Treedom has trees planted on a subscription basis – but is it really that green?

The online platform Treedom offers a subscription model for planting trees. With the offer, the company wants to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Nevertheless, there is criticism of the start-up.

Planting trees is currently in vogue. It is widely known that they are real climate savers. And anyone who wants to campaign for sustainability can now find numerous ways to have trees planted on the Internet.

One platform stands out, however, because the Italian start-up Treedom now also offers a subscription for planting trees.

Treedom: Plant trees in a subscription model

In plain language, this means that interested parties can have a tree planted not only once. Instead, depending on the subscription option, you can order a self-selected number of trees per month.

These are the different subscriptions to plant trees

As the company announced in a recent press release, there are three different subscription models on offer. In the basic model “Rookie”, subscribers can have a tree planted in one of the 17 Treedom project countries worldwide each month.

Anyone who chooses the hero:innen subscription “Hero” has a total of 15 trees planted per year. With the “Master” model, users can plant a total of 24 trees per year. In terms of price, the tree planting subscriptions range between around 13 and 24 euros. In addition, customers can cancel their respective order at any time with a click.

Watch Treedom trees grow online

Depending on the season and availability, the trees are planted in so-called agroforestry projects and cared for by small farmers. Tree planting subscribers can also follow the growing and care of their seedlings online.

They also get information about the respective tree species and project countries and can find out about topics such as climate change, desertification or water shortages.

Planting trees: That’s behind the idea for the subscriptions

With the offer, the platform not only wants to positively influence the environment. The project should also have a sustainable social and economic benefits to have.

The fact that the trees only find their place in agroforestry systems should also benefit the people involved in the long term. For example, they can earn a living by selling the fruit.

With its work, the company wants to goals set by the United Nations support for sustainable development. In addition to the fight against poverty, hunger and inequality, this also includes gender equality, access to education and responsible management.

Modern Selling Indulgences: Criticism of Treedom

What initially sounds like a great way to support the environment, however, also has a downside. Because despite its noble mission, Treedom seems to work with global players who are not at all known for their sustainability.

Like the web magazine Peppermynta For example, companies such as McDonald’s, Nespresso, Colgate, Nestlé and H&M are among the Italian start-up’s cooperation companies. These global players plant trees via Treedom and use the planting campaign for their own PR or advertising campaigns.

Peppermynta Compare this to a modern form of selling indulgences. Because the same companies that polish their image by planting trees are often responsible for the fact that they were felled in the first place.

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