Treeapp: Plant Trees For Free With a Tap Of Your Screen
Pretty much every day, not long after I wake up, I stick on the kettle, make a cup of tea, and then, I plant a tree.
Between making the cup of tea and planting the tree each morning, it’s the tea that requires greater input from me.
Well goodness gracious me that must take quite a flaming effort musn’t it? Must it not!? I must be some sort of energetic man with an energetic plan and time and money and energy to burn if I’m out there in the chilly hilly wilderness planting trees every morning come what November?
Well actually, you can forget about what month it is, forget about the energetic, and forget about burning things too, because planting these trees every morning actually requires very little effort at all. Very very little effort indeed! (And it’s completely financially free!)
Between making the cup of tea and planting the tree each morning, it’s the tea that requires greater input from me.
Each tree, you see, I can plant with a few wee taps of my phone screen. And you can do this too; simple as that. (Even if you prefer coffee with your morning tree!)
All you’ve got to do is go and download this free app, called: Treeapp.
But what is Treeapp exactly?
What is Treeapp and Where Did it Come From?
As you’ve probably already gathered, Treeapp is an app that lets you easily plant trees, for free. And not just any little old trees at that.
With Treeapp, the trees you plant are planted through recognised and well-respected reforestation organisations, and great care is taken to ensure that the right trees are planted in the right places at the right time. All trees planted through Treeapp are also properly cared for, so that they can flourish for years and years! (And therefore sequester tonnes and tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere throughout their lifetime, helping to tackle the climate crisis and cool down the planet in the process)
Treeapp was founded in 2019 by Jules Buker, Godefroy Harito, and Leo Ng, with the main goal of providing regular folks with the ability to plant trees, without the need for time, money, or tree-planting expertise!
With Treeapp, the trees you plant are planted through recognised and well-respected reforestation organisations, and great care is taken to ensure that the right trees are planted in the right places at the right time.
The founders describe Treeapp as “a place for anyone to have an environmental, social and economic impact in the areas that need it most.”
But how is this actually possible? I mean, who the heck is actually paying for all these wonderful trees to be planted?
So How Exactly Does Treeapp Work?
Funded by Eco-Friendly Brands
On Treeapp, you can plant one free tree each day.
Treeapp is very careful to only partner with businesses that have a genuinely positive environmental focus. Treeapp allows these planet-conscious businesses to advertise and conduct market research through the app, and in return, these businesses fund the planting of the trees.
These ‘free’ trees are basically funded by marketing. But we’re not talking about the ‘big bad buy buy buy this barbaric bunch of planet-bashing bullcrap even though you don’t need it’ kind of marketing. We’re talking about the ‘here’s a genuinely useful, well-designed offering that might help you reduce your environmental impact and improve your life’ kind of marketing!
Treeapp is very careful to only partner with businesses that have a genuinely positive environmental focus. Treeapp allows these planet-conscious businesses to advertise and conduct market research through the app, and in return, these businesses fund the planting of the trees. Briiv, L’Occitane, Nordgreen, Georganics, Green Pear Eco, Wild, and Dash-Water are just some of the current sponsor brands, but there are many many others involved too.
Now I reckon that’s a fair deal really isn’t it? I mean it barely even sounds like a deal at all. It just sounds like a flipping fantastic idea that’s beneficial for everyone involved!
Here’s a step-by-step of how you can plant trees through Treeapp:
How to Plant Trees Through Treeapp
1. First, just whip out your phone (you were probably on it already weren’t you?), and open up Treeapp.
2. Choose a tree-planting project from the beautifully scrollable interactive map of the world.
3. Spend about 30 seconds checking out an advertisement from an eco-friendly sponsor brand.
4. Once the ad is over, you can plant a tree in your chosen location with a single tap of your screen.
5. It is then possible to track your impact, view your updated carbon footprint after planting the tree, and you can also check out more information about the sponsor brand, the location you have planted your tree, and the reforestation project you have planted it through.
