We created Treekly to make it as easy as possible for people like you to have a positive impact on your health while helping our planet.

Treekly is a health and well-being walking app that encourages users to walk 5,000 steps daily in order to earn a tree.

The app aims to help support a healthier lifestyle while funding reforestation projects.

The app is available to download now on the Apple App store and Google Play store.

We separate ourselves from other tree planting apps by providing users with a community platform to fund global reforestation projects through the power of walking.

Using gamification and behaviour change through positive association, we reward users in the app for maintaining a daily walking habit. Based on an achievable goal of 5,000 steps a day, users are rewarded with trees in their digital forest.

Users digitally plant their tree in the app. This is a visual representation of a real mangrove tree planted by Eden Reforestation Project which has been funded by the Treekly community.

To change how your Treekly app counts your steps, head to the Profile section of the app.

For iOS users, we recommend connecting to Apple Health.

For Samsung users, please choose the Samsung Health option*

For other Android users, there is a choice of Google Fit or your phone's in-built pedometer.

*Please note you must have the Samsung Health app and the Health Platform app both downloaded on your phone before connecting

If you are an Android user, we suggest connecting to our Steps Tracker. This is the most accurate way to track your steps. For iOS users, connect to Apple Health. These can both be found in the profile section of your Treekly app.

We offer a free version of the Treekly app which rewards users for maintaining a habit of 5,000 steps.

Users complete their 5,000 steps goal over 20 days to be rewarded with a tree (funded by the Treekly community) to plant in their virtual forest. Complete your daily steps goal to fill in your tree ring, and be rewarded with a tree once the ring is full.

Treekly also offers monthly subscriptions and plans for businesses, which allows users to earn trees daily or weekly when completing their steps goals. To find out more about our subscriptions, enter the app and select the 'Plans' icon.

We purposely choose an achievable target of 5,000 steps to make the app more accessible to those who want to improve their fitness.

We understand that this does not include everyone, and are currently working on making the app available to as many people as possible by looking at different ways we can track steps/distance and how we display step counts on our app.

We do not provide individuals or businesses with a carbon offsetting scheme. We use the platform to educate the Treekly community on good reforestation practices and the scale of their impact.

Our partner Eden Reforestation Projects provide fair wage employment to local people living in impoverished communities to plant and protect the trees. Since 2005, they have successfully planted nearly ONE BILLION trees.

To bring each user's impact to life, the amount of carbon that mangrove trees capture is illustrated through the equivalent of everyday emissions*. For example, a flight from London to New York, providing energy to an average 4 bed house or the end to end consumption of a cheeseburger.

[Source: How bad are bananas? By Mike Berners Lee*]

The mangrove trees planted by our partner Eden Reforestation Projects have a lifetime growth of 25 years and on average absorb 308kg of carbon. It is well documented that waiting 25 years for measures to have their effect is not the solution.

For that reason, we use a CO2 value of 50kg per tree over the first 7 years growth, to align with scientist rally calls that we urgently need to be taking action which has an effect prior to 2030.

We know that calculating carbon emissions can be tricky. There's lots of things to consider, like whether you're counting just carbon or also 'carbon dioxide equivalent' (CO2e) gases like methane.

In general, when we're talking about your carbon footprint, we mean all of the CO2e emitted by day-to-day activities.

This adds up things like diet, car usage, travel, heating your home, and buying things.

There are numerous comprehensive research papers that have their own calculations, and the variation in results reveals how tough it is to come up with an agreed average footprint, because we all live such different lifestyles. As a mid-range figure plus an additional allowance, we believe that 10-12 tonnes per year is a fair estimate for the average adult in UK.

We chose our tree planting partner, Eden Reforestation Projects, because of their experience in tree-planting around the world. Since 2005, Eden have successfully planted nearly ONE BILLION trees! They also employ local people, providing fair wage employment to people living in impoverished communities.

When a user digitally plants a tree in the app, this acts as a visual representation of a mangrove tree planted by Eden Reforestation Project, which has been funded by the Treekly community.

You can support global reforestation projects in 6 different locations: Madagascar, Brazil, Kenya, Mozambique, Indonesia and Haiti. Our tree planting partner provide regular updates which we share with our user community.

Trees are funded by our community of individual users, subscribers and businesses.

Our main site is located in Moraharivo, a coastal region in North East Madagascar. At times it can only be accessed by boat meaning the sea conditions play a big part in determining when the trees can be planted. To give the trees the best possible chance of survival whilst ensuring the conditions are safe for the workers who are planting the trees, it can take up to 18 months for trees that have been funded to be planted.

Our tree planting partner Eden Reforestation Projects have been leading the way in terms of responsible reforestation and have successfully planted nearly one billion trees, in 10 countries since 2008. Their experience and success in this field meant it was an easy decision when it came to choosing who we wanted to plant our trees.

Whilst it’s great that there are more and more tree planting initiatives taking place around the world, unfortunately that also means there will inevitably be some that do not live up to their promises and skip important steps.

So, we sent this question to Eden and here is their reply:

• We only implement responsible tree planting practices so never plant non-native or invasive species. We plant a range of mangrove species to avoid monocultures as these do nothing to improve biodiversity and can be potentially harmful to surrounding ecosystems.

• We are planting in areas previously devastated by deforestation, meaning instead of creating ‘new’ forests, we are reviving areas where forests once flourished.

• We work carefully with all levels of government to secure written agreements designating the restoration sites as protected in perpetuity

• We do not plant in logging areas. There is never a 100% guarantee that some form of illegal harvesting will not occur. However, we do everything within legal limits to ensure the restoration sites are guaranteed to stand in perpetuity.

• We hire locals to plant the trees. In this way, we alleviate extreme poverty within the impacted community. The community members now have an economic incentive to ensure the well-being of the restoration project. They also have a sense of “ownership” over the trees and restored forest and they protect it with great care.

• We do all possible to supply the locals with alternative fuel sources (fuel-efficient dry wood stoves and solar parabolic stoves), which reduces and/or eliminates their dependence on charcoal.

• We hire forest guards as part of the labour force. We have recently created a Forest Guard Endowment Fund whereby one cent of the price of each tree is put into a fund for long-term guarding and protection of our sites.

• Most significantly, we have seen the locals fall in love with their forest. They also recognise and benefit from the restored forest through an increase in fisheries, improved farming, cleaner water, and the formation of micro-enterprises.

• Naturally, a percentage of sapling mortality is inevitable. However, natural regeneration begins to occur and makes up for those mangroves lost. Natural regeneration indicates a healthy forest and typically exceeds 150% of the original number planted.