Pledge Guide & FAQs

Download a pdf version of the Pledge Guide and FAQs

Last updated August 6, 2020

Pledge Guide

The 1t.org U.S. Chapter invites any public or private entity to submit a pledge towards the mission to conserve, restore and grow 1 trillion trees by 2030. Pledges are intended to demonstrate the diversity and level of ambition of commitments to this common mission, fuel greater aspiration for all entities working toward the goal of one trillion trees, and to help raise awareness in ways that increase collaboration and resources across the movement.

We invite pledges to the U.S. Chapter for trillion trees activities (conserving, restoring and growing forests, as well as supporting actions) taking place within the United States, regardless of the home country of the sponsoring entity, and for activities taking place in other countries led by entities based in the United States. This will enable the U.S. Chapter to represent the full contributions of the United States toward the trillion-tree goal.

Our pledge form on the 1t.org U.S. Chapter website is designed to walk you through this process step-by-step. An offline Word version of the pledge form is also available to enable you to prepare and receive sign-off offline before entering information into the online form. This guide is your companion to the pledge form, providing context and additional detail for the information being requested. If any questions arise as you utilize the pledge form, you can contact the U.S. Chapter Secretariat for assistance.

PAGE 1: Pledge Form Instructions

The purpose of this page is to establish the basic range of information you will need, and how to work with the form.

Information Needs for Pledge:

Who: Information on your organization and any partners in delivering this pledge.
Where and When: The location of your planned activities (if known) and the time period covered by your pledge.
What: If known, you can provide information about the specific forestry activities you will help make possible, and how many trees they will contribute to the one trillion tree goal. Activity types include Conserve, Restore & Grow, and Supporting Actions.
How: Specific information on the nature of your contributions to implement the pledge, and how you plan to implement your pledge responsibly and equitably.
Impact: Quantification of carbon benefits and a description of any other co-benefits that you expect to track as outcomes of your pledged activities.

Working in the Pledge Form:

Saving your work: Please note, your work will only be saved once your pledge is submitted. This means that if you begin the pledge form and then close it before completing, that work will be lost. If you think you will need to complete your pledge over several days, please use the Offline Pledge Form to prepare your pledge offline in advance of filling in the form.
Multinational companies should use the Global 1t.org pledge form to submit their pledges.
Required questions: As noted in the online and offline pledge forms, a selection of high-level questions about the pledge you are submitting to 1t.org U.S. are required in order to be able to proceed through the submission process. These enable you to tell the full story of your pledge in your own words. The remainder of the questions are optional and should be completed to the best of your ability should you have the information available and are comfortable with public visibility at the time of submission. Responses to these questions can be amended at a later date as more information becomes confirmed. If you have any difficulty completing the required questions, please contact us.
Guidance: For each step in the pledge form, you will find useful information and links to relevant tools on the right side of that page and further information in this document. Please contact us should you have unanswered questions.
Transparency: With the exception of your contact information and supporting documentation, the information you provide in the pledge form will be viewable by the public on the U.S. Chapter digital platform.

PAGE 2: Entity Details

We ask that one entity take responsibility for submitting the pledge, even if it involves many partners. This page is a straightforward form to capture information from that lead entity, including a specific person to serve as point of contact. This does not need to be a senior leader “signing off” on the pledge, but rather the contact who will be the liaison with 1t.org U.S.
The form also requests a communications contact to enable 1t.org to follow up with regarding publicizing your pledge. This can be the same as the Representative or a different contact.

Please upload a high-resolution version of your logo that we can feature on the pledge cards and pledge page, if available at the time of submitting your pledge.

Please note, you must enter these contact details, including an email address, to move to the next step. This contact information will be kept confidential to the 1t.org Secretariat and not published on the website.

PAGE 3: Pledge Overview

The Pledge Overview is a chance to describe the trillion trees activities that you will deliver through your pledge. We have provided a space to provide a name and narrative (up to 500 words) about the impacts from this work that are most important to you and your partners, details about the people and places involved, and other information that will bring your work to life for anyone viewing your pledge. The Summary is your opportunity to describe the scope and magnitude of your pledge, including any metrics you are using to quantify it, and background on how this pledge fits within your larger ambitions.

If this pledge has already been announced publicly, you can include the hyperlink with more detailed information.