Everyone’s a Winner
And it’s as simple as that; a win-win-win situation really. Us regular folks get to plant a free tree every day and discover new and useful eco-friendly products and brands (honestly most of the sponsor brands are genuinely very good), eco-conscious brands are provided with an effective platform for reaching new and relevant customers, and most importantly, thousands and thousands of trees are planted in areas where they are most needed.
A tree-mendous (or three-mendous even?) combination of favourable outcomes if you ask me.
Plant Even More Trees With a Paid Plan
And if planting one free tree per day isn’t enough to float your boat, funk your trunk or rumble your jungle, Treeapp also offers paid options where you can fund the planting of even more trees, either through gifts to friends, one-off donations, or monthly tree-planting plans.
Business plans are even available so companies can reduce their environmental impact by planting trees through Treeapp.
If planting one free tree per day isn’t enough to float your boat, funk your trunk or rumble your jungle, Treeapp also offers paid options where you can fund the planting of even more trees, either through gifts to friends, one-off donations, or monthly tree-planting plans.
So it seems Treeapp has got people and businesses and everyone covered when it comes to planting trees as efficiently as possible, but how do we know that these trees are really actually genuinely real actual trees that go into the ground and grow big and tall and suck carbon out of the atmosphere and make the world a better place and actually do what they’re supposed to be doing in the way they’re supposed to be doing it?
Good question that isn’t it? A very good question indeed.
And you know what? The answer isn’t half bad either.
But How Do We Know Treeapp is Planting Real Trees That Make a Difference?
To ensure that any tree planted through Treeapp has a positive effect on the local habitat and the environment as a whole, Treeapp chooses their planting partners carefully. They only work with organisations that offer full transparency about their tree-planting operations, and who continuously monitor the health of the forests in question.
Why Tree-Planting Needs to Be Done Right
Unfortunately, not all trees are created (or planted) equal. There are many examples out there of tree-planting initiatives that really don’t have any positive impact on the environment whatsoever. (And can sometimes actually be damaging to the environment and local habitats!)
This can involve the wrong trees being planted in the wrong places which can negatively affect biodiversity. Or it might be that suitable trees are planted but never grow past the infancy stage due to lack of care or premature ‘harvesting’. Monocultures, which involve a single species of tree being planted across a vast area, are also a big issue. These monoculture ‘plantations’, again, are very damaging to biodiversity and can also be detrimental to soil health, cause depletion of water sources, actually directly lead to air and water pollution due to pesticide use, and in some cases, can even displace entire communities when their land is taken over by these plantations.
Due to these kinds of issues and many others, it is essential that a great deal of care and thought is put into ensuring that the right kinds of trees are planted in the right kinds of areas, in the right way, at the right time. Treeapp ensures this is the case with their trees by partnering with 7 internationally recognised and respected tree-planting NGO’s from around the world, and also by consulting with 5 forestry experts about these tree-planting operations. (Always best to consult with the experts really isn’t it?)
Treeapp’s Internationally Recognised Tree-Planting Partners
To ensure that any tree planted through Treeapp has a positive effect on the local habitat and the environment as a whole, Treeapp chooses their planting partners carefully. They only work with organisations that offer full transparency about their tree-planting operations, and who continuously monitor the health of the forests in question.
It is essential that a great deal of care and thought is put into ensuring that the right kinds of trees are planted in the right kinds of areas, in the right way, at the right time.
All trees planted must also be protected by contracts with these local planting partners and local governments, to ensure that each tree is allowed to grow to its full potential, sequester as much carbon as possible, and generally grow to do all the wonderful things a fully grown tree can do.
Treeapp currently works with 7 tree-planting NGOs around the world, each of which ticks all of the tree-shaped requirements mentioned above. And here they are!:
Eden Reforestation Projects:
This phenomenal NGO was launched in Ethiopia in 2005, and ‘is on a mission to provide fair wage employment to impoverished villagers as agents of global forest restoration. They are known to hire the poorest villagers to grow, plant, and guard native forest species to maturity on a massive scale.
