Aarong has planted more than 100,000 trees across 42 districts in Bangladesh, funding the initiative entirely through retail proceeds generated from its store bag campaign.
The lifestyle retailer reduced customer paper bag consumption by more than 4.68 million units between September 2025 and March 2026 compared to the same period a year earlier.
Paper bag sales during the seven-month period generated Tk 2.9 crore across the brand’s store network. Aarong channeled the entire sum into direct environmental planting and rural community support, working with parent organization BRAC and environmental group Mission Green Bangladesh.
The reduction in packaging volume stems directly from Aarong’s Bring Your Own Bag initiative. Customers who carry their own shopping bags to checkout receive a Tk 15 cashback rebate against their purchase.
Shoppers who opt to take single-use paper bags pay for them at the till, creating the ring-fenced fund used for nationwide ecological work. The company estimated that avoiding 4.68 million paper bags over the period spared approximately 6,000 trees from industrial pulping.
“Bring Your Own Bag began with a simple change in habit: carrying and reusing what we already have,” said Tamara Hasan Abed, managing director of BRAC Enterprises.
The capital expenditure from bag charges was split into two separate forestry models. The larger share backed direct distribution to rural low-income families through BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation programme.
Under that programme, Aarong funded 95,382 saplings comprising fruit, timber, and medicinal varieties. Teams distributed the stock across 210 upazilas in 42 districts, delivering planting bundles to 40,001 individual households to generate supplemental household income and fruit production.
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