Pledges to 1t.org U.S. involve activities taking place 2020-2030 including any combination of the following activities:

The permanent conservation of existing forests and protection of existing trees (e.g., urban street tree protection)
The restoration and natural regeneration of previously degraded forest lands, including actual reforestation and tree-planting schemes on suitable agricultural land (including agroforestry and silvopastoral strategies), and urban tree planting
Activities that support the mission of 1t.org, such as nursery development, technology tools, technical assistance, markets and financial innovation, and workforce development

In addition to this narrative, you will also be asked for specific information about the location of your pledge, and when it will occur.

Partners: Partnerships are essential aspects of most pledges and 1t.org encourages collaboration whenever possible between multi-stakeholder groups with aligned goals. Please put special attention to accurately listing all of your partners engaged in your pledged work, to the degree those are known. We will use this list to address the potential that some activities in your pledge might also be included in an existing or future pledge from one or more of your partners. We welcome pledges that overlap in this manner, but strive to assure that our overall tally of trees pledged and reported fulfilment of those pledges is not double counted. Your inclusion of partner organizations will help us screen for potential double counting of pledges. Partners can also submit their own pledge form for this and other projects. If you have no partners, simply state “not applicable” here.
Location: Indicating the location(s) of the pledge enables 1t.org to understand and cross-pollinate ideas across the scope of pledges. At a minimum please indicate if your pledge is National (U.S.) and/or International. If possible, provide a further breakdown by U.S. region, continent, or even upload specific coordinates. You may enter this information in three ways: selecting location from our menu of checkboxes (required), providing a narrative description, and/or uploading maps and longitude/latitude records. We seek the best available information on the location of your work for three reasons: 1) this helps tell the story of your work, and add interest; 2) this will help us see the total coverage of trillion trees activities under the U.S. Chapter, and turn this into maps and other materials; and 3) this will aid our efforts to prevent double counting.
Timeline: 1t.org is designed as a major contribution to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration that runs 2021-2030. Pledges should start no earlier than 2020 and be achieved no later than 2030. You are asked to use the drop-down menus to select any number of years through 2030 that will cover the activities in your pledge. If your pledge started before 2020 or extends past 2030, please only include the part of the pledge that covers this date range.

PAGE 4: Pledge Activities to Conserve

It is always best to conserve existing, healthy forests in their natural state wherever possible. When forests are permanently cleared for uses like residential development or agriculture, the overall number of trees declines along with the ability of the forest to capture carbon and provide additional co-benefits such as water purification and biodiversity preservation. Ensuring the permanent, legal conservation of existing forests and trees (e.g. street trees) is a priority of 1t.org U.S. Forest conservation actions can be pledged to avoid the loss of existing trees, thereby helping to achieve our goal to achieve one trillion trees by 2030.

If your pledge includes forest conservation – whether you can quantify the amount or not – please check “Yes! My pledge will include conservation activities on this page.
For pledges in this category, if you are able, we welcome quantification in the following ways: 1) the total number of acres where tree loss has been prevented (e.g., acreage covered by a conservation easement on private forestland); and 2) the estimated number of trees protected.

For activities taking place in the United States, the 1t.org U.S. Secretariat can assist with calculating acres conserved into the number of trees protected by providing an automated Tree Protection Estimator built into a form. The Estimator will estimate the likely footprint of forest that would have been lost in the absence of the conservation action, and convert this into an estimated number of trees protected by that conservation action. Our methodology uses U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data by region to assure accuracy.

The following actions may be used to formulate a Conservation Pledge:

Permanent Conservation: Permanently securing forests to remain as forests by placing private forestland under conservation easement, or through acquisition of forestland by an entity that can assure its permanent conservation (e.g., government agency or land trust). You will be asked to enter a number of acres that you will conserve over all conservation projects.
Rural Conservation Policy: This includes, enacting forest conservation laws reducing permanent tree loss from land use and development across larger geographies (e.g., State of Maryland’s Forest Conservation Act). This is expected to generate a number of acres impacted by the policy, which the 1t.org U.S. Tree Protection Estimator will then convert into number of trees protected.

Urban and Community Policy: Creating legal protection for existing trees through a measure such as establishing a Tree Protection Ordinance within a community. Based on the nature of this work within communities, such as protecting individual street trees and trees on private properties, we expect that most entities will provide an estimated number of trees protected annually.

