Green Gear ... The Series: Promark by D'Addario —Play. Plant. Preserve.

This is the first installment in an ongoing series at Harmony Central about musical instrument companies that promote good environmental practices.

ProMark by D’addario

Play. Plant. Preserve.

In the mail this past week I got a copy of one of my favorite drum periodicals. While I was doing my initial scan, a non-traditional advertisement caught my eye and stuck with me. I had to hop online and do some more research.

The ad was for ProMark’s Play. Plant. Preserve. initiative, and featured Tennessee log-harvester, Justin Coble, standing in a Tennessee privately-managed forest with his chainsaw at the ready.

This ad really spoke to me from a multitude of perspectives:

·      I’m a drummer who is conscious about the environment.

·      I am a dad who cares about the Earth that I leave behind for my children.

·      I am an avid outdoorsman and love over-landing and seeing remote places. Deforestation is important to me from that standpoint.

·      I live in Tennessee. The fact that ProMark harvests their wood from Tennessee and that this project helps Tennessee was also important to me.

So what is Play. Plant. Preserve.? In simple terms, it is a tree-planting, cost-share program aimed at ensuring that the hardwood resources used for making drumsticks and mallets in the company’s Tennessee sawmill remains sustainable.

How does it work? The program is funded by ProMark and is administered by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Division of Forestry (TDF). The goal of the program is to provide an avenue for the planting of five trees for every one that ProMark uses on an annual basis. (The program also has an alternative marketing name: 5 for 1.) In this program seedlings used are grown at TDF’s East Tennessee Nursery located in Delano, Tennessee and are provided at no cost to eligible Tennessee landowners.

“The Play. Plant. Preserve. Tree Planting Cost Share program directly connects with D’Addario’s existing efforts to sustain our planet,” says Robert Caniglia, Product Specialist at D’Addario. “D’Addario has been making environmentally conscious choices since the early 1990’s, and we are proud to partner with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture on this effort.”

In layman’s terms, this means ProMark will plant five trees for every one tree they harvest each year. They understand that the demand for wood has skyrocketed and that protecting our forests ensures a managed, renewable future for their raw materials. And by obtaining their raw material only from these managed forests, they're ensuring that they're never using wood that was poached or obtained illegally.

These types of forestry programs fall under the Tennessee Agricultural Enhancement Program (TAEP) and were developed to promote long-term investments in Tennessee’s forests by providing cost share incentives to qualifying producers. The programs help promote sustainable forest management practices on nonindustrial private forest land, which provide multiple resource benefits such as timber, wildlife habitat, clean water and stable soil conditions.

Jim D’Addario states: “D’Addario is committed to being environmentally responsible and strives to inspire this sentiment in musicians worldwide … from the ground up.”

Because of the natural resources used to make much of the gear we use, it's up to all musicians to support sustainable practices. Thankfully, many manufacturers feel the same, and more and more so-called "green" methods are being used across the industry. As we continue the Green Gear series, we'll take a closer look at who's doing what, so you can make an informed decison when you buy if sustainability is high on your list of importance.

RESOURCES:

Videos:

ProMark: Play. Plant. Preserve.

ProMark by D’Addario:

To Purchase ProMark Sticks:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/search?sB=r&Ntt=promark

 Dendy Jarrett is the Publisher and Director of Harmony Central. He has been heavily involved at the executive level in many aspects of the drum and percussion industry for over 25 years and has been a professional player since he was 16. His articles and product reviews have been featured in InTune Monthly, Gig Magazine, DRUM! and Modern Drummer Magazines.