SCOTCH & SODA TEAMS UP WITH KLARNA TO SUPPORT GLOBAL REFORESTATION EFFORTS

In honor of World Rainforest Day, Klarna is joining forces with Scotch & Soda to kick off and support the launch of the brand’s long-term partnership with Trees for All – a global scope foundation carrying out reforestation projects in Central and South America, Africa, and Asia as well as in the Netherlands for more than 20 years.

Scotch & Soda and Klarna have committed to planting 10,000 trees across two initiatives in the Carara National Park in Costa Rica and the Bongo District of Ghana in West Africa. With every first-time purchase made with Klarna on scotch-soda.com, a tree will be planted on behalf of each customer, certified by Trees for All.

“We are very excited that Klarna is teaming up with us to kick off our long-term initiative to support the Trees for All foundation,” said Stéphane Jaspar, CMO of Scotch & Soda. “We are looking forward to helping restore local ecosystems on behalf of our customers starting today. It is a very easy way for the Scotch & Soda community to do good and contribute to reforestation efforts in well-defined areas that need it the most.”

“Facilitating innovation and change to make a positive impact on the world is a core element of Klarna’s culture and, as a global brand and business, we have a responsibility to tackle some of the most pressing sustainability challenges,” added David Sandström, CMO of Klarna. “Through this campaign with Scotch & Soda and Trees for All, we encourage and enable customers to take action with an individual step that collectively contributes to reducing and preventing deforestation around the world.”

Of the 10,000 trees committed, 5,000 trees will be dedicated to restoration efforts in the ecological corridor of Costa Rica’s Carara National Park. The park is one of the most biodiverse nature reserves in Central America, but due to large-scale deforestation, many of its plants and animal species have become scarce. Trees for All aims to restore the cloud forests in the Turrubares Mountains.

Scotch & Soda and Klarna will also contribute 5,000 trees to the Bongo District of Ghana, one of the country’s driest areas. The area is home to a significant water source that farmers and surrounding villages depend on for drinking water and irrigating the land – the reservoir of the Vea Dam, into which the Yarigatanga River flows. Over the next three years, Trees for All will reforest 50 kilometers of eroded riverbanks, establish 150 hectares of agroforestry, plant native and fruit trees, and train over 1,500 farmers in forest protection and sustainable land-use techniques to ensure long-term management of the area.

Following the 10,000 trees launch initiative with Klarna, Scotch & Soda will continue its long-term partnership with Trees for All by further supporting the foundation’s project in Ghana this year, as well as in other countries in the future, including at home in the Netherlands and in South-East Asia. In addition, the brand commits to further protect forests by partnering with Canopy, a not-for-profit organization that collaboratively focuses on forest product procurement to protect the world’s Ancient and Endangered Forests. The global fashion industry has an important environmental impact, as more than 200 million trees are logged every year and turned into cellulosic fabric. By signing up to the CanopyStyle initiative program, Scotch & Soda pledges to have 100 percent of the forest-based fibers used in its collections from Canopy Hot Button ‘green shirt’ ranked producers (like Lenzing) by 2025.