Ecodrive: Integrating Verified Tree Planting with Brands

Green Space, Park Access, and Trees

Applying a proven model or solution to a new issue or sector (e.g., using a job recruiting software or strategy to match clients to supportive housing sites, applying demonstrated strategies from advocating for college affordability to advocating for housing affordability and homelessness, etc.)

We are tackling two main issues: 1. Reforestation/Planting in areas that need it 2. Education of impacts of tree planting on the environment, habitats, and local communities Reforestation in Southern California, specifically areas around LA, is mainly focused on restoring areas impacted by wildfires. Education extends to businesses as well as their customers. We try and engage customers, employees, and local communities to come volunteer in the planting. We also work to employ people in poverty and employ/train them in planting to help them not only financially but learn a new skill that can be used in the future.

The grant will go to a minimum of one planting project, ideally two and potentially more depending on scale of planting, in LA. Our goal is to plant trees in local areas for wildfire restoration. We partner with local NGOs to facilitate planting, then integrate with brands to tie those trees to their customers through things like online orders. Existing relationships with organizations like Tree People will be used + expanding to other NGOs doing good work that need funding. Once trees are planted, we help message the impact to the end customers that supported these projects by supporting local LA brands. The grant will also support the implementation of our verification technology that is used to verify every tree we say is being planted actually gets into the ground, leading to the highest level of transparency.

In short, more trees! This will be our launch project in LA, the first of many. We define and measure success by the number of trees in the ground, but also the impact they have as they grow and restore. With this project, we will have something we can show + share other LA brands to get more people and business involved to support future projects. We don't view this as a one and done, rather the start of a whole new planting focus area that is close to home. Additionally, we want people to understand what it means to follow through on the transparency of commitments. What we do on the verification side, proving that the dollars committed to impact projects are going where they are supposed to and tracking impact long term helps with that increase in the adoption rate of supporting planting projects.

In order to partner with Ecodrive, NGOs must implement our verification technology. It's no additional cost to them, but it does mean a commitment to capturing a lot of granular data around the planting process. What that entails is things like: - Planning: understanding where the planting will happen, the goal of the project (reforestation, biodiversity, etc.), engaging local stakeholders, designating plots to plan with polygons outlined using GPS tech -Every planter has a phone/GPS device that captures daily planting session data like lat/long, timestamps, content, and number of trees planted -Monitoring software via satellites, in field tech, and in person monitoring on a regular cadence to measure things like survival rates -We set all this up in our portal so anyone that is involved/supports has access to all the data and content above.