NAME OF THE ORGANISATION
„pasodinkmedi.lt“ (“plant a tree”)
What is this initiative about?
The mission of this initiative is to promote a sustainable lifestyle and to enable everyone to contribute to sustainable forest planting.
This social initiative helps ordinary people (but also companies!) to do a good deed for the world by planting a tree without any preparation. All you have to do is choose how many trees you want to be planted in your name on the “pasodinkmedi.lt” website. 1 tree – €2. Once the right number of trees have been planted (and you can contribute!), people are given a certificate with the location (coordinates) where the tree was planted. So they can come and see how their tree is growing.
Also, the “pasodinkmedi.lt” initiative, together with the “National Fund for the Support of Untouchable Forests”, organises clean-ups to educate people about the proper care of trees, planting, timing etc. On Pasodinkmedi.lt Facebook page they are uploading facts about trees or how many trees you need to plant to offset your CO2 footprint. Knowing your footprint can help you choose how many trees to plant to reduce your impact on the earth.
An important aspect is that the planted forests are not cleared and are not used for commercial purposes. After all, we know how much pollution this causes, so planting these trees is not wasted.
When and how did this initiative start?
Even before the pandemic, the founder of pasodinkmedi.lt saw a social platform in the United States that encouraged people to contribute to planting trees. Karolis thought that there was no such initiative in Lithuania yet, so in autumn 2020, he launched this social project in Lithuania.
What prompted the initiative?
The initiator of this project has a personal interest in sustainability, in promoting sustainability, in reducing pollution, in deformation. Therefore, the “pasodinkmedi.lt” initiative hoped to empower all people to contribute to these topics, as they have become no longer niche, but open to all.
What is the target group? How are they reached?
This initiative aims to attract as wide an audience as possible, to spread the idea of sustainability, to educate about trees, their existence, planting and logging, and to make it an accessible opportunity for everyone.
However, the dissemination is so far quite organic, with people and companies finding their own initiative and looking for ways to offset their CO2 footprint. The communication of “pasodinkmedi.lt” itself is so far only supported by social media posts.
How did the pandemic affect the initiative?
According to Karolis Mirinavičius, the founder of the small community “pasodinkmedi.lt”, the time of quarantine also had a positive impact – it gave time to develop thoughts and ideas, to have meetings and conversations. Because of the virtual space, there was no need to travel and burn fuel by going to meetings. The idea of this social initiative had been thought of before, but there was no time because it is not the organiser’s only activity. The pandemic provided the opportunity, the medium for this initiative to emerge.
What are the difficulties faced in implementing the initiative?
It was not difficult to set up the initiative, but it was more difficult to find who to collaborate with and to come up with a visual model that would be attractive to people.
Why is this initiative relevant?
This initiative aims to expand the idea of sustainability, i.e.: planting trees and developing forests in Lithuania, empowering ordinary people to do it simply.
Planting a tree requires knowledge and equipment. So planting one or two trees is not sustainable if you drive to the forest in a car running on diesel or petrol.
Positive results
It is encouraging that the idea of this social initiative is also reaching businesses. They find “pasodinkmedi.lt” on their own, planting a tree for an employee’s birthday or when they take on a new employee.
The project also become an internal initiative of some companies, and the NGO “Children’s Village” donates the planted tree on their behalf to children and employees.
The “Pasodinkmedi.lt” initiative is positive in itself, it evokes good emotions, so it is great that planting a tree, a sustainable gift, is becoming quite popular.
ORGANISATION
The organisation is set up as a small community, in order to be developed and offered as a service.
The organisation works in close cooperation with the “National Fund for the Promotion of Intact Forest”, the beneficiaries, a non-governmental organisation involved in the development and promotion of forests in Lithuania, and in the education of forest maintenance and planting.
They work together to maintain transparency so that no one thinks that trees are not being planted while money is being received. The money is passed on to the Foundation by purchasing the tree planting service from them.
CONTACT
Name Surname: Karolis Mirinavičius
Telephone: +370 6 163 0479
Email: info@pasodinkmedi.lt
