On Wednesday 19 January last, idverde Bomendienst, Pius Floris Boomverzorging, Cobra Groeninzicht and Terra Nostra signed a collaboration agreement for Platform i-Tree Nederland at the Postzegelboom in The Hague. This confirms the prolongation of their collaboration within the Platform. The Postzegelboom (‘Postage Stamp Tree’) is located in front of Paleis Noordeinde and owes its name to the fact that postage stamps were once exchanged and sold there. The four parties view the Postzegelboom as a symbol for the continuation of their collaboration following the already completed pilots with i-Tree Eco in the Netherlands.
i-Tree Eco provides insight into the green benefits of trees, which are important for a healthy and climate-sustainable planet. These benefits include the improvement of air quality and the delayed run-off of water into the soil in the case of heavy rainfall. In the coming years, the four parties will once again enter into a fruitful collaboration in order to store their combined i-Tree Eco knowledge at a central location, to secure its quality, and to share it with the market as a whole.
About i-TreeEco
The i-Tree Eco software program provides insight into the ecosystem benefits provided by trees. It first calculates the concrete value of trees in terms of euros, which then serves as the basis for applying policy, management, and design criteria to ensure that the green benefits of trees are utilised and maintained. The value of trees can be calculated per individual tree or at the level of individual parks or neighbourhoods.
The green benefits of the Postzegelboom
With the help of a pilot, i-Tree Eco was able to provide insight into the green benefits of the iconic Postzegelboom. Each year, this 141-year-old tree filters 1.6 kg of pollutants out of the air, absorbs 5700 L of water, has a tree crown surface of 380 m², which reduces the ambient temperature in the residential neighbourhood by 2°C, and stores almost 4000 kg of CO2.
Collaboration agreement Platform i-Tree Nederland
All four parties actively participate in Platform i-Tree Nederland in order to realise the three goals of the collaboration agreement. They use the Platform to share their knowledge of i-Tree Eco with the market, guarantee and promote the proper use of i-Tree in the Netherlands, and share their knowledge and experience with regard to the ecosystem benefits in general and i-Tree in particular.
Arnold Meulenbelt, Joost Verhagen, Jan Willem de Groot, Henry Kuppen (from left to right)