Trees need a business model. I’m not the first one to say it.
(The World Resources Institute published a report, “The Business of Planting Trees” that became one of the NGO’s most popular publications in 2018.)
You may have seen the ads for One Billion Trees pop up on your computer screen. Happy people (mostly young) in bright green t-shirts are planting trees in tropical landscapes. Then comes the pitch. You can become a member/monthly donor for $43. Or you can click on the “shop” button and purchase your own bright green items with the 8 billion trees logo: a t-shirt ($25), a water bottle ( $20 ), a mousepad ($25), and other items.
There is no doubt that tree planting as a solution to the climate emergency is appealing and popular. But can we fund the reversal of global warming with sales of t-shirts and $43 donations?
Tree planting is a simple idea and a complicated business. Tree planting takes many different forms. In addition to the well-known large (but shrinking) forests of the Amazon and elsewhere, there are small urban treed areas called, “pocket forests”. There are riparian “forest buffers” along water ways. In “agroforestry” trees grow alongside crops. “Silvopasturing” introduces domestic animals to graze among trees in pasture lands. Green belts of trees have been planted to halt desertification across Africa and China.
A tremendous amount of local knowledge goes into selecting the right species of trees for local conditions, and to nurturing and caring for the young saplings.
Missing from the enthusiasm and proliferation of variations of tree planting initiatives is the question of funding. Greta and George assume public funding and suggest some of the subsidies currently used to support fossil fuel industries be redirected to nature-based climate solutions – like planting trees.
But if tree planting is to become an enduring activity for as long as it takes to mitigate/impact climate change, relying on the politics of increasingly scarce public funding is not good enough. TREES NEED A BUSINESS MODEL or two.
We are more used to thinking about profitable business models in connection with mechanical systems. For example, a couple of engineers invent a machine that draws carbon out of the air, they get venture capital and form a company (like Carbon Engineering) to produce and operate the machines. Voila! A business is born. We are used to this model of business formation.
Recent developments give me hope that trees, too, can find profitable, sustainable business models. I will explore these models in future posts.