Eden Projects currently partners with Treeapp to plant trees in Haiti, Madagascar, Mozambique, Kenya, Nepal, and Indonesia.
Green Ethiopia:
Green Ethiopia is a Swiss charitable foundation founded in the year 2000. The foundation works in Ethiopia on afforestation projects that fight against erosion and desertification.
They are currently partnered with Treeapp to help plant trees in Ethiopia.
Friends of Usambara:
Friends of Usambara, an NGO founded in 1997, works to mobilize and empower the local Tanzanian community in the Eastern Arc Mountains to combat desertification, regenerate forests, and promote sustainable forestry.
This NGO focuses entirely on planting trees in the Usambara Mountains in Tanzania, and partners with Treeapp to reforest the mountainous region of Lushoto.
Greening Burundi:
Quite a young but ambitious NGO, Greening Burundi was only officially registered in September 2019, having started as a community initiative three years earlier.
Greening Burundi is on a mission to regenerate Burundian forests by employing local villagers for planting and monitoring purposes. They have already planted over 800,000 trees in Burundi to date, and are partnering with Treeapp to continue and accelerate this terrific work, with the ultimate goal of planting 50 Million trees in Burundi.
Go download Treeapp now and you can help make that target become a reality!
Renascedd:
Renascedd is a Guinean NGO founded in 2016 on a mission to ‘sustainably improve the quality of the environment through their tree planting activities.’
To achieve this goal, they are currently developing large-scale planting projects in eight locations across Guinea in both urban and rural areas. With the help of their official partner Treeapp, of course!
Progreso:
Set up in 1993, Progreso has been working for nearly 30 years to support local farmer collectives to sustainably manage Peruvian forests and agriculture.
They are now officially partnered with Treeapp in a joint effort to equip local smallholders with the knowledge and tools to grow and care for their own trees.
Cepan:
Cepan is a non-profit institution founded by professors and graduate students at the Federal University of Pernambuco in Brazil in the year 2000.
Now officially partnered with Treeapp, Cepan’s mission is to ‘generate strategic solutions’ to conserve Brazil’s biodiversity. They do this through coordinated forest regeneration projects, mainly in the eastern regions of Brazil.
Consulting With the Experts
Treeapp consults with 5 forestry experts who review all NGO operations before approving them.
So if you’ve taken the time to read about Treeapp’s planting partners in the section above, or maybe even checked out their websites, you’ll probably have come to the conclusion that every tree planted through Treeapp really is a genuine tree, planted in an appropriate place, in an appropriate way, with the utmost care and attention. The tree-planting partners in question have all been passionately founded with exactly this mission in mind, after all.
And it’s no surprise that all of Treeapp’s planting partners are the real deal when it comes to planting trees appropriately, because Treeapp actually consults with 5 forestry experts who review all NGO operations before approving them. This basically makes it as certain as possible that each tree planted through Treeapp will have a positive impact on the environment.
Well maybe before we fully make up our minds about that, it might be nice to know a little about how exactly all these trees are planted? Are they just dumped in the ground and then left there to grow? Are they monitored? Assessed? Cared for? Who knows?
Well I’ll tell you who knows; You do! If you keep on reading that is 
How and Where Does Treeapp Plant All These Trees?
I’ve already touched on the planting locations in the section above, but how does Treeapp choose these locations? And how does the whole planting, monitoring, assessing process work? (It works like a well thought out, no messing about tree-planting plan, that’s how!)
Choosing the Planting Locations
Currently, Treeapp has active planting sites in Haiti, Brazil and Peru across South America, Guinea, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique throughout Africa, and Nepal and Indonesia in Asia.
Of course, it all begins with figuring out where trees actually need to be planted. This is done based on a ‘thorough evaluation of local needs, planting methods, and monitoring efforts.’ As I mentioned earlier, Treeapp consults with 5 forestry experts before final tree-planting sites and planting partners are chosen.
