UniSalad planted 391 trees for students downloading the app

UniSalad went green for two weeks and planted a tree for every two new users who joined the Buy/Sell App.

The initiative lasted two weeks and the UniSalad company has donated $391 dollars to onetreeplanted.org, where 1$ equals one tree.

Initially, the scheme was only meant to last one week but Rebecca De Beukelaer, founder of UniSalad, says that she was "determined to get some more trees planted and so decided to carry the tree planting for another week instead of the initial plan."

It seems that the extra week did pay off, with the total of 604 users joining in two weeks.

Rebecca says she chose the company onetreeplanted.org as "they are a well-respected charity which have done great things so far."

However, some people are arguing that UniSalads’s scheme is ‘Green Washing’, suggesting that the technique is being used to entice more users to the app by promoting such a good cause.

In response to such criticism, Rebecca says, "It’s a shame that some people think like this, especially of small eco-conscious start-ups trying to make a genuine positive impact."

Receipt from the donation

"Marketing and acquiring new users is inevitable, and it’s of course a key aspect of the business for it to succeed, but why not make a positive environment impact whilst doing so? Also, who wouldn’t want an excuse to plant trees?"

So what is next for UniSalad? The founder hopes to continue in its promotion and action of helping the environment by switching to green servers and making 50% of their next marketing budget ‘green marketing’.