For the past three years, Catalyst 2030 member Tali Orad, co-founder of 1treellion, and her small team of volunteers have been working to collectively make a meaningful global impact by bringing communities together to plant a trillion trees and help fight climate change.
Social entrepreneurs are known for finding solutions for society’s problems. What is the problem that you are addressing, and what is your solution?
Forests are planted all over the world, yet the net loss of forests globally is increasing. In absolute terms, the UN states that the global forest area has decreased by 178 million hectares in the past 30 years. We identified the places that would be most impactful for tree planting and discovered that the best areas in the world for tree planting are also the poorest and most impoverished.
This is where we saw the potential in planting trees with communities to improve their quality of life, help them to adapt to the effects of climate change, while at the same time helping to mitigate its effects and add to the global tally of trees.
What do you see as the benefit of your Catalyst 2030 membership?
This is a community with a common and pure goal to reach the SDGs goals by 2030. It is a place for collaboration, sharing information, seeding ideas, brainstorming… No one can do it alone, we can only do it together. Catalyst 2030 fosters this togetherness.
In my latest talk on TED I share why it is important that we plant together with the community.
Are you collaborating with any other Catalyst 2030 members?
Yes, I am part of the HealingTrees initiative, and I am excited about planting five million trees globally in memory of five million COVID deaths.