From David Volz
Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces Department, along with Million Trees Miami-Dade, planted 80 trees at North Pointe Community Center, a Miami-Dade County Park. This tree planting event was in partnership with Coca-Cola Beverages Florida, LLC (Coke Florida) as part of an Arbor Day celebration. The trees will help to increase shade and lower temperatures ahead of the summer season in a low-tree canopy neighborhood with a nine percent urban tree canopy percentage.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said, “We are truly thankful to Coke Florida and its employees for their donation of trees and volunteer services at North Pointe Community Center. These types of public-private partnerships with environmentally conscious corporations are invaluable towards fulfilling our goals of growing our tree canopy county-wide.”
Coke Florida, a family-owned Coca-Cola bottler with an exclusive sales and distribution footprint across 47 Florida counties, manufactures, markets, sells, distributes, and merchandises over 600 products of The Coca-Cola Company and other partner companies. The company executes robust operational and community-focused sustainability programs year-round focused on Recycling, Water Stewardship, Resiliency, and Litter and Waste Reduction.
“We are proud to partner with Coke Florida this Arbor Day to highlight the importance of trees,” said Miami-Dade County Commissioner Kevin Marino Cabrera, Chair of Neat Streets Miami-Dade County. “This project is a perfect example of how we’re prioritizing tree plantings within our lowest tree canopy areas to improve the quality of life for our residents.”
North Pointe Community Center is an active recreation facility offering a variety of programs and amenities aimed towards supporting community health and wellness. The park is surrounded by areas with an existing Urban Tree Canopy, as low as eight percent. Tree plantings at the park were prioritized to address Million Trees Miami-Dade County’s mission to achieve at least a 30 percent tree canopy cover for all Miami-Dade County. Coke Florida’s support of this initiative also commemorates the celebration of Arbor Day locally and rounds out the company’s Earth Month activities statewide.
“Miami-Dade County is one of our largest operating markets, so we understand the role of partnerships in creating and achieving shared goals. Our team is pleased with the work we’ve done to help close out the tree canopy project at the North Pointe Community Center in Hialeah, enabling Million Trees Miami-Dade County to reach a new milestone in its vital mission,” said Erin Black, Vice President of Sustainability, Risk Management and Facilities at Coke Florida.
As part of a shared commitment to sustainability and the environmental wellbeing of local communities, this partnership marks Million Trees Miami-Dade County’s culmination of its 2024 tree planting projects at the park. A total of 500 trees have been successfully planted to address this area’s urgent need for tree canopy.
