How you can help the SAG Awards — and the environment — by claiming and naming your tree in our forest

Every one of the 1,700 guests at Sunday’s SAG Awards found in their gift bags a card with a code enabling them to log on to patagoniasuroffsets.com/SagAwardsForest/. Once there, they were able to affix their names to the trees being planted in their honor, thanks to Chile’s Patagonia Sur, in what is now known as the SAG Awards Forest. For the 2013 SAG Awards, Patagonia Sur is planting 3,400 trees — two for each of the 1,700 guests who were invited to the post SAG Awards Gala hosted by People magazine and the Entertainment Industry Foundation. Now’s your chance to see how many of the star-studded attendees claimed and named their trees!

Patagonia Sur’s commitment to the SAG Awards and its efforts to implement sustainable initiatives and promote environmental awareness — while creating a nearly zero waste event — started last year. On behalf of the 2012 SAG Awards, Patagonia Sur planted a grove of 45 native-species trees on degraded lands in Patagonia, Chile, to help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thereby helping to fight the threat posed by climate change.  We are proud to say that in October 2012, for the fourth consecutive year, the SAG Awards were honored with the Environmental Media Association’s Green Seal!

As a fan of the SAG Awards, you can also help by claiming and naming your tree, knowing that you are helping to fight climate change and support Patagonia Sur’s reforestation efforts.  Every tree that is planted is expected to sequester 0.48 tons of carbon dioxide over an 80-year period.  With a goal to plant over 1 million trees within Chilean Patagonia, Patagonia Sur  deposits native-species trees in damaged and degraded ecosystems in Patagonia. Their project has been certified by the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and is helping to regenerate one of the planet's most vital yet threatened ecosystems in Chilean Patagonia.

Here’s why the SAG Awards Forest is so special

Are you thinking about claiming and naming your very own tree within the SAG Awards Forest, planted thanks to a unique reforestation partnership with Chile’s Patagonia Sur? If so, we thought you may be interested in knowing more about Patagonia Sur’s reforestation efforts.  In 2010, Patagonia Sur launched its Reforestation and Biodiversity Project on its Valle California property in the Palena province of southern Chile. Three types of native-species beech trees, Coigüe, Ñirre, and Lenga, are planted in a pattern that replicates the growth of a natural forest. Each tree is expected to sequester 0.48 tons of carbon dioxide over an 80-year period. For the 2013 SAG Awards, Patagonia Sur is planting 3,400 trees — two for each of the 1,700 guests at the Post Awards Gala hosted by People magazine and the Entertainment Industry Foundation!

Patagonia Sur is replanting in areas that were deforested in the early 1900s by settlers who burned more than seven million acres to clear land for pasture.  You may not know that deforestation is a leading contributor of carbon emissions worldwide, second only to the burning of fossil fuels. Temperate forest absorbs the most CO2 and Chile hosts one of the world’s largest areas of temperate forest.  In addition to sequestering carbon dioxide, Patagonia Sur's Valle California reforestation program benefits the area’s ecology by helping control soil erosion, strengthens native plant communities, reduce the number of invasive plant species, and improve habitat for the region’s wildlife.

So check out the SAG Awards Forest  and click on a green tree to find out who has claimed it. A peek on Google Maps will let you see where it’s being planted, too. Finally, let us know what you think of the SAG Awards’ production team’s efforts in striving to create a zero waste event!