By Alex Hassel, Storage.com
A day to recognize the importance of environmental protection comes easy for CubeSmart. The self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust focused on self storage is celebrating Earth Day by taking a look at its success in its Plant a Tree program.
CubeSmart has planted more than 90,000 trees across the U.S. in partnership with American Forests. The company says the trees have directly helped restore vulnerable ecosystems and endangered habitats in 13 unique areas. Planting these trees keeps 450 tons of pollution out of the air and stores 2,200 tons of carbon every year.
In 2010, CubeSmart executives decided they wanted to find a way to make life better for everyone on the planet, so the company partnered with American Forests. Since that time, CubeSmart customers have had the option of checking a box to plant a tree when they reserve a storage unit from the company, whether through its website or a phone call. For every customer who makes the selection, CubeSmart donates to American Forests’ Global ReLeaf program to plant a native tree at no cost to the customer.
Some of CubeSmart’s contributions to American Forests’ sites include 15,133 trees in the Bugaboo Wildfire Rehabilitation project in Florida, 9,167 trees in the Blowdown Reforestation project in Minnesota, 10,614 trees in the County Line Wildfire Restoration project in Florida, and 9.433 trees slated for planting in the 2016 Longleaf Pine project in Virginia.
“We are able to celebrate this milestone thanks to our customers’ commitment to the environment and our strong partnership with American Forests,” says CubeSmart President and Chief Executive Officer Christopher P. Marr. “We are pleased to contribute to restoring ecosystems and habitats all over the country while making a difference in air quality and reducing carbon pollution for years to come.”
“American Forests is thrilled to partner again with CubeSmart to help restore forests in need,” says Scott Steen, President & CEO of American Forests. “Healthy forests are critical to supporting wildlife and improving air and water quality, but they also increase quality of life for millions of people. We at American Forests are grateful for CubeSmart’s commitment to restoring our forests.”
CubeSmart says it’s also regularly searching for other conservation opportunities and implements policies and practices to reduce energy consumption, increase efficiency, and expand sustainability efforts. CubeSmart also annually invests in energy savings and sustainability projects to operate more efficiently and reduce the company’s environmental footprint.
CubeSmart’s other sustainability and energy conservation initiatives include:
- Opening Austin’s first “net zero energy” commercial building in April 2016.
- Increasing its 2016 investment in on-site solar voltaic systems by nearly 200% compared to 2014.
- Investing more than $3 million in energy with lighting upgrades at its stores from 2009 through 2015; an additional $1.9 million is budgeted for lighting upgrades in 2016.
- Saving an estimated 3.5 million sheets of paper by implementing a proprietary paperless rental lease process.
- Systematically identifying energy consumption issues and focusing reduction efforts by performing an annual energy usage benchmark of a number of properties in key markets.
- Deploying energy management systems to dynamically manage energy consumption to maximize energy efficiency at many locations.
Alex Hassel is News Reporter for Storage.com. If you’d like to pitch Alex a self storage industry news story, email alex.hassel@storage.com or call 402-779-7328.
