Representatives of API Bank, within the action “Tree for Belgrade” on the initiative of the Mayor of Belgrade Dr. Zoran Radojičić, and together with the director of JKP Zelenilo Belgrade, Slobodan Stanojevic, planted today, December 9, 2020, on the left bank of the Sava 40 trees of young conifers to contribute preserving the environment and reducing the risks caused by air pollution in the capital. Bearing in mind that we are facing a critical winter period when pollution is further intensified, as well as that trees consume CO2 to produce oxygen, API Bank believes that every tree is important because it contributes to the overall ecosystem that makes up the city’s lungs especially now when the whole world is facing the challenges of a pandemic.
Marija Stepina, President of the Executive Board of API Bank, emphasized her satisfaction with participating in the action that contributes to a more beautiful Belgrade and wished all Belgrade’s and Serbian citizens to welcome the New Year holidays in a beautiful and green atmosphere in this beautiful city. “API Bank, by planting 40 trees of Pančić spruce, continues its intention to preserve the environment, which it is implementing and its efforts to reduce paper consumption within its daily business. If we want to turn 40 conifers into paper that our Bank’s employees print annually, it is the amount of paper that we print in 5 years. “We are happy to join the” Tree for Belgrade” campaign to help make Belgrade a greener and healthier city, and we hope to encourage other members of the community to join,” she said on this occasion.
Mayor Radojičić reminded that Belgrade has 15 percent of green areas, and that the plan is for that percentage to be 25 by 2025. He stated that for achieving that goal is important the contribution of companies through socially responsible programs which donate seedlings, plant and monitor how their trees grow. He thanked API Bank for planting 40 Pančić spruces, conifers which, he reminds, originate from the Balkans, and it was discovered almost 150 years ago by the famous botanist Josif Pančić on Tara. “These 40 seedlings provide the amount of oxygen for 80 people during their entire life,” Radojičić pointed out on that occasion. The mayor invited other companies to join the planting action, because, he says, it is always the right time for that, and stated that we would be on the way to change the ecological map of the city, if every company operating in Belgrade donated a certain number of trees.
According to him, this year only “Zelenilo” planted about 5,000 trees, and the good news, he says, is the increase in the number of companies, organizations and others who want to contribute to the vision of a “green and healthy capital”. Radojičić also support the invitation of “Zelenilo” that, in the spirit of the upcoming New Year’s holidays, citizens buy Christmas trees with sod, which they will plant after the holidays.
