Enhancing Brands & Strengthening Communities: 

ONE TON TREE

As its name implies, One Ton Tree was a multi-faceted campaign to increase public awareness about the potential for reducing CO2 through urban reforestation. At the same time, it tackled an increasingly critical urban issue: food security.

This Earth Day 2007 initiative involved a partnership between artist collective SEED, consumer products company Seventh Generation, retailer Whole Foods and community action group Replant New Orleans.

SEED Collective’s wireless interface technology enabled participants to create a virtual forest online to help fund real trees in New Orleans.

Participants became “virtual gardeners” using their keyboards to “grow” and modify the virtual plantings. Seventh Generation’s sponsorship matched virtual trees with dollars, resulting in the Central City Food Forest, more than 100 food producing trees planted in the neighborhood’s yards, and the Peace Park, a new amenity and resource for neighborhood residents, consisting of edible plants and flowers..  All of these initiatives address the critical issue of food security, a concern made even more imperative after hurricane Katrina. A final component of One Ton Tree was the selection neighborhood child as resident gardener to receive education in horticulture and a great dose of self-esteem.