Tree Planting Details - Impact and Partners

Reforestation with Plant Your Change

Every day, members of the Aspiration community are reforesting our planet by choosing to plant trees with roundups - and, together, we’re already contributing to the planting of millions of trees every year. We’ve done our best to create a simple and transparent way for our customers to trust that they’re truly making a difference. 

How do we do that? Behind the scenes, our team records all trees we commit to planting on behalf of our customers and partners. We then work with a variety of tree planting partners across the globe on various reforestation projects, only after completing a due diligence process for each partner and project. That’s how we make sure that the tree planting is ethical, thoughtful, and sustainable.

We then distribute our tree planting commitments across our various partners. Once they receive the funding for their reforestation initiatives, they begin the planting process, which can take up to 18 months. To reforest sustainably takes both time and careful planning. It’s important to make sure that any reforestation project restores an ecosystem and its natural biodiversity. Our tree planting partners plant native species local to the region and ensure that the planting mimics a natural process, not just monocropping forests. Prior to planting, seedlings may be grown in nurseries to ensure quality and adequate germination. Our partners may also research and plant native agroforestry species to support local communities with food security. 

Additionally, planting millions of trees takes a lot of work! It’s essential to us that any reforestation project we support makes a positive socioeconomic impact on the community in which we’re planting. We aim to ensure that our partners employ folks locally and provide them with a reliable, steady source of income. Planting a seed is just the beginning. Steps are taken to help improve seedling survival rate, monitor/reduce invasive species growth, and improve the odds of long-term reforestation. Partners may also work with local communities or government entities to help ensure the sites are protected, as well as setting aside funds to hire long-term forest guards.

Tree Metrics

Based on the average per capita emissions in the US (2016) via World Economic Forum and conservatively using one year of CO2 absorption per mature tree, planting an average of 687 trees per year (or approximately 60 trees per month) would offset your individual carbon footprint. 

Keep in mind that trees can take many years to mature, with yearly carbon capture rates and time to maturity dependent on factors such as species of tree, location (which can affect nutrient availability, hydrological conditions, and light), climate, disease, and human interventions. ^1,2

Who is planting the trees?

We currently have three tree planting partners and we are adding more shortly. It was really important for us to do our due diligence on the tree-planting practices, and we decided to work with the following three partners for our launch:

The Arbor Day Foundation is the largest 501(c)3 nonprofit membership organization dedicated to planting trees. More than 1 million members, supporters, and valued partners have helped them plant more than 350 million trees in neighborhoods, communities, cities, and forests throughout the world to ensure a greener and healthier future for everyone.

The Eden Reforestation Projects works on reforestation campaigns that are focused on restoring biodiversity in local ecosystems. Eden employs local labor for its campaigns planting millions of trees every year. One million trees equate to 10,000 days of sponsored employment.

One Tree Planted is dedicated to making it easier for individuals and businesses to give back to the environment, create a healthier climate, protect biodiversity and help reforestation efforts around the world.

Since 1875, American Forests has been in the vanguard for planting healthy, resilient trees in cities and promoting healthy natural forests all across the United States. Their efforts helped create the U.S. Forest Service and foster the development of large natural landscapes “that deliver essential benefits for climate, people, water, and wildlife.”

For additional details, please refer to our Plant Your Change Disclosure.

¹ Stephenson, N., Das, A., Condit, R. et al. Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size. Nature 507, 90–93 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12914

² Harmon, M. 2001. Carbon sequestration in forests: addressing the scale question. Journal of Forestry. 99(4): 24-29.