The sentiments of this badge are reflected in Prime Minister Bob Hawke's Statement on the Environment speech, delivered in 1989, in which he pledged the planting of one billion trees in the following decade:

Trees will help slow the greenhouse effect; they provide habitat for endangered species; they form magnificent wilderness areas and complete forest ecosystems; they ease the burden on our virgin native forests as a source of commercial timber. We need more trees.

The donor of this badge, Diana Pittock, writes of her experiences with environmental campaigns:

There were and are many rallies and campaigns on protecting the environment e.g. forests in Victoria and the Franklin River in Tasmania. In 1980 in Melbourne four of us established a Non-Violence Training Collective (NTC) prompted by the Tasmanian Wilderness Society’s campaign [for] the Franklin River. That campaign insisted on non-violence training for participants in the [river] blockade. Thus the NTC grew quickly as people heard about the campaign and wanted the training in preparation to going to the blockade. Many people came to Melbourne for training and some of our group trained interstate …

Rallies occurred throughout 1980–83 in all states. By then many environmental campaigns for forests, anti-whaling and ocean health also wanted a non-violence approach to their campaigns.