All For Padel puts reforestation in their customers’ hands through the #GreenPadel movement.

Paddle tennis is the fastest growing sport in the world. Just to get an idea of the figures behind the second most played sport in Spain after football: in 2021 the number of players rose to 3.5 million and the number of courts increased from 9,000 to 14,000 between 2017 and 2021.

Factors such as the generation of more enthusiasm than other comparable sports, ease of practice thanks to court size, not requiring a high expenditure from players, and new social trends arising from COVID19 have all contributed to the paddle tennis ferver.

As a key player in the sector, and in line with the core values of its brand, All for Padel (AFP) decided to address sustainability as a priority for its consumers, sharing with them its philosophy of caring for the environment in all its forms.

AFP saw a huge potential to promote environmental action in the paddle tennis movement. At the same time, AFP was obliged to comply with very demanding brand guidelines, so the initiative they launched had to be reliable, innovative and with a certified environmental impact. 

It was in this context that Ana Gómez, AFP's Marketing Director, came across a young Reforestum in 2019. "We wanted to carry out a different kind of environmental action that would allow us to tell a story that would involve our customers in the initiative and in our brand. As soon as we knew what could be done with the Reforestum platform, we started to think about how to fit it into our environmental initiatives", says Ana Gómez.

AFP then became one of Reforestum's pioneering clients by supporting Reforestum's first forest, Génesis, located in the Picos de Europa (Palencia, Spain). Thus, AFP acquired a Forest Share that has reached an area of 2,500 square metres principally through monthly contributions during 2019 and 2020.

Later, in 2021, AFP incorporated reforestation in its #GreenPadel movement. This is an innovative project within the paddle tennis industry that addresses the measurement, reduction and compensation of AFP’s emissions, and seeks to promote environmental care hand in hand with Reforestum. Reforestation is reflected in this movement through two simultaneous actions: 

The first is related to mitigating the carbon footprint of the brand's most sustainable racket models. Along with the launch of the #GreenPadel racket, which replaced fibreglass with flax, AFP founded the first adidas Padel Forest in Calahorra de Boedo (Palencia, Spain). The forest was planted at the end of 2020with an area of 2.4 hectares. It expanded to 4.3 hectares in order to meet the brand's commitment to reforest 3 square metres for each of the more than 14,000 paddle tennis rackets with the #GreenPadel logo sold in 2021. 

The second of the two simultaneous actions aimed to involve the paddle community in the climate cause. To do this, all AFP’s paddle tennis rackets now include a label inviting users to register their racket on the AFP website, in which case AFP is giving away a Forest Share in Génesis capable of absorbing 10 kilograms of CO2, i.e. a portion of this forest that can be visualised and located on a digital map, capable of capturing that amount of CO2 over its first 40 years of life.

With this action, AFP literally puts reforestation  in their customers’ hands, making its fight against climate change real and tangible through the Reforestum platform. The more than 3,700 users worldwide who have registered their paddle racket so far own a Forest Share in Genesis, and they can visualise and locate these shares on the Reforestum platform’s digital maps. The integration between AFP and Reforestum systems (via an API, Application Programming Interface) enables end-to-end traceability, linking AFP consumers with the AFP brand and its forestry initiatives in a traceable and transparent way.

Paddle tennis players who activate their Forest Share on the Reforestum platform can track their share with up-to-date access to forest details; photos of the plantation; technical data such as species names, current and projected future removals, exact location, extent of land, certifications granted by the Spanish authorities, and other regular updates; and much more. In addition, they can invest in other reforestation projects to mitigate their own impact on an individual basis. "This is the kind of action that makes a difference. The fact that just by buying myself a new racket, the brand [AFP] gives me the possibility to reforest a part of a forest is incredible. I like their commitment," says one of the users who has activated his share.

AFP's commitment to the planet and the collaboration with Reforestum continues to grow alongside the adidas Padel Forest. All the forestry projects that AFP supports are shown in its Corporate Profile on the Reforestum platform. “We are very proud to be part of Reforestum's journey, ever since its first Genesis forest. The projects and their platform give us confidence and the possibility to register portions of forests on behalf of our clients. That's why we decided to finance the adidas Padel Forest in 2021 and that’s why we are ready to continue growing new forests in the future with them,” Ana Gómez tells us.

At the moment, AFP and Reforestum teams are working on a more ambitious roadmap to plan increasingly impactful reforestation activities for 2022, 2023 and 2024. In addition, AFP and Reforestum are exploring the possibility of adopting new improvements that Reforestum has incorporated in its integration system (API), so as to improve user experience, and to further involve users  in the fight against climate change.

We will keep you updated on this collaboration!