fight climate change
Plant a Tree
$1.00 per tree
Trees are some of the most efficient natural carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbers on the planet. Carbon content makes up 50% of a tree's volume, and a single tree can offset up to 40 pounds of CO2 per year. Planting trees is one of the best ways to reduce or offset your carbon footprint, while also helping to fight deforestation, limit climate change, restart water cycles, and provide vital natural resources to local communities.
By supporting Brightest's tree planting projects, you'll help protect forest biodiversity, restore degraded land, fight climate change, and promote local economic development in front-line communities. Our partners work with local conservation groups, farmers, and tree planters in the United States, Brazil, Haiti, Peru, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Tanzania to establish sustainable agroforestry systems using native tree species, create good-paying green jobs, and help protect the local environment.
We conservatively estimate each tree you plant offsets approximately 0.01179289 metric tons (MT) of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year, or roughly 1% of a ton of CO2. In reality, if all of your trees grow and live a healthy life, you may offset up to double that amount of CO2, or approximately one carbon ton per tree every 50 years1,2. Healthy, protected trees live to be 50, 75, and often 100+ years old, making them one of nature's most important ecosystem protectors and climate change fighters. For easy reference, planting 30 trees is equal to taking one car off the road for a month and offsetting all its emissions and carbon footprint.
Overall, tree planting is one of the most effective, research-proven mitigation strategies for reducing global warming and helping to absorb and offset carbon.
1 "Calculating Tree Carbon" by Trees for Future and the University of New Mexico, 2019
2 “Carbon Storage and Accumulation in United States Forest Ecosystems, General Technical Report W0-59,” Richard A. Birdsey, United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Radnor, PA, August 1992.
After fossil fuel combustion, deforestation (much of it driven by industrial agriculture) is estimated to be one of the largest anthropogenic sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Our tree-based carbon offset calculations (and calculator) are based on research by Stanford, North Carolina State, Tufts University, the University of New Mexico, and ETH Zurich, as well as analysis by Project Drawdown.
This website is 100% PCI compliant and processes all payments securely via Stripe. Trees planted through Brightest are planted in partnership with The Brightest Foundation Incorporated, a US 501 (c)(3) public charity, EIN 83-3516335, alongside our local reforestation partner network. Your contribution to plant trees with us is tax-deductible within the guidelines of U.S. law. No goods or services are provided in exchange for this contribution.
