Last week, the Pantone Color Institute, a renowned organization that scours the world for inspiration in order to bring us the official color of the year, released its pick for 2013—emerald green! Pantone’s pick will influence design, fashion, and style worldwide.
According to Lee Eiseman, Executive Director at Pantone, emerald green is a rich color that inspires insight and promotes balance and harmony. Now who wouldn’t want that? She says this color is appropriate for 2013 because it promotes change, renewal, and clarity in a complex world.
We couldn’t agree more—we love green! After all, what could be greener than our trees, parks, and open spaces? And planting and caring for our trees can also provide us with more balance and harmony. In fact, studies have shown that spending time in greenery reduces stress. Blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the level of “stress hormones” all decrease faster in natural settings.
In addition, even with the state of the economy, there is a growing trend towards being “green.” Even corporations are increasingly interested in sustainability with leading companies like Walmart, IBM, and Google maintaining sustainability departments. The 2011 ImagePower Global Green Brands Study found that more than 60% of people worldwide want to buy from environmentally responsible companies.
Now that it’s become fashionable to be “green”—both in terms of caring for the environment and in the colors that we wear—I’d like to take this one step further and encourage Californians to dress our communities in more green. How? By growing more and more healthy trees and greenery.
Take Care of Your Trees to Keep Them Green
Okay…In reality, trees do come in various colors and their appearances change with the seasons—there beautiful golds and reds in fall and pink and purple delights in spring—but, in general, trees are green. And to keep our trees green we need to keep them healthy. Just like any living thing, the care they get in their early years is important in forging their future health and well-being.
Here are a few things you can do to care for your trees to keep them “green”:
- Caring for your tree: See “How to Care for a Tree” video by Tree People
- Early and adequate watering: See “How to Water a Tree” video by Tree People
- Annual maintenance: See “Mulching Guidelines” video by Tree People
- Periodic preventive care and pruning: See “Mature Tree Care” video by Tree People
- For more resources: See the Invest From the Ground Up Research Library
Celebs from Kate Middleton to Kristin Wiig have already been spotted in the 2013 color of the year. Now let’s outfit our communities with more green. It will make us healthier and wealthier, and if that helps us be more stylish, who’s to complain?