For them, it’s an optional small extra charge on top of their bill. Collectively, it’s a significant, regular donation to WeForest that makes a big difference in supporting our forest and landscape restoration efforts long-term. As well as making a crucial difference to the projects, implementing a customer engagement campaign can help contribute to  both your own and your customers’ ESG / CSR strategies.

Several of our corporate partners have found this funding model works really well for both them and their customers. Since 2021, PerkinElmer, a leading provider of analytical instruments in the health sciences, has offered the option to donate to WeForest as an extra line item in every quote they send to their customers. The scheme has proved very popular with 99% of customers choosing to take part. So  far, PerkinElmer has supported the restoration of 2.5 ha of degraded forest in Zambia, growing an estimated 3,000 trees, as well as growing an additional 5,080 trees in Tanzania.

One of our longest-term partners, WEX Inc., a large European corporate payment solutions provider, give their fuel card customers the option to pay £1.50 per card per month to protect and grow trees with WeForest. This gets added to the customer’s invoice, making contribution payments simple and affordable. Customers can opt in to the “Eco Miles” scheme as soon as they get their fuel card. Alternatively, when the fuel card has been held for 6 months, the customer is opted in to making the £1.50 per card per month donation automatically and they can opt out at any time. 

“We’re proud of the long term partnership between WEX and WeForest,” says Stuart Lack, Head of Product – VAS at WEX. “A large percentage of our fleet customers across Europe are in the micro segment, which means making impactful contributions can sometimes feel cost prohibitive for them, especially given the current climate. Our Eco-miles scheme is an affordable option which allows customers to come together collectively to make a huge impact.”

Since 2017 WEX has supported the restoration of over 6,000 hectares in Ethiopia and Zambia with this funding model, growing nearly 6.5 million trees. “Our customers are happy when they receive their annual certificates showing the impact they are contributing to,” adds Stuart. “Growing nearly 6.5 million trees with so many of our customers is an incredible achievement! We’re looking forward to watching this figure grow, just like the trees in our forests.”

If you’re interested in customer subscriptions as a way to raise money for WeForest, please contact sponsorship@weforest.org.

This article is the second in an ongoing series about different funding models at WeForest. Read part 1, Employee Engagement, here.