Some 45 NPC employees brave the long hike and the sun today as they planted 1,800 tree seedlings in the Caliraya-Lumot Watershed in the province of Laguna.

The program is part of the corporation’s G4ME Project or the Goodness for Mother Earth Project which encourages all of its employees to plant at least 80 trees each within the NPC-managed watersheds or to NPC facilities nationwide.

NPC’s Watershed Management Department (WMD) said that the Philippines emit an average of 0.9 metric tons per capita of carbon each year. In order to be carbon neutral or to sequester the carbon emitted, an individual need to plant and maintain 59 trees in a lifetime. However, WMD said that since carbon sequestration capacity of every tree specie is different, an 80-tree mark is safe to be assumed.

The Caliraya-Lumot Watershed is supports the private sector-operated Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan Hydropower Plants. It is one of the 11 watershed reservations under NPC management.