We Make a Greater Impact When We Work Together

Mary Kay Celebrates One Millionth Tree Planting with the Arbor Day Foundation

Ten years ago, we formed a partnership with Mary Kay as part of their Pink Doing Green campaign — a commitment to create and maintain sustainable business practices and conserve natural resources. The initiative has made a lasting impact in the last decade, including the planting of our one millionth tree together.

To celebrate this milestone, local officials gathered at Mary Kay's new manufacturing facility in Lewisville, Texas to plant the ceremonial tree: a Chinese pistache.

Pink Doing Green has changed the lives of nearly 35,000 women and children, connecting them to green space by building 20 nature explore classrooms at domestic violence shelters across the country.

Read A Place To Learn, Heal And Grow

Additionally, our partnership has planted trees in forests of need including Bitterroot National Forest, San Bernardino National Forest, Plumas National Forest, Huron National Forest, Pike National Forest, Bastrop State Park, and the Mississippi Alluvial Valley.

Mary Kay’s ongoing support and recognition of the importance of trees to solving global problems serves as a leading example to other corporations around the globe. — Dan Lambe, president of the Arbor Day Foundation.

The planting projects Mary Kay has supported over the last decade is restoring our nation’s forests. Here are a few highlights of our work together.

• Life was brought back to Pike National Forest when they restored ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir after the 2002 Hayman Fire. Pike National Forest is a critical watershed, providing Denver with more than 60 percent of its water.

• In Huron-Manistee National Forest, replanting jack pine trees provided new habitat for shorebirds, gulls, eagles, hawks, loons, and the endangered Kirtland’s Warbler. The small, colorful, bird that nests on the ground under the living branches of small jack pine trees requires 30 to 40 acres to raise a nest of young. Creation of this specific habitat was crucial to recovery of this endangered species.
• In California, where much of the state’s water comes from forests, Mary Kay helped restore two forests after the devastation of wildfires: Plumas National Forest which spans more than 1 million acres in the northern Sierra Nevada; and the San Bernardino National Forest, one of the country’s most visited forests for recreation.

• Trees planted in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley help improve the water quality by filtering out pollutants in the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, bringing sustainable and flourishing life back to those lands.

• Loblolly pines were planted in Bastrop, Texas following the single most destructive wildfire in Texas history. These loblolly pines provide refuge for the endangered Houston toad, and provide recreation for individuals in and around the Austin area.

Collectively, the trees planted through these projects have removed 18,160 tons of air pollutants, intercepted more than 38 billion galls of rainfall, and sequestered 264,090 tons of carbon. With the support of Mary Kay, we are bringing life back to our nation’s forests and restoring critical wildlife. We thank partners like Mary Kay for their commitment to tree planting.

Visit arborday.org to learn how your company can plant trees to meet sustainable development goals.