FAQ

Question: Saving one tree for every bar sold sounds great, but how much does a tree cost?

Answer: Brand Stand does not place monetary values on individual trees – our policy is that while land has value from the practical standpoint of needing to secure the land legally, trees should not. 

Question: Common! I’m buying a delicious/organic/Fairtrade chocolate bar - how much does that tree really cost?

Answer: If cut down, your tree would have a small value for the men and women of tropical areas that use illegal tree harvesting to supplement or sustain their incomes.   However, saving trees involves the commitment to removing them from circulation and declaring “this tree has no price”.  For better or worse, Brand Stand chooses not to evaluate the price of individual trees – a justifiable choice considering that the secret of truly “saving” these trees has little to do with money. 

Question: Okay, if it’s not money, what is the real secret to saving trees?

Answer: The real secret of saving a tree involves a life-changing commitment to the land and local peoples on the scale of 10, 20 and even 30 years – like any modern-day challenge, this involves money, but it also involves unlimited time and a strong dedication to fighting deforestation itself and the social factors that cause it. 

Here are some things that we often consider in the Organic Meltdown headquarters:

      Long-term commitments are key.

• You might buy and enjoy your chocolate bar today, but really you’re helping us embark on a journey that will last well beyond our lifetime.  Brand Stand extends the Organic Meltdown commitment to you by certifying the “One Bar saves One Tree” program.

• The first commitment is to secure the land (show you where your tree is located on a satellite map), and begin the process of defending your tree by hiring local rangers to patrol the forest, raising fences, and other projects that discourage deforestation or illegal tree cutting. Your Organic Meltdown chocolate bar really begins a chain reaction that lasts well into the future, perhaps beyond our lifetimes.

• The World Land Trust is instrumental in taking these initial steps to secure the land, and extending the commitment into the future on a timescale that will last for generations to come.  Basically, we are forming a bond with the land that is much more serious that the single act of saving the tree on the day we enjoy a chocolate bar – we are thinking about challenges that may arise in 30 years as forests dwindle and the pressure to cut down the remaining trees increases.  

• Luckily, we’re fighting a good fight and the World Land Trust has the professional capabilities and local partners necessary to win it.

• Obviously, the initial investment in the land and trees we seek to save includes donating significant, jaw-dropping quantities of money.  In conjunction with the World Land Trust, we help purchase large and endangered forests of strategic value – either because they are located between the tree cutters and a national park, or because they are home to unique and endangered animals and plant species found in no other place on Earth.  Examples of current projects can be found at www.organicmeltdown.com.

• Sometimes we can’t wait to sell the chocolate because land that we have been monitoring via the World Land Trust and local partners will be sold to logging companies or other commercial interests.  We act pre-emptively to save the trees, knowing that each acre may be home to a plant or animal unknown in any other place on Earth.

• We begin assigning trees to each chocolate bar based on the land we have already secured via the World Land Trust.

• Currently, we have a project in place that has secured a vast forest of some 700,000 trees – of which we will assign 500,000 happy, chocolate-lovers their own special tree.

Question: Why do you only assign 500,000 of the trees if, for instance there are really 700,000 in your tropical forest?

Answer: Brand Stand chose early on to error on the side of caution – currently we only assign 70-75% of the trees in our sponsored forests, to account for nature’s many wonders, including streams and rivers that flow through these areas, meadows and open areas that do not include trees, and other natural factors.  This gives new meaning to the old quip: “If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?” At Brand Stand, every tree is important.

Question: Why does Brand Stand do this, I mean, save a tree for every chocolate bar sold?

Answer: Brand Stand is about, well, “brands that stand for something!” and Organic Meltdown stands for saving trees. 

Question: Well, you work with the World Land Trust – do they guarantee that my tree is saved when I buy a chocolate bar?

Answer: The World Land Trust has been operating for nearly 20 years, and the first forests they helped to preserve in ecologically-significant and endangered areas are thriving today, and expanding every year as new land is saved and new trees planted where the old once lived.   YES, the World Land Trust guarantees that if you buy an Organic Meltdown chocolate bar, you will save a tree.  Also, Brand Stand uses modern technology to show you, with incredible accuracy, exactly where your tree is located.  Finally, if you choose to register your tree online, you will receive an emailed certificate from the World Land Trust ensuring that your tree is safe and sound.

Question: How may trees are out there?  Will you be saving a lot of trees?

Answer: Consider the following: at the current rate of tree cutting, in less than 40 years tropical forests will no longer exist.  At one time, tropical forests covered one third of the Earth’s soil. Our goal is to save 5 million trees by 2012, but really this is just the first step in an enormous task that will involve not just our small chocolate company, but local communities around the world, national governments, concerned citizens and the combined efforts of us all.  The task is large, but Organic Meltdown is designed to prove that there is a “sweet solution” to climate change, and it can only be found if we work together to create innovative and thought-provoking solutions to the current crisis.

Question: “Where is my tree?”

The Facts: Deforestation accounts for nearly 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while our cars only account for 7-8%.
We save trees, period.  Currently our forest holds 500,000 trees, calculated via satellite
For every bar of Organic Meltdown that’s sold, Brand Stand makes a donation to the World Land Trust to save a tree. The trees are then owned by local conservation groups and managed by the World Land Trust, an international charity established in 1989 and based in the UK.
Thus, they are saved from destruction.