What about the trees?

We're making sure they're more than replanted.

Every time an issue prints, we make sure a tree gets planted to account for it. Plenty of companies say something like this, so let's take a look at how it actually works.

The mechanism

When your issue goes off to get printed, our website makes a request to a site called DigitalHumani, a small reforestation API whose whole job is routing requests like ours to vetted planting organizations, and a dollar of your subscription goes with it. DigitalHumani logs the request and gives us back an ID, which it also passes along to TIST in Kenya. We keep track of that receipt so you can always check in on how many trees you've actually planted. There's no hand-wavy year-end donation or rounding-up your purchase. When you get an issue in print, one tree goes in the ground and the whole thing is tracked.

Who actually plants it

TIST is the International Small Group and Tree Planting Program, which has worked with smallholder farmers in Kenya since 1999. The farmers plant trees on their own land, own them outright, and are paid per tree that is still alive, verified by third parties years after planting. That last piece is important because we want to make sure these trees are actually staying in the ground and getting a chance to grow up.

Let's look at the math

The running totals

Here's the whole operation to date, updated with every issue. Your own tally is printed on the back cover of every copy you get.

We print on recycled or FSC-certified stock, which makes the numbers even better than what you see here!

The receipts

Here are some actual trees that have been planted thanks to folks like you saving articles to read later:

Updated with every printed issue.

Somewhere in Kenya there is a tree that exists because you didn't get around to reading something in a browser tab. Pretty cool!