Trees are powerful.
At the Arbor Day Foundation, we’ve spent more than
50 years trying to plant that power in cities and forests all over the
world.
They stand up against extreme heat, flooding and air pollution. They make our
neighborhoods more livable, and they sustain habitat for wildlife. Trees stand
on the front lines of our fight against climate change, absorbing nearly 16
billion metric tons of carbon every year — that’s the equivalent of
recycling
more than 5 billion tons of waste.
Our lives are better with trees. But even as the world’s largest membership
tree-planting nonprofit, we can acknowledge trees aren’t all we need. To
safeguard our planet for the future, we need to leverage every tool we have at
our disposal and to seek out undiscovered solutions.
Innovation is our greatest ally in the fight against climate change.
With this in mind, the Arbor Day Foundation has launched the Arbor Day Impact
Fund. This strategic investment
initiative will aim to support changemakers developing cutting-edge solutions to
accelerate the pace, scale and quality of climate action. That may include work
in land-use management, climate and earth data, forest carbon technologies and
other related sectors. In coordination with a team of trusted advisors, we
believe the Arbor Day Impact Fund will act as a coalition of big-thinkers and
empower startups with the resources they need to actualize potentially
groundbreaking practices and technologies.
We are in relentless pursuit of advancement, and we need many minds of many
disciplines to join us at the table. The Arbor Day Impact Fund is an opportunity
to attract innovators and support climate solutions not yet known to us.
Depending on the growth and success of our portfolio companies, we believe
there’s potential to implement their newly discovered practices and technologies
within our global network of tree-planting partners. By fostering
connections
between startups and established environmental leaders, the Foundation can
further amplify the effectiveness of each innovation and create waves of impact.
It feels important to start this journey right now, as communities and
ecosystems in all parts of the world grapple with the pressures of a warming
planet.
Easing the climate burden is a complex problem that requires many solutions. The
Arbor Day Impact Fund is an opportunity to identify new answers to persistent
challenges and drive meaningful progress.
In this period of great urgency, we have to believe in our ability to make a
difference as we step out of our comfort zones and take bold strides toward
ensuring a resilient future.
Get the latest insights, trends, and innovations to help position yourself at the forefront of sustainable business leadership—delivered straight to your inbox.
Dan Lambe is the president of the Arbor Day Foundation, an organization founded in 1972 that has grown to become the largest nonprofit membership organization dedicated to planting trees.
Published Jul 29, 2024 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST