Tech and Trees – a powerful symbioses for a sustainable future

You may ask what the essence of innovation and one of nature’s best inventions have in common. The tech and business lexicon have taken inspiration from trees for decades with ecosystem, branch, and Tree Data Structure methodologies to name but a few. The more you think of this duo, the more mutual benefits are revealed. The power of tech and trees is harnessed by Plant-for-the-Planet on their quest to restore forest ecosystems worldwide to achieve a trillion trees to combat the climate crisis.

“Planting a tree is easy but restoring entire forest ecosystems is incredibly hard”

A clear statement by Felix Finkbeiner, leader of Plant-for-the-Planet, a global movement empowering organizations, communities, and youth groups to restore and protect forest ecosystems in areas of deforestation. Together with 275+ official reforestation projects worldwide, Plant-for-the-Planet develop solutions to address the most pressing questions in ecosystem restoration using cutting-edge software tools, providing restoration advice, training academies, and quality control based on scientific research with renowned universities.

Tech plays a pivotal role in the trillion tree mission

High-tech helps the reforestation teams to fund, manage and monitor the millions of trees planted so far and in the future.  The TreeMapper-app is a simple yet powerful tool to register and track the development of the trees planted. The FireAlert-app, using NASA satellite data, enables free alerts when high fire risk areas are detected enabling a faster reaction to fight wildfires. The online Tree Planter is a tool that allows transparent donations worldwide and makes it easier for donors to see in real time how their trees are progressing. All applications are open source and available to restoration organizations as well as advice offered by Plant-for-the-Planet.

As a non-profit organization, Plant-for-the-Planet is solely funded by donations and corporate partnerships. IGEL Technology sponsors Plant-for-the-Planet and supports ongoing projects through promotion at industry events to spread the word and call for donations throughout our network. In 2023, together with our customers, partners, and colleagues we planted over 16,000 trees in restoration projects in Mexico, Ghana, Kenya, and Indonesia using the online tree planting platform. This year at the IGEL Disrupt event in Miami, Florida, IGEL chose the Yucatán Peninsula Restoration Project in Mexico as the flagship project and will call out for donations to reach 24,000 in 2024.

Click here to view the IGEL Tree Planter and learn more about Plant-for-the-Planet and how when tech, communities and companies unite to plant, restore and conserve a trillion trees they take action towards a sustainable future.

“One mosquito can do nothing against a rhino, but a thousand mosquitoes can change its direction”
– Plant-for-the-Planet founder Felix Finkbeiner once said during a speech at the United Nations in 2011.