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Planting a Movement: How Treeapp Makes Climate Action Simple

When powerful missions meet simple models — and what startups can learn.

October 22, 2025

In partnership with

From Wildfire to Startup Idea

In 2018, co-founder Godefroy Harito witnessed the devastating Attica wildfires near Athens, a moment that sparked deep urgency around climate action. He and fellow London Business School alumnus Jules Buker (MiM 2018) identified a pattern: many people wanted to act on the climate crisis—but faced three major barriers: time, money, and know-how.

Their answer: Treeapp — a mobile-first platform launched on Earth Day 2020 that enabled anyone to plant a tree for free, simply by watching a short advertisement. Since then, Treeapp has grown rapidly: as of late 2025 it has planted over 6 million trees across more than 20 countries.

This isn’t just charity; it’s a startup with a mission and a business model, built for scale.

How It Works: Simple Model, Big Impact

For Individuals

  • Download the Treeapp mobile app (UK, Ireland, France).

  • Choose a planting location, watch a short ad (or optionally buy/gift trees).

  • Treeapp uses revenue from advertisers (brands) to fund the planting of a real tree in a vetted reforestation project.

  • Users see their impact: trees planted, CO₂ absorbed, ongoing updates.

For Businesses

  • Treeapp offers white-label or integrated solutions: “Plant a tree for every product sold,” “Every new employee means a tree,” etc.

  • Brands get dashboards, widgets, API integrations (Zapier, Mailchimp, etc) to embed tree-planting into their flows.

  • Planting occurs in diverse ecosystems, under transparency and longevity standards: no double-counting, land protected, species suited to region.

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Standout Campaigns & Partnerships

  • Treeapp recently partnered with the event Sustainability LIVE London 2025 — committing to plant 3,000 trees per attendee at the event.

  • By 2024, the company reported over 4.2 million trees planted across 17 countries — absorbing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO₂ and creating thousands of workdays for local communities.

  • Their planting portfolio is strategic: fire-resistant species in wildfire-prone Greece, mangroves in Indonesia and Mozambique, agroforestry fruit trees with local communities in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Treeapp IG post

Why Treeapp’s Strategy Works — Lessons for Startups

  1. Find a user block, then remove friction. Harito and Buker noticed people wanted to act on climate, but lacked time or money. Treeapp’s model removed both. Problem + solution = strong fit.

  2. Build for both B2C and B2B. The app engages individuals; the business model engages brands. This dual-engine approach balances scale and revenue.

  3. Make impact visible and habitual. Daily taps, ad-watching, ranking boards: Treeapp gamifies sustainability to keep users returning. Habit = retention.

  4. Use partnerships to amplify. From well-known brands to global events, Treeapp uses high-visibility collaborations to extend reach and credibility.

  5. Operate with transparency and integrity. They publish numbers, align with UN SDGs, ensure planting sites are protected, and use open-source monitoring platforms. Trust builds brand.

The Startup Stoic Takeaway

Treeapp is more than a green startup—it’s a blueprint for mission-driven scale. When you combine a real problem, a low-friction user path, and a business model that supports it, you build more than a product—you build a movement.

As founders, the key isn’t always “What great thing can we build?” It’s “What barrier can we remove?”
Treeapp removed time, money, and complexity. That’s why it resonated.

If you’re working on your startup’s next growth engine, ask yourself:

  • Which friction do we remove?

  • How do we make action easy and repeatable?

  • Who are our partners that can amplify us beyond our own voice?

Because in the end, scale doesn’t come just from ambition. It comes from making it trivial for someone to say yes.

Until tomorrow,

— Team Startup Stoic