Let us breathe and live!

Due to climate changes, pollution, exhaust car gases, in the cities all over the world, urban trees are slowly dying. Cutting branches or most usually the whole tree, was the only solution until now. 

1 big (old) tree is equivalent to approximately 100 new planted trees. Therefore, the influence on the preserving and restoring carbon free ecosystems by treating existing old trees is huge. 

If we don’t act now, urban ecosystems will be on the verge of collapse.
First time in history we have patented solution HERBAFERTIL which is bringing back vitality for old and all valuable low vitality trees. HERBAFERTIL brings vitality after implementation. In a shape of big jute cylindrical cartridge, it is easily implemented into the tree root system and it is restoring vitality of tree from its roots up to the tree top.
Old tree can grow young again and provide us with much needed oxygen.

The problem which is going to be solved by HERBAFERTIL is problem of drying up and dying urban trees which are the lungs of the city. Drying and dying of trees happen due to climate changes, acid rains, soil compaction, lack of humus due to removing of organic matter (fallen leaves and cut grass) from the top of the soil.

By HERBAFAERTIL we annulate above mentioned adverse impacts to trees.  
In our home city, Zagreb, Crotia, with 800.000 inhabitants, every year 7% of trees dry up and dy. This means that every year we lose 7% of leaf mass which products oxygen, protect against noise, dust, warming, wind. We lose as well the whole microecosystem which is part of this 7% of trees. Means that birds, butterflies, bees, squirrels, worms, bumble bees and ladybugs … are dying as well. And quality of living for the citizens is declining down. 
What is happening to our kids’ healthy because of 7% of trees yearly disappearing?

Our solution is to prevent urban trees in cities to dry up and dy. 

We invented and patented: HERBAFERTIL.

HERBAFERTIL consists of three separable parts that makes it unique:
1. Substrate composition

• Mixture of nutrients, fertilizers and other substances nourishes the root of the plant, stimulates the growth and rooting, enables gas exchange and evaporation of excess water in the soil of root system of the treated plant and provides exuberant growth.

 2. Substrate packaging

• Enables unique method of application- mixture is packed in biodegradable bags of cylindrical shape which, when filled with the substrate, is tied up with biodegradable string. The bag height is 30 cm, diameter is 14 cm, so that it can be easily tuck in the hole in the ground

3. Place and method of application

• Cylindrical bags are embedded in soil in a way that one or more hole is drilled with auger of 15 cm in diameter, in the root zone of the treated tree.

Our goal is also to educate and engage people to invest in health of urban trees instead of taking them for granted, so they could grow young again and “serve” the community.

Healthy and long-lived trees as the consequences of using HERBAFERTIL, will serve the citizens in worldwide cities, especially those with high pollution, with great impact to their lives. 

Common benefits of the healthy and long-lived trees are known:

“The Benefits of Trees

Public Health and Social Benefits

Clean air: Trees produce oxygen, intercept airborne particulates, and reduce smog, enhancing a community’s respiratory health. The urban canopy directly contributes to meeting a city’s regulatory clean air requirements.

Access to trees, green spaces, and parks promotes greater physical activity, and reduces stress, while improving the quality of life in our cities and towns.

• Urban landscaping, including trees, helps lower crime rates.
• Studies show that urban vegetation slows heartbeats, lowers blood pressure, and relaxes brain wave patterns.
• Girls with a view of nature and trees at home score higher on tests of self-discipline.

Environmental Benefits

Climate change: Trees sequester carbon (CO2), reducing the overall concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. 

Energy conservation:

• A tree is a natural air conditioner. The evaporation from a single tree can produce the cooling effect of ten room-size, residential air conditioners operating 20 hours a day.
• Acting as a natural air-conditioner, Palo Alto’s lush canopy ensures that summer temperatures are at least 6 to 8 degrees lower than in comparable neighborhoods without trees.
• Tree windbreaks can reduce residential heating costs 10-15%; while shading and evaporative cooling from trees can cut residential air-conditioning costs 20-50%.

Water filtration and retention: Urban forests promote beneficial water quality and reduce storm water management costs.

• Palo Alto street and park trees can intercept 135 million gallons of rainwater. Trees capture and slow rainfall and their roots filter water and recharge the aquifer. Trees reduce storm water runoff, which reduces flooding, saves city storm water management costs, decreases the flow of polluted water into the Bay, and protects the banks of the San Francisquito Creek.

Wildlife habitat: Trees provide important habitats for numerous bird, insect and animal species.

Economic Benefits

Communities and business districts with healthy tree-cover attract new residents, industry, and commercial activity.

• Homes landscaped with trees sell more quickly and are worth 5% to 15% more than homes without trees.
• Where the entire street is tree-lined, homes may be worth 25% more.
• Trees enhance economic stability by attracting businesses; people linger and shop longer when trees are present.
• Where a canopy of trees exists, apartments and offices rent more quickly and have a higher occupancy rate; workers report more productivity and less absenteeism.

Tree Benefit “Fun Facts”:

• Trees provide inviting and cool areas for recreation and relaxation such as playgrounds and parks.
• Trees create a tapestry of color and interesting form that changes throughout the year.
• The color green is calming and relieves eye strain.
• Trees screen unattractive views and soften the harsh outline of masonry, metal, asphalt, steel and glass.
• People walk and jog more on shaded streets, which encourages interaction with neighbors and improves the sense of community.
• Trees absorb and block sound, reducing noise pollution by as much as 40 percent.”

