In my Ecologi update series, I provide an update on the impact of Financial Expert’s donations to Ecologi – a company helping to fight climate change. In this post I want to share the fantastic success I’ve had in referring new members to Ecologi, and provide the third tree update!
Who is Ecologi?
Ecologi is the climate change platform we have partnered with to become carbon negative. You can visit my full Ecologi review for more details.
Ecologi distributes funds raised to accredited carbon-offset schemes across the world, to ensure that our donations create as much impact as possible.
Through Ecologi, you can become carbon negative for just £4.70 per month. Joining through my referral link, you will receive 30 trees of additional impact against your account.
Tree Update #3 – February 2021
Current subscription level: Helper (1 Carbon footprint)
Number of trees planted: I have funded 352 674 trees in total
Number of bonus trees from referrals: I’ve been awarded 300 450 bonus trees
Additional impact purchased: 0 190 trees were funded by Financial-Expert.co.uk advertising income (see below).
For the previous month’s update, see our December and January updates.
February 2021 at a glance
February has been an exciting month for the tree planting campaign.
It’s 6th February as I am writing this update, and we are already closer to 1,000 trees than zero, where we began. How exciting!
The inaugural tree gift
This month saw our first incremental tree purchase – we bought 190 trees for £23, being the January 2021 advertising income. To increase transparency and accountability to Financial Expert visitors – I have clearly labelled the donation as ‘Financial-Expert.co.uk’ January, so these trees can be seen clearly on my tree profile.
Tracking our tree planting rate
The leap from 352 trees in January to 674 trees in February is steady progress against our overall target of planting 10,000 trees by 31 December 2022.
That target requires 416 trees to be planted per month. Ecologi hasn’t even added February’s subscription trees to the total, and we’re already 322 trees ahead. So I gauge that once the subscription trees have been included, we’ll have planted close to 400 trees this month.
It doesn’t concern me that we haven’t yet met the 400 tree monthly minimum. My stretch target is based on the assumption that web traffic to Financial Expert will grow over time, and therefore its advertising income will grow alongside it. I’m therefore expecting to be able to make larger and larger tree purchases each month over the course of the two year challenge.
Recipients of February funding
Ecologi picks two projects to fund each month. By being selective, and focusing donations to as few partners as possible, it can keep administrative costs to a minimum for all parties involved.
Efficiency is always an important aspect of charity for me. We want to know that my money is going as far as it can. Let’s take a look at the projects Ecologi selected this month:
- Preserving the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor in Guatemala
- Providing clean energy through hydropower in Kanungu, Uganda
As any book about land and forestry will explain; the cost of tree planting will be directly linked to land values and the local cost of labour. That’s why many of Ecologi’s chosen projects are in emerging market economies or less economically developed countries.
If labour costs are lower, then the same budget will plant many more trees. The cost of planting a tree in the UK can be more than 5 times more expensive than a project in Madagascar.
Targets for March 2021
Looking out to March, we think it’s time to increase the monthly subscription level from ‘helper’, which covers 1 carbon footprint, to ‘booster’ which covers two.
This makes sense, as the one-off tree gift of £23 already dwarfs the cost of the basic monthly subscription, which is £4.70 per month.
I might as well use some of the advertising income to contribute towards a blend of tree planting and carbon offset projects.
I’m also hoping to add another 150 trees through one-off tree purchases.
With luck, we may hit 1,000 trees during March, which will be a special milestone on our journey to 10,000 trees!
Planting trees is a team sport!
Help us by joining Ecologi today through my referral link which will earn each of us 30 free bonus trees! Almost as fun as getting free shares, right?
Alternatively, if you want to make a one-off contribution of trees or carbon offset to our virtual forest and directly help us hit our goal that way, then you can do so through the same link above.