Another two hundred trees lay the roots of the city's shared commitment to neutrality

More than a signature, being part of the Porto Climate Pact means working actively as a community to guarantee carbon neutrality. Adding to this certainty the Municipality's mission to plant more than 1,300 trees in the city's parks this year, dozens of subscribers accepted the challenge and took on the responsibility of bringing something to life, for many years and for the benefit of so many, in Parque de São Roque.

These are the trees that complete the planting which began in March with the children of the Escola Básica dos Correios school, in Parque da Cidade, to give the city the specimens donated as part of the 'Rolha a rolha, semeie a recolha' campaign, which collected around 67,500 cork stoppers from 61 participating venues.

'As members of the Porto Climate Pact from the start, we've taken part in all the activities and this makes the city even greater', the Vice-President of Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) emphasises, among the dozens of oak, holm oak and holly trees he helped plant on Wednesday afternoon.

Certain that 'only by working all together can we achieve the city's goals by 2030', Roque Brandão guarantees that ISEP 'is committed to the values [of the Pact]' and "wants to be a sustainable organisation as well'.

This translates into more than 150 trees on the campus in Asprela, as well as a vertical vegetable garden and the promotion of various 'environmental and carbon neutrality projects'. The student community's fight against plastic has even earned it a 'Green Heart'.

In addition to ISEP, representatives of public and private institutions, including schools and faculties, companies and associations, as well as sports organisations such as FC Porto, dug, planted and watered the new trees in Parque de São Roque.

For the club's sustainability manager, this 'is a fundamental activity'. 'The environment belongs to everyone, therefore this community work is fundamental. That's the only way we'll be able to achieve the results', Teresa Santos emphasises.

Committed to the Pact from the outset, FC Porto is a partner in the carbon neutrality mission. To this end, she emphasises, it recently installed two thousand photovoltaic panels on its premises. Today, 'our training centre unit is already running on self-consumption'. This will be followed by the Campanhã Swimming Pools and the Dragão Arena.

Ambition summons the entire city

'Very happy' with the number of subscribers to the invitation to 'help afforest the city, an important initiative within the scope of the Porto Climate Pact', the Deputy Mayor of Porto considers this the 'best way to end the process' of planting.

'These institutions had already joined us when they signed the Pact and they are with us in this commitment to the goals that the Municipality wants to achieve by 2030', Filipe Araújo emphasises.

Being also responsible for the Environment and Climate Transition, he admits that 'these are very ambitious targets', but that this is what justifies 'calling on everyone to help us get there'.

That afternoon, in Parque de São Roque, the municipal gardeners lent a hand, but everyone quickly got the hang of it. 'Now we just have to let them grow.' 'May we continue? Otherwise, the kids will get ahead of us.' Of course, for 260 trees there's a lot of work. And 2030 is just around the corner.