Three soccer fields of forest per month - Planted 2022

If we had to describe 2022 in one word, it would certainly be growth. Not only have we been able to grow the trees we've already planted, but the number of climate protection projects we've supported has also increased and our team has expanded. And we were able to close a financing round that made all this growth possible in the first place.

In the course of this year, we have grown from an initial team of six to 14 permanent employees, with three more following directly at the beginning of the year. With a growing team, our impact also grows, of course, because we can plan, implement and realize even more - which has a positive impact on climate protection.

More Wood Vibes only 

The number of our trees is continuously increasing and we are now planting almost three soccer fields of forest per month. To date, thanks to the support of our Planted partners and private donors, we have financed 174,907 trees that we will plant by the end of the planting season in March. Of these, 132,252 trees are due to our corporate clients and 42,655 trees are due to our private donors.

Our trees already find a home almost all over Germany. In addition to the Taunus near Wiesbaden and Frankfurt, Bielefeld and the Königsforst in Cologne, we have expanded our plantations to areas near Berlin and Munich, Bonn, Aachen, Frechen and in the Ruhr region near Mühlheim. Depending on the area, different tree species are growing there, providing an impetus for a climate-stable mixed forest. The tree species planted include sweet chestnut, common oak, cherry, fir, red oak and maple.

Which trees are really climate stable?

Two of our areas are special and are not located directly in the former forest. In Frechen, we are planting 2.6 hectares of a former brown coal area with sessile oaks, hornbeams, winter limes, bird cherries, serviceberries, wild apples and pears, field maples and various shrubs. In this way, we would like to create a new ecosystem on reclaimed land, giving nature back to an unused area.

Our second project area is located between Berlin and Frankfurt (Oder) and serves as a research area. Here, in collaboration with Eberswalde University of Applied Sciences and a cooperative, we are planting various tree species from (Southern) Europe and North America. The aim is to find out which tree species get along with each other and whether a climate-stable mixed forest can be created. The plan is to plant 14,000 trees from 16 different species, including wild pear and apple, Norway maple, sessile oak, small-leaved lime, wild cherry, wild service tree and hornbeam.

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15,930 flights from Cologne to Barcelona per month

As of today, we have been able to offset 45,780 metric tons of CO₂ via the climate protection projects we have supported. In addition to last year's projects, we were able to fund others in 2022: Wind energy in Thailand, hydropower in Chile, Brazil and in Vietnam. 

The Hydropower project in Vietnam is very special for us, because in November our co-founders Cindy and Wilhelm were live on site to inspect the project, talk to the people in charge and get a deeper insight. We will publish everything else about this shortly.

Planting trees, climate protection projects and much more

But in addition to the tree plantations and the supported climate protection projects, we were able to publish further features. Since the summer, all our Planted partners and also private individuals have been given their own Climate Action Page, on which they can transparently track their impact on our planet and see their digital forest grow every month. 

For each person's digital footprint, we launched the Planted Footprint Tracker, which is easily downloadable as a Chrome extension and clearly shows the emissions of one's internet usage - also mapped in car kilometers.

The starting signal for growth

The successful closing of our first financing round of 1 million euros in July enabled us to really take off into a grandfathered future. Thanks to our investors and business angels, we have since been able to push Planted and our climate protection solutions even harder and continue working on our planned software for internal CO₂ reduction for companies, which is to be launched in 2023.

What else happened ...

"Germany's first climate forester" was the headline of the Cologne Bild newspaper with a giant portrait of our internal forester and co-founder Jan in July. But it was not only the BILD that made headlines: After the announcement of our financing round, we were also able to land in various other magazines, newspapers and platforms during the summer months. 

This has also won us a few awards, which we as a team are of course particularly proud of. In addition to Cologne's Climate Star, we were named Founder of the Year 2022 and even scored points in Europe, where we became the Hottest Impact / Startup for Good in the course of the Web Summit. 

Thank you, for a successful 2022!

At the end of the year, we would like to thank everyone who currently supports us and works with us in many ways. Without this support, our work would not be possible and our impact on our planet would be much smaller. We are very much looking forward to continuing next year and making the world a much better place. 

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