Trina Solar Limited (NYSE: TSL) ("Trina Solar" or "the Company") announced that it will partner with the Plant-for-the-Planet Children's Initiative to offset the carbon emissions of the Lotus F1 Team single seaters, the Formula 1 racing team it sponsors. Trina Solar intends to plant 9,000 trees a year for the next three years, or a total of 27,000 trees. The carbon offset benefit from the trees is estimated as equivalent to the emissions from the team's Grand Prix track activity over the course of five full seasons of Formula 1.
Trina Solar's initiative partner, the Plant-for-the-Planet Children's Initiative, is responsible for the "Billion Tree Campaign" launched by the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). The trees will be planted in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Congo, Namibia, Malaysia, Brazil and China. Trina Solar will also host a full-day educational event, a Plant-for-the-Planet Academy, at its headquarters in Changzhou, where children will learn how to become active against the climate crisis and plant trees on Trina Solar's campus while also being given a unique chance to learn how solar panels are made and discover the benefits of solar energy.
"We are proud to support the Plant-for-the-Planet Children's Initiative and we look forward to hosting the children at our headquarters so that we can share with them the importance of solar energy," said Mark Kingsley, Chief Commercial Officer of Trina Solar. "Through this partnership, we are taking a step to transform Formula 1 into a greener enterprise. More than 500 million people watch Formula 1 every year and we can educate that large audience on the importance of solar energy and sustainability."
Kingsley added, "F1 is a team and partnership driven sport. It represents a unique engineering ecosystem that has enabled F1 to pioneer the use of high performance materials, remote sensing and energy storage to extract the most from automotive powertrains. These environmentally beneficial gains have subsequently been scaled to everyday autos. Our teams at Trina draw inspiration from these F1 examples as we pursue similar goals in order to ensure the solar solutions we create with our partners accelerate their ability to replace fossil fuels."
Trina Solar's commitment to social responsibility is further demonstrated throughout its sustainable manufacturing processes and carbon reduction programs. The company's manufacturing processes are ISO certified, have been recognized as an industry model, and have resulted in a nearly 60 percent reduction in energy and water usage per unit of solar power produced.