When we started planning this action, we wanted it to be more than a one-off gesture. We invited Port Gdański Eksploatacja to work with us — a company that has managed port infrastructure for years and operates daily in an industrial setting where environmental responsibility carries particular weight. A port is a place of movement, noise, and concrete, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for greenery. If anything, the more industrial activity surrounds a place, the more it needs spaces that give something back to nature.
We proposed something concrete: planting a large group of native trees that, decades from now, will be part of an actual forest rather than a symbolic gesture captured in a photo. Port Gdański Eksploatacja accepted without hesitation, and what happened on March 31, 2026 showed us that companies from heavy industry can think in the long term, not only in terms of quarterly results.
We chose a species that, in our view, matches these ambitions best — the sessile oak. It’s a tree that doesn’t grow fast and doesn’t produce instant results, but it stays in the landscape for centuries. When we plant oaks, we’re not thinking about this season or even this decade — we’re thinking about what this part of Pomerania will look like long after none of us are still around.
For us as an organization, every such partnership carries an extra dimension. Port companies rarely make headlines as examples of environmental engagement — they’re usually discussed in terms of logistics, cargo handling, or infrastructure investment. That’s exactly why we value it when a company like this comes forward wanting real action, not just a declaration on paper. From the first conversations, Port Gdański Eksploatacja asked concrete questions — how many saplings, who would take care of maintenance, how results would be checked in a year or two — rather than only how to document the event for a report.
How the Planting Day Unfolded
The day began with a short briefing — we explained to the volunteers how planting an oak differs from planting fast-growing species, how deep to dig each hole, how to position the sapling, and why the first watering matters so much for root establishment. We wanted every person who put their hands in the soil to understand the purpose behind the task, not just repeat a mechanical motion.
Then we got to work. The soil, still damp after winter, was fairly heavy — which, contrary to first impressions, turned out to be an advantage, since that kind of ground holds young roots better. The work moved efficiently because the group worked well together, with tasks split so no one stood around waiting for a turn with a spade. Some dug holes, others carried saplings, others backfilled the soil and shaped a small basin around each trunk to catch rainwater.
By the end of the day, 300 sessile oak saplings were in the ground. On paper, that’s just a number, but on-site it meant several hours of continuous physical work — bending, digging, carrying, checking every sapling to make sure it stood straight and was properly covered with soil. Nobody complained about mud on their boots, because the result was visible with their own eyes, row after row.
Volunteers and the Partnership with Port Gdański Eksploatacja
14 volunteers from Port Gdański Eksploatacja signed up for the action — people from different departments who traded their desks and operational posts for spades and saplings for a day. That professional diversity gave the day good energy: everyone brought a slightly different approach to physical work, but everyone shared the same goal.
Working with a company from the port sector matters to us in a particular way. Port Gdański Eksploatacja is responsible for infrastructure that handles enormous volumes of goods and generates daily pressure on the natural environment — from transport-related emissions to land use and transformation. The fact that a company from this sector takes the initiative to offset part of that impact tells us that environmental responsibility is no longer a side topic, but part of how business is run.
The volunteers weren’t left to figure things out on their own — our team coordinated the logistics, sapling supply, tools, and site preparation so participants could focus entirely on planting. This division of labor works for us at every action we run: the partner company brings people and energy, and we bring the knowledge, planting material, and experience in organizing large-scale plantings.
Why the Sessile Oak — the Significance of the Species
The sessile oak (Quercus petraea) is one of two native oak species in Poland, alongside the pedunculate oak. Unlike the fast-growing species sometimes used in commercial plantings, the sessile oak develops slowly, but produces dense wood, a deep root system, and can live for several hundred years. It’s a species well suited to drier, stonier soils and relatively resistant to periodic water shortages — a trait that matters more and more as the climate changes and droughts become more frequent.
Ecologically, the oak is one of the most valuable trees you can plant in our climate. A single old oak can be home to hundreds of species of invertebrates, birds, and fungi — its bark, deadwood, and canopy create microhabitats that no other species replicates to the same degree. Oak and mixed forests with a strong oak component typically show noticeably higher biodiversity than the pine or spruce monocultures that still dominate many managed forests in Poland.
Deciduous trees of this kind also play an important role in water retention. The oak’s deep root system helps soil absorb rainwater and reduce surface runoff, which matters especially in coastal regions exposed to heavy rainfall and flooding. Every tree growing today will, in time, absorb carbon dioxide, cast shade that limits local surface overheating, and filter out some of the pollution linked to industrial and transport traffic — something directly relevant to port surroundings, where emission levels run higher than in typical urban areas.
A mature oak, depending on conditions, can absorb several dozen kilograms of carbon dioxide a year — a figure it only reaches after years of growth, which shows why plantings like this one need to be treated as a long-term investment rather than an action with immediate results. In its first decade, an oak grows relatively slowly, focusing mainly on building its root system, which is why caring for young saplings in the early years matters just as much as the planting itself. Without regular checks on whether saplings have taken root, and without replacing losses when needed, part of the planting could fail to survive — which is why we’re already planning follow-up visits to the site.
Results and Summary
By the end of the fieldwork, we had 300 new sessile oaks planted together with 14 volunteers from Port Gdański Eksploatacja. That number doesn’t fully capture what we saw that day — the commitment of people who chose to spend their free time digging hundreds of holes, and the decision of a company that chose a species delivering results over decades, not weeks.
These 300 saplings are only at the start of their story. The first years will require care — checking whether the saplings have taken root, replacing any losses, and tending the young trees until they’re established enough to manage on their own. We see this action as a starting point for continued cooperation with Port Gdański Eksploatacja, not a one-time event closed on March 31.
Thank you to everyone who picked up a spade that day. Decades from now, this part of Pomerania will look different than it does today — because of a decision made together by our organization and the Port Gdański Eksploatacja team.
What stays with us most from this day isn’t just the number of saplings in the ground, but the way a company from a heavy-industry sector chose to engage with a problem that isn’t strictly its own to solve. Nobody forced Port Gdański Eksploatacja to plant oaks instead of writing a check for a generic sustainability line item. They chose to send fourteen people out into damp March soil, hand them spades, and let them see, hole by hole, what a commitment to the environment actually looks like when it isn’t reduced to a slide in a report.
