Why are trees good for the planet?
- Trees absorb carbon dioxide and potentially harmful gasses and release oxygen.
- One large tree can supply a day’s supply of oxygen for four people.
- A healthy tree can store 13 pounds of carbon each year —-for an acre of trees that equals to 2.6 tons of carbon dioxide.
- Each gallon of gasoline burned produces almost 20 pounds of carbon dioxide.
- For every 10,000 miles you drive, it takes 7 trees to remove the amount of carbon dioxide produce if your car gets 40 miles per gallon (mpg); it will take 10 trees at 30 mpg; 15 trees at 20 mpg; 20 trees at 15 mpg; and 25 trees at 12 mpg)
It’s important to invest in regenerating our local communities, but if you want to do more, here are 6 companies that are planting trees.
One Tree Planted ($)
One Tree Planted is an environmental charity on a mission to make it simple for anyone to help the environment by planting trees! They are dedicated to making it easier for individuals and businesses to give back to the environment, fight climate change, protect biodiversity and help reforestation efforts around the world. One dollar. One tree. They pool the donations for each project and send the funds to our reforestation partners. They vet their partners to ensure that they maintain a tree survival rate of 80-90%.
Tree-nation $-$$
You can choose to plant your trees on many different plantation projects located on 3 different continents of the planet. There are more than 300 different species to plant on Tree-Nation. You’ll find from baobabs and cacao trees to some rare trees like the Pachira quinata or majestic ones like the Ceiba Pentandra. When you plant a tree with Tree-Nation, you are also creating its virtual companion. You can personalize your virtual tree with a picture and a message to let your friends know why you are planting this tree. Also, you can share your virtual tree page on social networks, post comments and check the location and species information about the real tree.
Trees.org $-$$$
Trees.org’s mission is to improve the livelihoods of impoverished farmers by revitalizing degraded lands. By converting degraded and denuded farmland into Forest Gardens, Trees.org strives to eliminate hunger, extreme poverty, deforestation and lessening humanity’s contributions to climate change. The Forest Garden Program is a simple, replicable and scalable approach with proven success. By planting specific types of fast-growing trees, fruit trees, hardwoods, and food crops in a systematic manner over a four year period, families can positively change their lives forever.
Ecosia search engine free
Ecosia is like any other search engine, with one major difference: they use profits to plant trees. If you haven’t already, swap out Google as your regular search engine for Ecosia ASAP.
Flora app free
Flora is a focus habit tracker that plants trees every time you stay on task. Flora by AppFinca Inc. is a gamified pomodoro timer, habit tracker, and do-to list app that encourages you and friends to put down the phones and be productive via tree planting. AppFinca is proud to partner with Trees.org to offer REAL tree planting services in the app to allow users to help the environment and people living in Africa while staying focused. If you are constantly distracted by Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc., while studying or working, please give the Flora app a try. You’ll do well by doing good!
Forest app $
Forest is a productivity app that helps people beat their phone addiction and manage their time in an interesting and pleasant way. Users can earn credits by not using their cell phones and plant real trees around the world with the credits. With Forest, users can have a delightful experience to spend less time on their cell phones, focus on what’s more important in their lives, and keep our environment green.
