Green shoots

In a bid to fight climate change, two university friends have launched a new project which gives both companies and individuals the chance to offset their carbon emissions by funding tree planting projects in Africa

The young eco-enthusiasts have created a carbon calculator that can be freely accessed on their website www.treedoo.org. This informs users about the amount of man-made CO2 emitted by travelling by plane or car, and how many trees need to be planted to neutralize those emissions.

The idea for the project, named Treedoo, came when Julien Picaud, 27 and Sebastian Muissus, 25, were in the middle of their Master in European Business at ESCP Europe. "It's not that people don't want to be green," says Julien. "One of the problems with getting people engaged in the fight against climate change is raising their awareness of how much of a negative impact they are having on the environment - and this is where the carbon calculator can quickly show them.

"For example, one tree must be planted and live for 40 years to offset just 150kg of Co2 emissions. To put that into perspective, a 30 mile commute to work driving a 1.6 petrol car roughly produces 8kg Co2. You would use up 150kg driving about 500 miles in the same car, so in order to carbon neutralize an average 10,000 miles clocked up by someone each year 20 trees would need to be planted. And that's just counting the emissions from driving! An average Briton emits 4,000Kg of CO2 per year."

Their initial plantation projects have been set up in the Bongolava region, Madagascar. The area is nutrient poor and has undergone rapid desertification in recent years so the drought resistant Jatropha Curcas tree has been selected for this project. After three years these trees will harvest an annual collection of seeds which, in turn, can be used as a biofuel to re-fertilize the land for future agricultural use.

This region is also riddled with poverty - but it's estimated that over 6,000 direct jobs can be created from this scheme alone, giving local farmers the chance to earn a high stable income which will also spearhead social and economic progress in the heart of Africa.

"People do not take enough responsibility for the damage they are doing to the environment through their activities," says Julien. "Human interference through population growth and industrial and agricultural activities is rapidly increasing the amount of greenhouses gases in the atmosphere - negatively affecting biodiversity and causing extreme weather, sea level rises and reduced agricultural yields. It's no good just waiting for businesses and the Government to come up with new schemes and technology - everybody needs to take a long hard look at their own impact on the environment and take steps to improve it now.

"And although planting trees doesn't change the root of the problem caused by industrialization and overconsumption, it is a very effective way to minimize the negative effects. Plants and trees naturally 'breath' in carbon dioxide through the process of photosynthesis and when they die the carbon compounds they have stored become part of the soil. This natural process perfectly balances the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. At the cost of only one pound per tree, reforestation is something you can do today to help preserve the earth for future generations.

"People may question how our project is different from what big name charities are doing - well the aim is the same, but we are the only mission working in this specific community in Madagascar. We work closely with our local partner New Ecology Oil (NEO) who delivers on the ground, and the Malagsay Red Cross. The future success of our project all comes down to trust; trust that we'll deliver what we say we will and transparency in all our operations, for example, we only take 20 per cent of our profits for salaries and are committed to investing everything else in raising the profile of Treedoo."

Now a year into their project the small group of friends have already notched up over 400 members and planted over 1,067 trees offsetting 160,703 kg of Co2. With their headquarters based in Paris, they are now operating in France, Germany and the UK and have already established partnerships with companies that are looking to offset their business emissions, including extreme sports company Latitude Challenge who've planted trees to compensate for their business travel and flights. Other companies use Treedoo to offset their events to create carbon neutral conferences and business trips.

Their goal is to raise the profile of the initiative in order to plant 5 million trees in in Madagascar which will absorb 750,000 tons of Co2. They have also just secured a partnership with Climate XL Africa - opening up work in Nairobi and projects supported by UNEP and WWF.

Julien and Sebastien, both currently living in Paris, hold Master degrees in European Business from ESCP Europe