Treeapp marks ‘National Tree Week’ with landmark 5m trees planted worldwide

In celebration of National Tree Week, Treeapp, one of the UK’s leading tree-planting organisations, announces that they have reached the milestone of 5m trees planted across more than 20 countries.

This milestone reflects Treeapp’s innovative dual approach: empowering individuals to plant trees for free using a user-friendly mobile app supported by advertiser funding, and enabling more than 1000 businesses, including brands such as the Ministry of Justice, The Economist, DPD, Marriott Hotels, OVO Energy, Brighton & Hove Albion FC, and Wagamama, to integrate tree planting into their sustainability strategies.

The 5m tree planting achievement equates to reforesting more than 3250 hectares of land - an area comparable to almost 7,700 football pitches - which absorbs 707,789 tonnes of Co2e over the lifetime of the trees, and creates over 50,000 workdays for local communities.

Over the past year, Treeapp has expanded operations at home in the UK with more than 20 planting sites now established across England, Wales and Scotland. Germany, France, Greece, and Spain have now joined the Treeapp family, with a series of new projects in each country now underway. Beyond planting trees, Treeapp teams make certain that each project is aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals, from protecting marine life in Indonesia to championing women-led initiatives in Ethiopia and Peru.

Treeapp’s impact has not gone unnoticed. In the past year, the organisation has been selected to join prestigious initiatives such as the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the United Nations Global Compact and London & Partners’ Grow London Cohort. Treeapp also won the World Economic Forum’s Trillion Trees Challenge and became an environmental partner of 1% cent for the Planet.

“As we mark this incredible milestone of 5 million trees planted, we’re inspired by the power of collective action from individuals and businesses," said co-founders Jules Buker and Godefroy Harito. “Looking ahead to 2025, we are excited to expand our impact even further globally.”

Treeapp - a London Business School story

In the spring and summer of 2018 Europe experienced a period of unusually hot weather that led to record-breaking temperatures and wildfires in many parts of the northern hemisphere. In Greece, the heatwave combined with strong winds to spark wildfires in the coastal areas of Attica. One of the deadliest wildfire events in the 21st century, the fires led to the deaths of 102 people and the destruction of thousands of homes and other property.

One huge wildfire took place right in front of the house of Athens resident Godefroy Harito (MiM2018). People he knew lost loved ones and the anger he felt compelled him to try to combat the effects of climate change. The same year, Harito met Jules Buker (MiM2018) at London Business School. Like Harito, Buker also had a strong personal interest in fighting climate change. Of French and Turkish descent, he was very mindful of Turkey’s 2019 attempt at mass tree-planting when, on a day that the government declared ‘National Forestation Day’, volunteers planted 11m across more than 2000 sites. Regrettably, within a few months of planting, an estimated 90 per cent of the saplings were forecast to die due to lack of water.

Harito was a serial entrepreneur; Buker had previously founded businesses in the services sector and the legal-tech space. Together, they resolved to found a business that would both combat climate change and have a positive social impact.

The story of how the founders launched the business is the subject of an LBS case study written by London Business School's Dr Ioannis Ioannou, ‘Treeapp: Plant a tree for free, every day’.