You don't get in the car and walk to the coffee shop instead. You pay a bill online instead of mailing a check. Small stuff, right? According to the United Nations Environment Program, a Chinese initiative called Ant Forest has translated exactly these sorts of small, everyday decisions of half a billion people into millions of real trees planted across some of the country’s driest land.
In 2019, the UN gave it its highest environmental award, the Champions of the Earth award, in the “Inspiration and Action” category. This story might hit different for US millennials who scroll through 10 apps before breakfast. It shows what happens when climate action moves from being a chore to being a game.
How the app actually works
Ant Forest was developed by Ant Financial Services Group, an affiliate of Alibaba now known as Ant Group, as a feature within its mobile payment app Alipay, in partnership with the United Nations Environment Program. Every time a user takes a low-carbon action, such as using public transit, walking instead of driving, or paying their bills online, they earn points called “green energy.” These points build up into a virtual tree on the user's phone screen. When enough points are accumulated, Alipay and its nonprofit partners plant a real tree in a dry area. Users can watch their tree grow using satellite images, and some choose to protect patches of conservation land through the same platform.
