Sustainable video platform offsets carbon emissions by planting trees

To offset the carbon footprint of remote working, the initiative has planted an Impact Forest with over a million trees across protected sites in Kenya, Mozambique, and Madagascar

Spotted: A new partnership between environmental startup Brynk, and Norwegian video conferencing app Whereby, aims to offset the carbon footprint of video conferencing by planting trees.

The duo has already surpassed their target to plant over a million trees — one for every three video calls on the conferencing app throughout February — as the foundation of what will become Whereby’s ‘Impact Forest’.

With every hour-long video call, Purdue University found that between 150g and 1kg of carbon dioxide are emitted into the atmosphere. Video conferencing has sky-rocketed as remote working becomes the norm. Whilst the pandemic has precipitated a record decline in carbon emissions C02, remote working still has an environmental impact. 

To counteract this, the duo decided to plant an Impact Forest across protected sites in Kenya, Mozambique, and Madagascar. The forest covers an area roughly the size of 137 football pitches, which will absorb approximately 410,000 tonnes of carbon. That’s equivalent to taking 5,700 cars off the road.

Founded only last year, Brynk was born from the vision of bringing together a community of people and organisations to help solve the climate crisis — something both companies are committed to.

“The partnership with Brynk allows us to contribute to the restoration and rebalancing of the environment whilst also raising awareness and engaging our employees and customers in the critical mission to fight the climate crisis,” says Ryan Bonnici, CMO of Whereby.

Explore more: Work & Lifestyle Innovations | Computing & Tech Innovations