More than 4m trees planted thanks to Treeapp

Treeapp, one of the UK's leading tree planting organisations, has reported the planting of 4,200,000 trees across 17 countries.

In its latest impact report, Treeapp, founded by two London Business School alumni, Jules Buker and Godefroy Harito, describe the feat as the equivalent of the reforestation of approximately 2,733 hectares—an area equivalent to 6,475 football pitches—while absorbing 594,543 tonnes of CO2 and creating 42,000 work days for local communities.

Treeapp has achieved these remarkable results through the creation of its innovative mobile app, enabling individuals to plant trees for free and assisting more than 1000 organisations - including renowned names like Ministry of Justice, The Economist, L’Oreal, and Wagamama – to integrate tree planting into their business models and operations.

Over the past year, Treeapp has significantly expanded its planting operations across the UK and Europe, introducing 10 new sites in the UK and establishing new sites in Germany, France, and Spain.

Beyond environmental contributions, Treeapp's initiatives include social and economic dimensions, aligning each project with specific UN Sustainable Development Goals, from safeguarding sea life in Indonesia and to empowering women in Ethiopia.

Treeapp's recent accomplishments extend to winning the World Economic Forum - Trillion Trees Challenge, becoming an environmental partner of 1% for the Planet, joining the United Nations Global Compact and being selected to be a part of the Grow London Cohort by London & Partners.

Empowering individuals and businesses to translate awareness into tangible action, Treeapp leads the charge in environmental responsibility and community involvement.

“As we look ahead to 2024, we are filled with excitement and optimism, and we eagerly anticipate expanding our impact on an international scale. Together, let's continue to nurture and protect our planet for generations to come,’ said co-founders Jules Buker (MiM2018) and Godefroy Harito (MiM2018).

The entrepreneurs, who met while studying at LBS, reckoned there were three main barriers stopping people taking action on climate change: “that people don’t have the time, the money or know how to have an impact.”

Treeapp aims to circumvent all those issues. Every time one of its more than 100,000 users download their free app and watch a minutes worth of advertisements from one of the sustainable businesses Treeapp works with, it organises a tree to be planted in one of 12 countries.

“So anyone in the UK and Ireland can plant trees all over the world, every day.”

The Treeapp business model

Dr Ioannis Ioannou , Associate Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, has worked closely with Buker and Harito. He explains that the Treeapp platform exploits ‘network effects’ (in this case, the indirect network effects characteristic of an online platform), whereby every additional app user generates more value to the platform because the available target audience for the brands grows, with the brands paying for the opportunity to market to a self-selecting and highly curated audience.

Similarly, the greater the number of eco-products available to users, and the greater the number of trees planted, the greater the utility of the app to them. Free to users in financial terms, they ‘pay’ by donating time to watch the ads.

“Working with brands also gives Treeapp access to the brands’ networks,” says Ioannou. “The more brands it works with, the more exposure it gets, and the more exposure it gets, the greater the number of brands that want to work with it.”

Innovation at LBS

London Business School has a long history of entrepreneurialism and innovation – an agenda which has gathered momentum and importance over the last 30 years thanks to its Incubator Programme and the support of the Institute of Entrepreneurship and Private Equity (IEPC).