Small World Spotlight: How One Business Owner Advocates for Reforestation

What motivated you to plant trees with One Tree Planted?

One Tree Planted makes it easy to make an impact; it’s only a dollar to plant a tree, and that tree can make a difference. It also has a small business feel—which I love. I feel like I am supporting my local community. I also appreciate the way the organization prioritizes education. I didn't know anything about biodiversity until watching your videos and that’s when the importance of collaboration clicked for me. Nature collaborates all the time. We humans can do that to serve the planet’s needs too.

What is the role of gender equality in furthering climate action and global reforestation?

The evidence is clear: when people are represented in leadership positions (from gender to race to sexual orientation and more), their perspective adds to the value and outcome. It’s the only way to create an inclusive and collaborative environment. Just like nature. In my experience, there is a difference in how the masculine and feminine respond to community. In the female DNA, nurturance is essential; that community element and awareness means considering the whole, not just the one.

Knowing how a woman contributes back to the community, I cannot imagine anything better for the earth. We refer to the planet as Mother Earth, Mother Nature; why wouldn’t we want more women leaders involved in caring for this planet? Back in cave times, men hunted, and women gathered. Women knew which plants to look for, and there was an intimacy with the earth, which is embedded in our DNA.  

Is gender equality important to you in your daily or work life?

Yes. If we want a society that works for all people, which I do, all voices need to be considered and bought into the equation. I identify as a white, able-bodied, cis-gendered woman. I don't know some perspectives until I engage with someone from a different background, which then informs how I see the world. For me, it goes back to the natural gifts of the feminine. Don’t get me wrong, there is such value in the masculine—the directness and making things happen, but the patriarchy has also grown to a toxic degree. We need balance to restore the planet (and humanity). Honoring relationships, empathy, compassion, and vulnerability is part of that process. These qualities inform how a woman gives back to her community. Instead of prioritizing the one, she does what’s best for the whole. This is a strength, not a weakness.  

What do you hope to achieve through your ongoing support for global reforestation?

When I think of the subject of climate action, it feels huge—like what can one person do to possibly create an impact? All you have to do is open up social media and see so many terrible situations. It's easy to feel hopeless. Finding and supporting an organization like OTP gives me hope. My contribution becomes one of many that gets harnessed into greater impact for communities across the globe. There is no way planting all those trees isn’t helping to enrich all involved—from providing a living wage in some places to creating an environment for nearly extinct plants to thrive to absorbing higher levels of carbon to so much more. 

Why should your fellow One Tree Planted supporters consider donating to the Women's Empowerment Fund?

It goes back to what happens when women are in leadership. Women have a natural relationship with spaces and communities. There is a reason why women are the ones who give birth to babies. There is a natural level of sacrifice that comes through the process, the natural gift of prioritizing ‘other’, ‘other’ in this situation is the community, economic growth, and relationships - that is the natural gift that women can bring and why they should be supported by anyone who believes in the mission of One Tree Planted