(Source: The Benefits of Trees - Canopy : Canopy )

Almost every city has cadaster of urban mapped trees with scalable health condition. In Zagreb, we have in evidence 177.000 urban trees. 

Almost every country has classification of trees species by the degree of damage of the tree canopy. 

For example: after use of HERBAFERTIL, in period of one year, health condition od treated tree increase for example from 7 to 9 degrees (0=dead tree, 10=perfect health conditioned tree), so it is very verifiable.

We are VSME (Very small and micro enterprise) from Zagreb, Croatia, EU. 

As our country is small one (4,2 M inhabitants, 56 k square kilometers) we cannot be compared to USA standards. 

So, we choose Pilot stage of development. HERBAFERTIL is already tested and patented product with various diplomas, awards and acknowledgements for its use and benefits. We are selling HERBAFERTIL mostly in Croatia. Still, we managed to introduce it to Denmark, Slovenia and Serbia. Our goal is to offer this remarkable product worldwide. IT REALLY WORKS!

Among other reasons, our solution is innovative because HERBAFERTIL is granted by patent. So, this new innovative solution is formally patented. 

Our product cannot be measured in a way that we would be able to count the number of people which are going to be served by our solution. Still, each treated and therefore revitalized old tree is definitely serving people, in particularly park, neighborhood, community and city. As mentioned above, 1 big (old) tree is equivalent to approximately 100 new planted trees. Therefore, the influence on the preserving and restoring carbon free ecosystems by treating existing old trees is huge. Doesn’t this serve people?

Measurement/ KPIs:

Until nowadays the most usual way of tree care was cutting dried branches and/or dried tree. BUT, that is only curative for the trees. HERBAFERTIL offers not only curative for the trees, but what is much more important preventive. For that investments are needed.

KPIs:

• Number of treated trees
• Number of rescued trees
• Number of communities/ cities/ states covered

Four FTE (Forestry engineer, product manager, and two employees in production)

Competences needed for this solution are:

• Good knowledge of forest and urban forest ecosystems

• Pedology

• Phytocenology

• Tree physiology

• Experience in trees and nature care

• Process and product management skills

• Knowing of the soil conditioner market

• Product operation skills and retaining of machine design, development and maintaining

• Educational skills

• Presentational skills

We do have the above competences which are developed through many years of experience and training, but as far as human resources are concerned in order to achieve our goals we simply need more employees. Here we want to emphasise that our business will be given opportunities to involve /hiring people with disabilities, immigrants and former addicts.

Although we are small company, we do have values defined and written. Each new member of our team is going through specific onboarding, which includes talking, discussing and emphasizing our values. After onboarding, we are showing how to live our values and we even have monthly discussion among the team on our values in a sense do we really “walk the talk” every day.

Our core values are:

• integrity,
• honesty & trust,
• fairness,
• diversity and equity
• open mind (every idea is much welcomed),
• innovation,
• life-time learning and constant improvement,
• teamwork,  
• commitment to humans and nature goodness,
• quality of work,
• respect to each other in team, to customers, to vendors, to environment, to community,
• fun.

We are proud to say that our female co-workers use up to 12 months for paid maternity leave.  

Not only that we live our values at work, but we are truly trying to share that values though our employees families and whole community. Therefore, we organize different activities such as volunteering in kindergartens, schools and colleges, mentoring young people, educating community on preserving the nature through different workshops or lectures, family days, kids at work days, case competitions, together humanitarian work/ actions.

As we are small company, we still cannot talk about building leadership on these values, but we are building our team, by working and living our values. Hopefully, one day, we will be able to build the same kind of company leadership.

Beside funds and investment, for us is truly important to be introduced to Solve MIT network, get access to experts, support to enter different markets, help to build educational concept and last but not the least, to help us build and raise awareness of the importance of issue we are trying to SOLVE.

We would like to build cooperation and partnership on the one side with contractors like landscape and maintenance services, environmental services and primarily tree experts and Arboricultural companies who are helping residential and commercial customers maintain beautiful and healthy landscapes and trees, and on the other side with institutes and scientific organisations from this field of expertise. We would like for those organisations to accept and adapt in their practice use of Herbafertil.

Use of Herbafertil, and benefits resulting from its use are available for all inhabitants of one county, thus including refugees. Also, we are fully open to employ refugees, especially if they share our true core values.

As mentioned earlier in our solution trees in urban communities have great impact on the lives of their residents. From cleaner air, better health conditions for residents, reducing the overall concentration of greenhouse gases, to even lower crime rates. So, in our opinion, one of the backbones of smart, safe and sustainable communities is healthy trees. .

Thus we must take care for our trees in the community, give them what they need to be and stay healthy (in shape of Herbafertil) so we could enjoy benefits from them. Healthy, green and colorful parks are multicultural places where people of all races, genders, religions, political opinions, people with disabilities, people of all ages are enjoying in the happiness of life.

Our solution is directly driven by the idea of decarbonisation of communities by investing in their trees. Trees are natural decarbonisators, and their carbon absorption ability could be at full potential only if we provide them with needed care. Carbon absorption ability of the tree is in correspondence with the health condition of the tree crown. The Low vitality tree can not produce nor enough oxygen, nor any other benefit for humans to its full potential. Thus we must take care for our trees in the community, give them what they need to be and stay healthy (in shape of Herbafertil) so we could enjoy benefits from them.