The Ravens never fail to go above and beyond their commitment to enhancing Baltimore – and their actions undoubtedly show. To celebrate Earth Day 2014, members of the Ravens' front office paired with nearly 50 volunteers from M&T Bank and Under Armour. The three organizations, in unification with the Parks and People foundation, joined forces to remove litter and plant trees around the Washington Village neighborhood near M&T Bank Stadium, an area affectionately known to its residents as "Pigtown." Together, the volunteers planted a total of 46 trees.

With rain looming into the forecast, the volunteers arrived at the meeting site prepared with jackets, hats and a mindset that not even the weather could dampen their planting parade. Luckily, the rain held off and left everyone with a beautifully sunny morning of which to take full advantage. The volunteers put their rain jackets aside, slathered on sunscreen and split up into small groups before receiving a crash course from the Parks and People staff on how to safely and efficiently plant a tree in the designated plots scattered throughout Pigtown.

What originally seemed like a simple job turned out to be fairly rigorous – but also incredibly rewarding. Exercise later in the day definitely wouldn't be necessary, as lugging around various gardening tools made for a challenging upper-body workout. But physical exertion aside, perhaps the most enriching aspect of the Earth Day experience was seeing how the Ravens, M&T Bank and Under Armour all banded together on the morning of April 22 to better Baltimore, one tree at a time.

This event served as one of many projects and environmental commitments the Ravens have undertaken to improve their city. In addition to the efforts of the Ravens Foundation and various player foundations, earlier this year M&T Bank Stadium earned a "gold" designation for its LEED certification. During the 2012 Super Bowl triumph, the Ravens partnered with Constellation to promote their Sacks for Seeds campaign. For each sack the Ravens' defense recorded during the season, Constellation donated a tree to be planted on Earth Day. So, come April 2013, the 37 sacks by the Ravens during their championship run turned into 37 newly-planted trees around Baltimore's Patterson High School.

And on Earth Day 2014, the Ravens went beyond their 2013 efforts by planting 46 (the number of sacks from last season) new trees around Baltimore – topping the previous year by nine. Aided by so many dedicated volunteers who labored throughout the beautiful April morning, the Ravens helped make the Pigtown neighborhood 46 trees greener than it had been just hours before.