OREANDA-NEWS. On Saturday, a Tree Planting Initiative was launched around Ukraine. DTEK's employees joined in together with their children and friends. More than five thousand new trees and shrubs will grow in 28 Ukrainian towns and cities as the result of the joint efforts of the participants. This is the second volunteer initiative this year:  in April, thousands of DTEK's employees collected more than 600 tonnes of inorganic wastes in their towns and cities.

Now, Kyiv has a new park and a new part of the alley along Obolonska riverwalk - at the end of Pryrichna Street next to the Cove of Sobache Hyrlo. 200 volunteers from DTEK and Kyivenergo planted 50 lime, maple and catalpa trees and various shrubs there. In the city of Donetsk, 380 employees of DTEK companies planted 850 birch-trees and barberries, juniper and lilac shrubs, other trees and shrubs. In the city of Simferopol, volunteers from DTEK Krymenergo replanted the area opposite to the Shevchenko Park with more than 160 trees.

"I am convinced that most people are willing to take part in socially important initiatives, such as cleaning-up or planting trees in their towns and cities," says DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko, who joined the initiative together with his family members. "A common obstacle is a complicated organisation of the initiative: you have to coordinate tree planting with respective municipal authorities or agree rubbish removal with rubbish collection companies. A business could help volunteers with organising such initiatives. Today, more than 6,000 of our employees willing to decorate their communities with new parks and alleys have joined the initiative in 28 residential areas. Joint efforts of the employer and employees can efficiently resolve a lot of simple social issues and, what is the most important, we can immediately see tangible results, which is very inspiring."

"We wish there were more initiative residents who buy and plant trees and take care of them later," says Lyudmyla Filinska, chief agronomist of the municipal tree care company in Obolonskyi District of Kyiv. "In Kyiv many areas need planting of greenery, and we would be happy to see volunteers willing to help making our city more beautiful and comfortable to live in."

Employees of other companies of Rinat Akhmetov's SCM Group also took part in the Green City Initiative. In total, 14 thousand volunteers in 50 towns and cities of Ukraine took part in the project and together planted 10 thousand plants and shrubs.