as he refers to himself – said the Cape Town-based group's mission is to reconnect people with the planet and themselves.
They do this through urban greening and reforestation projects, spreading environmental awareness, and activating people through green festivals and workshops across Southern Africa.
“We even have projects in Tanzania and Zambia. We reconnect people (with the planet and themselves) through immersive educational experiences and get them to plant trees,” said Teasdale.
He added that he hoped the area at Rheenendal Primary would one day become a little forest that the kids can enjoy, and that it will add to the area's existing ecosystem.
According to Woodlands Dairy and First Choice sales and marketing general manager Tinus Pretorius, the “It’s all good” campaign resonates with everything GreenPop stands for; an ethos of sustainability, good environmental practices, ethical business and quality dairy products.
“The planting workshop is an extension of this. We believe in the need to balance the pursuit of business success together with making the world a better place.
"The planet is important to us and we have programmes to ensure sustainability which also encompasses people and profits.
“We live in a time of unprecedented change. In business we face challenges and opportunities that are more critical and complex than ever before – where the consequences of failure are unimaginable and the impact of our decisions are felt instantly across the planet,” he said.
To learn more about the work done by GreenPop, visit www.greenpop.org.
'We bring you the latest Knysna, Garden Route news'
