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Give a virtual tree and start a real forest
Wed, Dec 10 2008 at 3:49 PM
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Forests & Trees

Image: A Real Tree

For a long time there hasn't been a really great way to give the simplest of environmental gifts, a tree planted in the honor of a friend or family member.  Many organizations like Rainforest Forever and NRDC allow you to gift trees, but the actual gift object (usually an 8 x 10 certificate) is not very appealing and is often outlandishly priced (NRDC now charges $10 for a single tree while Rainforest Forever charges $50).  Other organizations like Arbor Day Foundation charge $1 per tree (with a 10 tree minimum) while Trees for the Future claims to be able to plant a tree for 10 cents (with a 450 tree minimum).  The price points are all over the map, creating confusion in the market.  And in most cases the gift is neither very educational nor very fun.
 
MokuGift is trying to change all that by using the concept of the "virtual gift" -- a digital object that expresses a sentiment to a friend.  Virtual gifts took off like wildfire two years ago when they were introduced on Facebook.  For 99 cents, a person can buy a little icon representing a bunch of flowers or a candy bar or a martini.  The gift is then received and displayed on their Facebook profile page.  It sounds a little silly, but no one is laughing now.  It is estimated that Facebook has received over $35 million in revenue from these little virtual gifts.
 
MokuGift expanded the concept for the iPhone (a much larger screen).  The price is still 99 cents, but now the tree is interactive.  You have to figure out what to do to make the birds fly out of the tree, or to cause the tree to blossom.  And if you keep the app updated, the tree will have surprises for you at different times of the year.
 
Founder Hans Chung's vision is to have all 13 million iPhone users plant just one tree.  As the trees mature they will absorb CO2, which will offset the equivalent (he says) of taking 500,000 cars of the road.  Well, in my math its not quite that effective (a typical car produces 7 tons CO2 per year, and a typical tree will sequester about 50 lbs of CO2 (PDF) in the first 10 years of its life....50 lbs x 13 million : 2000 = 325,000 tons CO2 : 7 tons/car = 46,500 cars).  Nevertheless that is still a whole lot of CO2.  And trees give back to the environment in many other ways -- building soil fertility, replenishing the water table, and creating shelter for sustainable crops. 
 
I really do think tree planting is one of the most important things we can do to help rebuild the environment, solve the climate problem, and reduce poverty.  A tree really does make a great environmental gift.  So what MokuGift did is to make take the same virtual tree concept and allow you to email it so someone, so that they can see where their tree was planted (using google maps) and what it looks like:

 

You can purchase trees and learn more by visiting the MokuGift website.  To learn more about internet innovations check out my lecture called Environmentalism 2.0: can the Internet save the planet?

 

 

The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.

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Comments: 3
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anonymous
Guest Jan 08 2009 at 11:10 PM

Thanks Hans for the number crunching!

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anonymous
Guest Jan 07 2009 at 3:47 PM
Hi Karl, I am Hans Chung from mokugift. That you for your review of our services. You really get it. Our objective is to make tree planting as enjoyable and convenient as buying a starbucks coffee. I'd like to thank you for checking our numbers. It made us recheck our calculations. It turns out that the numbers we used were off because of a mistake. Here is the math: CO2/Gallon of gas: 19.36 lbs/gallonhttp://www.pi.energy.gov/enhancingGHGregistry/documents/January2007_1605... (see table 1 D 1)
.... More
average mileage: 23.9 miles per gallonhttp://www.epa.gov/otaq/climate/420f05004.htm average miles per passenger car per year: 12,0000 (same EPA source) that works out to 9,721 lbs per year per passenger car. Then our mistake happened. We had divided this by 12 month because we were using that number for another calculation focused on monthly driving. The excel sheet was a year old, so I had forgotten the context. So monthly CO2 is 810 lbs per month. We divided that out by 26 lbs of CO2 absorbed per year per tree. Our internal policy is to use 26 lbs because that is on the low end. Other organizations assume 54 lbs. We would rather be conservative. So a month of driving CO2 equals 31 trees (for a year). So our calculation is off by a factor of 12 because of this 'month vs year' mistake. This is quite embarrassing, but it is good to know that now instead of re-using that variable again. So the correct calculation would be 13M trees works out to 34,946 cars. Or if you use the more aggressive 54 lbs/tree/year, you get 72,580 cars.
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erin.p.fielding's picture
GreenErinF Dec 10 2008 at 11:30 PM

This is one of the coolest virtual, yet real, gifts I have ever seen!!! I like that the tree is interactive, not static. I hope it comes out for other formats, since I don't have an iPhone.

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