
Benefits of Trees
Trees do more than beautify our streets; they provide great economic benefits, too! Here are a few ways trees help our economy every day:
- Trees lower utility bills! Evergreen trees help to lower energy bills in the winter by blocking cold wind. In the summer, the cooling effect of a healthy tree is equivalent to 10 room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours/day.
- Shoppers will travel further and longer to visit a business district with high quality trees, and spend more time there once they arrive.
- In the Philadelphia neighborhood of New Kensington, new tree plantings increased surrounding housing values by approximately 10%.
- In some sectors of the economy, such as tree care, there is a job for every trained worker (evidenced by such companies struggling to find employees).
- Pittsburgh’s street trees alone provide $2.4 million worth of environmental and aesthetic benefits every year (see the Next City article here)!
(information gathered from the Alliance for Community Trees unless otherwise noted)
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