Positive action with Mathew Bottin – Clique Logistics

Mathew Bottin started donating to our planting projects as a student in July 2014. He has now planted 294 trees – removing almost 50 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from our atmosphere. We had a chat to Mathew to find out what inspires him to be a Carbon Hero!

When I first starting contributing I was in the process of starting up a personal training business, and as a 21 year old, climate change was a big factor for me, so I decided to have a few trees planted a week to offset the emissions from my business. I wanted to make sure that my impact on the planet was minor, and this has transferred into my new career in travel. Now it is more of a personal aspect, ensuring that I limit my damage to the environment in my day to day life and donate where and when possible on top of my weekly contributions.

Caring for the environment is vital for me as I grew up in an agricultural area and have seen the effects of climate change first hand. Not only this, but we have so many beautiful regions on Earth that are at the mercy of environmental damage and climate change, and I can think of nothing worse than our children and grandchildren not having the same appreciation of Earth as our current generation. I feel as if we are currently living in a period of time where we are the last chance at limiting environmental damage, and potentially reversing it, and I feel obliged to play my part in that.

I found CPA very affordable for quite a large impact and enjoyed the simplicity of knowing that roughly 6 trees equalled one tonne of carbon being removed from the atmosphere. I also liked how simple it was to track my donations, and just as importantly, everyone I have spoken to in CPA were genuine, caring people which made the decision far easier to keep donating and to keep making a difference! I also liked that the style of planting was very natural and helped enhance environments, more so than other mass planting methods.

From an employment perspective, at work we ensure we recycle our Nespresso pods, recycle, minimise paper usage and monitor our energy usage. From a personal perspective, I am currently in the process of building my first home, and we are ensuring we install solar panels, have room for some plants and trees in the back yard, using higher quality insulation and extra glazing on our windows to be more energy efficient.

The main thing is that every contribution makes a difference – every $4 donation plants a tree/shrub, which if we all did, would help lead Australia to being carbon neutral. Not only that, but all plantings are done naturally and sustainably to ensure the plantations are as natural as our native shrub and forests, which gives our animals more high quality homes.