Currently, Treeapp has active planting sites in Haiti, Brazil and Peru across South America, Guinea, Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Madagascar and Mozambique throughout Africa, and Nepal and Indonesia in Asia. All these sites have been carefully chosen using expert advice to ensure that all trees planted have the maximum positive impact on local communities, habitats, and the environment in general.
But hey, what the heck is actually happening on the ground at these sites?
Planting the Trees
So it turns out, planting trees isn’t just as simple as plonking them in the ground wherever you so please and then running off into the sunset like a plonker feeling chuffed with yourself! A lot of care, attention, and planning is required to ensure that the trees have the best chance of flourishing, and that they compliment the local habitat, and each other. For this reason, there are certain processes that take place at Treeapp planting sites:
- First, each planting site is inspected, and assessments are made regarding the optimal tree-planting capacity, which combination of species are appropriate for the area, what spacing is needed between the trees, and what the best time of year is to plant each species. (Planting time always varies depending on species and location)
- Once all these super important decisions have been made, the trees can be primed for planting. Usually, this involves the trees spending 3-6 months in ‘tree nurseries’ until they reach sapling size, at which time they are then planted in the ground.
- Once planted, all trees are then regularly monitored as they grow, and are protected by contracts to ensure they are not cut down prematurely.
- *Super-cool fact: At least 15+ appropriate tree species are planted at each Treeapp planting site to improve biodiversity and to help successfully restore entire local ecosystems. Treeapp only ever plants native species at planting sites, never invasive ones.
And there you have it. That’s how Treeapp makes sure that all trees planted through the app are the right trees in the right places at the right time in the right way, and that the trees not only survive but thrive until they’re old and grey! (Well maybe not grey per se, but you know what I mean)
A lot of care, attention, and planning is required to ensure that the trees have the best chance of flourishing, and that they compliment the local habitat, and each other.
Buuuuuuuuuuuut. Like, how do we really really actually know for sure that these trees are really being planted? I mean, couldn’t it all be one great big tree-shaped hoax???
How Do We Know The Trees are Actually Being Planted?
Seen above are just some screenshots from my own Treeapp profile which provide details about the impact my Tree-planting activities have had in different areas. This only shows a snippet of the info provided. There are extensive galleries relating to each planting-location available, with images and videos, and regular updates on tree-planting stats etc, so you can be quite sure that your trees are really being planted and cared for, and ultimately, are having a positive impact on the environment.
Breaking news just in!: Treeapp is not a hoax, folks! Haha. To offer proof that indeed, the trees we plant through Treeapp are genuinely actually being planted, Treeapp does a number of things:
- They provide images and videos of the planting activities occurring.
- Where possible, they also provide drone footage of planting sites, and before and after pictures.
- Updates are also provided about the wildlife which returns to planting sites not long after planting occurs.
- Finally, Treeapp is able to use geolocation and sampling to locate and calculate the number of trees planted in each location.
So now we’ve got the trees in the ground, growing tall and proud, ecosystems coming back to life, wildlife rejoining the party. I mean, what more could you want?
Well actually, there is more! Because Treeapp is about more than just planting trees.
Supporting Local Communities
In all of Treeapp’s planting operations, jobs and therefore a source of income is made available to people in the local communities, meaning the tree-planting is beneficial for local people as well as local habitats. But there are some particular initiatives Treeapp are involved in that stand out in terms of offering community support:
- In Nepal, Treeapp plants fruit trees with women-led groups to help promote gender equality in rural societies. Tastily, these fruit trees also provide a nice juicy harvest for the community each year.
- In Tanzania, Treeapp supports educational programmes where children learn about the benefits of reforestation. (Which hopefully means some of these kids will grow up to become tree-experts and continue making the world a better place!)
- In Indonesia, mangroves are planted to help mitigate flooding, which is beneficial for local communities both economically, and stress-wise!
- In Burundi, Treeapp supports plastic-free nurseries and electric bicycles for transporting seedlings up hilly areas, bringing a whole other kind of sustainability to the area.
- In Brazil, the indigineous Geraizerios people are provided with some additional income by gathering seeds for Treeapp.
