The DIVE.IS team has put the downtime caused by Covid-19 to good use. Several members of the Dive company went out on 11 June to plant trees and ended up planting a forest. The total area of planted trees is almost 3 hectares with the average planted trees per hectare being about 1200 trees. In total, the team planted 2365 Spruce trees and 1225 Aspen that day or a total of 3590 trees.

Types of trees bind different amounts of carbon. Aspen binds the most while birch binds the least amount.

Under the best conditions, a hectare of Aspen can bind about 20 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year, while spruce trees can produce 7-11 tonnes per hectare per year. We can therefore estimate that the binding of this planting can be around 27-30 tons of CO2 per year if all goes well.

According to the Icelandic Forest Service's (Skógræktin) website, planting trees can bind sandy and rugged areas rather fast. How fast depends on the type of tree used. Planting trees is one of the best ways we here in Iceland can help to bind carbon, ultimately to help the climate.

The DIVE team is committed to continue these types of socially responsible activities. Hopefully next year, we can continue to add to the DIVE.IS forest.