Member Article

Krystal announces its ‘1 billion tree pledge’ to help fight climate emergency

Eco-friendly web hosting provider Krystal has announced details of its ‘1 billion tree pledge’ to help mitigate the ongoing climate catastrophe, with a goal to protect and plant 1 billion trees by 2030. The pledge target of 1 billion will be reached through a combination of conserving existing trees, restoring degraded forests, and planting new trees.

Krystal’s commitment comes as part of the global 1t.org initiative, a programme to mobilize the private sector and accelerate nature-based solutions in support of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Krystal aims to use this pledge to raise awareness of environmental sustainability. Having planted over 1 million trees this year Krystal has pledged to plant 10 trees on behalf of each of its 37,082 clients in order to celebrate commencing the 1 billion tree pledge. These initial 370,820 trees will be mangrove trees planted in Kenya in partnership with Eden Reforestation. The number of trees protected or planted will increase each year in order to reach 1 billion by 2030.

Every single tree planted will be independently verified by veritree, creators of the world’s only blockchain verification tool built exclusively for global restoration projects. This technology provides tree planting organisations with an efficient integrated project management tool, offering a service where they can combine ground-level data with effective project objectives and delivery.

Simon Blackler, CEO of Krystal, commented: “I founded Krystal to create a planet-positive legacy long after I’m gone. We’ve already planted over 1 million trees this year and I love the idea that they’ll help future generations in a small way. We wanted to take it one step further, so have committed to the ambitious target of 1 billion trees by 2030 to show that even an SME with 60 staff can make a difference. My hope is that Krystal inspires others to rethink what they can, and should, be doing to save our planet. The climate crisis is an ongoing catastrophe of our own making and we all have a responsibility to come together, and quickly, to set it right.”

Nicole Schwab, Co-Director, Nature-Based Solutions, 1t.org at World Economic Forum, says: “Krystal’s pledge to conserve, restore, and grow 1 billion trees is ambitious in scale and vision, and inspiring as it comes from a growing medium-sized enterprise. Key to achieving this will be the integration of veritree technology to monitor implementation, and we look forward to seeing the progress and impact of this pledge.”

Derrick Emsley, Co-Founder and CEO of veritree, added: “This partnership with Krystal will be a game-changer in our fight against the climate crisis. Krystal’s choice to use the veritree platform to ensure accuracy and transparency in its commitment to plant 1 billion trees by 2030 will have a transformative impact not only on the world’s forests, but on local habitats, communities, and families. veritree will power Krystal’s initial planting commitment of 370,920 trees, allowing its customers to see the impact being had just by being a Krystal customer. As we look to the start of COP26, we challenge other companies to follow Krystal’s lead and leverage the power of nature-based solutions as a meaningful part of the solution in keeping global temperatures at bay.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Krystal .