When Amazon Customers Helped in Planting 1 Million Trees Just by Saying ‘Alexa, Grow a Tree’

“Alexa, grow a tree,” Bob said to his laptop on Friday, April 15, 2022. Installed on his laptop, the lady Alexa replied, “Alright! Do you want to make your $1 donation?” After Bob replied with a yes, Lady Alexa listed out a sequence of instructions and then, in her charming, hypnotic voice, left the chat. She had gazillions of people to speak to, because in April of this year, Amazon rolled out a noteworthy campaign that enabled its Alexa customers to grow a tree just by using their voice. To date, millions of trees have been planted across the globe with the help of Lady Alexa.

How does this work?

With this campaign, Alexa customers could donate a tree just by using their voice. “Amazon customers can now use their voice to plant trees around the world,” the world’s leading e-commerce company announced on April 11, 2022. Customers who chose to participate in the campaign could keep track of how many trees they had helped plant by tracking their Amazon Pay Account. Each $1 donation made by an Alexa customer was processed from their Amazon Pay Account. 

The campaign was initiated in celebration of 2022’s Earth Month. While customers only needed to speak an instruction to Lady Alexa, a lot more went on behind the scenes. To carry out the entire operative cycle of growing a tree ordered by a customer, Amazon collaborated with One Tree Planted, an environmental charity that supports reforestation around the world.

The charity also comes under the category of an AmazonSmile organization, meaning Amazon customers can automatically donate to One Tree Planted while placing an order through smile.amazon.com. This website offers the same products at relatively lower prices and convenient shopping experiences.

$1 million for 1 million trees

Apart from recruiting its customers for support, Amazon donated $1 million to One Tree Planted. The plan: The charity will use this amount to plant 1 million trees between April and December 2022. Since 2014, it has planted 40 million trees in more than 43 countries, and still counting. While there were numerous projects compartmentalized under this campaign, four projects stood out in highlight.

Surface mine restoration in Appalachia

This project targeted Pennsylvania’s Centre County, where approximately 34 acres of surface land were devastated through mining activities. Since the land was too barren, it was unable to naturally regenerate on its own. This is where One Tree Planted jumped in to restore what was once one of the richest temperate forests in the world.

Forest fire restoration in California

The 2018 forest fires in Northern California’s Colusa County ravaged the Mendocino National Forest to rubble and ashes. Wildlife disappeared, and forests crumpled down into mounds of dead matter. Buttressed by Amazon’s funding, the charity initiated a restoration program to restore the lush forest and re-invite wild animals. With these funds, hard-working foresters dedicated time to promote improved vegetation planning and resource management, helping reduce the after-effects of the catastrophic wildfires.

Fruit trees to fight hunger in India

In 2020, One Tree Planted tilted its lens of focus on India, intending to support smallholder farmers in marginalized communities across the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha, and West Bengal. The charity partnered with an organization named Sustainable Green Initiative to plant a combo of fruit and mangrove trees. The objective was that these trees would benefit local homesteads and farmlands, offer protection against rising stormwater, and sustain the health of fisheries while contributing nutritious food to the families and livelihoods of the farmers.

Orca whale protection in the Pacific Northwest

Stretching from Northern California to British Columbia, a patch of the Pacific Ocean was suffering from fish deaths. Especially the endangered Southern Resident Orcas, who had swum and glided in these waters for millennia, were disappearing all of a sudden. With the “Grow a tree” campaign, the charity helped restore the Pacific Northwest, thereby creating a favorable habitat for salmon, the primary food source of the endangered whales. The trees were planted along the embankments and shores of rivers, streams, and tributaries of the Pacific.

More on Green Matters

America’s First ‘Carbon Positive’ Hotel Plants a Tree in Colorado for Every Night a Guest Stays

People in This Country Are Urged to Plant One Billion Trees to Preserve the Mountain Ice Cap

Brazilian Couple Spent Two Decades Restoring Their Hometown Forest — Now, the Wildlife Is Returning