In all of Treeapp’s planting operations, jobs and therefore a source of income is made available to people in the local communities, meaning the tree-planting is beneficial for local people as well as local habitats.
So clearly Treeapp’s work so far seems to be a roaring success both for local environments and communities, but how successful exactly have they been? Well, let’s take a little look at those numbers, shall we!? (We shall!)
Treeapp’s Success So Far
Treeapp has already managed to plant over 400,000 trees, across 3 continents, and 13 planting locations. This amounts to an area of over 2 million metres squared, an area about the size of flipping Monaco!
Treeapp has only been active for just over a year, having launched in April 2020, but they have already accomplished some amazing things in that time.
They recently released their ‘impact report’ for their first year live if you’d like to peruse through all the treemendous details, but here’s a little breakdown of their success so far:
- After one year live, Treeapp had attracted over 40,000 users, a number which has since grown to over 45,000!
- With the help of those users (I planted my 107th tree through Treeapp today!), Treeapp has already managed to plant over 400,000 trees, across 3 continents, and 13 planting locations. This amounts to an area of over 2 million metres squared, an area about the size of flipping Monaco!
- Treeapp has already collaborated with over 100 sustainable brand sponsors to date.
- The app has already reached ‘app of the day’ on the Apple app store, and ‘top 10 apps’ on the Google Play store.
- Treeapp even partnered with UK electronic group Disclosure last November on a collaboration t-shirt, with each t-shirt sold resulting in a tree being planted. You can actually still purchase the t-shirts on the Disclosure web store if you like!
Not a bad year all-in-all I reckon for our good friends at Treeapp. But what about the next year? And the year after that? And the year after that? And, well, what about the future in general?
What Does the Future Hold for Treeapp?
Well I’m no psychic or anything like that, and neither are the folks at Treeapp (I assume so, I mean who knows, maybe they are a little psychic?), so I can’t really tell you what the future holds, can I?
But all silliness aside, Treeapp do have some big big plans for the coming months and years.
There will be new NGO partnerships bringing Treeapp planting sites further around the globe, new features on the app so users can check the growth of their trees, and even a marketplace so users can buy from their favourite sustainable brands directly through Treeapp.
Treeapp is also in the process of becoming a certified B Corporation, which is a certification granted only to companies with the highest standards of environmental and social performance. To become a B Corporation a company actually has to alter its legal structure so that environmental and social impacts must be accounted for as well as financial concerns, in every decision made. I would imagine that Treeapp was probably structured this way from the get-go, but still, soon enough they’ll be officially certified as an environmentally and socially super-lovely company. (You can learn more about B Corporations in this super-lovely article I prepared earlier!)
There will be new NGO partnerships bringing Treeapp planting sites further around the globe, new features on the app so users can check the growth of their trees, and even a marketplace so users can buy from their favourite sustainable brands directly through Treeapp.
Finally, Treeapp also plans to organise a local tree-planting event around London in the near future, which I reckon will probably be very fun indeed.
Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be in London to attend this Treeapp tree-planting bonanza, but one thing’s for sure, I will still be planting a tree that day, with a few simple swipes of my phone screen, as I sip on my cup of green tea.
And that is more than good enough for me.
How to Download Treeapp and/or Become a Treeapp Brand Ambassador
- Download Treeapp: If you’d like to download Treeapp (currently only available in the UK and Ireland, but surely will be downloadable in other locations soon), you can do so here.
- Become a Treeapp Ambassador: If you’d like to become an ambassador for Treeapp, where you help to spread the word, attend Treeapp events and generally make a bit of Treeapp-related noise in exchange for exclusive perks and input into product design and direction, you can do that, here!
And that’s really it from me today folks. I hope you enjoyed the article, and now, what the tree are you waiting for?
Get planting!
About the Author
Adam Millett is a freelance writer for hire who specialises in sustainability and environmental issues. He believes the economy should be circular, businesses should make the world a better place, and that effective content is the best way to spread the word about sustainability. Visit his website at wordchameleon.com if you want to bring your vision of sustainability to life.
