FedEx Canada helping to green schools across country

TORONTO, Ont. — Federal Express Canada is working with Tree Canada to give back to schools and communities across the country.

The duo will be focused primarily on the Greening Canada’s School Grounds program, which asks volunteers to replace schoolyard asphalt with vegetation to enhance its play, educational, ecological and aesthetic value.

“We at FedEx Express Canada are committed to minimizing our environmental impact throughout our business and working with Tree Canada is an obvious step towards a greener future,” said Pina Starnino, vice-president of operations for FedEx Express Canada.  “Our team is proud to be able to give back to the communities where we live and work, and programs like Greening Canada’s School Grounds allow us to do just that, while providing a positive impact on the environment, supplying cleaner air for the future, increasing wildlife habitat and reducing the effects of global warming.”

In the first year of the program, FedEx Express Canada employees will help plant trees in 15 communities across Canada. Official celebrations got underway at École Renaissance in Burlington, Ont. June 15 and will continue across the country until later this fall.

In addition to the Greening Canada’s School Grounds program, FedEx Express Canada will also provide Tree Canada with ongoing natural emergency relief assistance and will help with Canadian reforestation projects.

“We are so honoured and appreciative of sponsors like FedEx Express Canada, that choose to support our cause,” said Michael Rosen, president of Tree Canada.  “With FedEx Express Canada’s commitment to our new relationship, it is crucial that we recognize their efforts.”

In celebration of this year’s Earth Day, FedEx Express Canada helped Tree Canada plant 6,250 trees across the country in support of its natural emergency relief and reforestation projects, which included the Kelowna, B.C. lands burned by the 2003 wildfires and the Ontario Land Reclamation Project in Sudbury, Ont.

This year, FedEx Express Canada employees will participate in tree plantings at schools in the following locations:

 *   Kelowna, B.C.

 *   Richmond, B.C.

 *   Edmonton, Alta.

 *   Calgary, Alta.

 *   Lumsden, Sask.

 *   Winnipeg, Man.

 *   Toronto, Ont.

 *   Kitchener, Ont.

 *   St. Catharines, Ont.

 *   Burlington, Ont.

 *   Ottawa, Ont.

 *   Montréal, Que.

 *   Gatineau, Que,

 *   Fredericton, N.B.

 *   Dartmouth, N.S.