Note: Farther along in the form, we will request reporting on the combined carbon and other co-benefits from any conservation pledges. American Forests and the U.S. Forest Service have developed an automated Carbon Estimator that enables you to calculate expected carbon benefits of your pledged conservation actions within the United States, based on the number and location of acres to be conserved.

PAGE 5: Pledge Activities to Regenerate and Grow Trees

1t.org U.S. encourages the restoration of degraded forests (such as from wildfires, beetles, extractive industry operations, etc.) and, where appropriate, the planting and nurturing of new trees in urban and rural settings. Restoring forests responsibly involves planting trees and managing forests in a way that makes it easier for trees to naturally regenerate. Care must be taken to ensure “right tree, right place” and prepare for the climate resilience of the trees being planted. Your actions to plant and regenerate trees need to meet two additionality criteria for inclusion in a pledge:

Criterion 1: The reforestation on the project lands is not required by law, such as replanting after harvest in states where this is a legal requirement.
Criterion 2: The actions create outcomes that are likely additional to what would normally occur through unassisted natural growth. That means your pledge may include reforestation activities where natural regeneration might have eventually occurred, if there is reasonable indication that the actions taken will stimulate more robust and/or rapid regeneration of trees on that site than would have occurred without the project.

If your pledge includes restoration or growing new trees – whether you can quantify the amount or not – please check “Yes! My pledge will include planting activities on this page.

For pledges in this category, if you are able, we welcome quantification of an estimate of a total number of trees that you will plant and/or regenerate over the whole life of the pledge.

If you have more detailed information on the type of planting and/or regeneration you will pursue, the pledge form provides space for you to estimate the breakout of your activities across the following subcategories. We encourage you to provide this information, if available, to help deepen our understanding of the activities being pledged by the U.S. Chapter.

Planting Trees to Restore Existing Forestland: Planting trees to replace lost tree cover, such as replanting forests where they have been lost to wildfire and are struggling to regenerate naturally.
Afforestation: Planting trees to reclaim lands where forests were permanently cleared, such as abandoned minelands and lands voluntarily being taken out of agricultural uses. This is limited to lands where the addition of trees is ecologically appropriate.
Agroforestry: Planting trees to advance agroforestry in concert with agricultural operations and environmental stewardship goals. This is limited to farm and ranch lands where the addition of trees is ecologically appropriate, for example excluding conversion of native grasslands, and requires willing cooperation of the landowner.
Planting Trees in Developed Areas: Planting trees within cities, suburbs, and towns.
Facilitating Natural Regeneration: Actions that improve natural regeneration without actual tree planting, such as forest soil remediation, managing competing vegetation for naturally regenerating forests, and actions that stimulate regrowth in impaired stands such as coppicing. Since these activities are at a landscape level, we ask that you quantify in acres (not trees).

Note: Farther along in the pledge form, we request that you estimate the carbon and other co-benefits resulting from your pledged activities. American Forests and the U.S. Forest Service have developed an automated Carbon Estimator that will enable you to calculate expected carbon sequestration benefits of your pledged reforestation actions within the U.S., based on the number and location of trees that will be planted.

PAGE 6: Supporting Actions

In order to achieve the trillion trees goal, 1t.org recognizes the need for new tools and systems to ensure the scaling up of collective efforts at an unprecedented scope and speed. Pledging entities bring a variety of tools and networks that will enable the entire 1t.org community to build better systems that can help to further catalyze progress.

Pledges in this category will help make that possible. This type of pledge acknowledges beneficial actions that enable the forestry activities outlined above to occur more effectively, efficiently, and at larger scales by creating healthy forests, a strong forestry sector, and providing different forms of technical assistance. We hope to be broad and inclusive and encourage entities making a pledge to think creatively about their efforts in this category that are having this positive impact on the 1t.org mission

Because impact could be hard to quantify, or could create difficulties with double-counting in the case of nursery development, supporting actions will not generate a specific tree count toward the trillion tree goal.

If you have suggestions on additional Supporting Actions to include on this list or insights into how to appropriately quantify and incorporate Supporting Action pledges towards the tree count, please share your ideas with us.

Examples of supporting actions are listed below, and we have provided an “other” category for you to provide actions beyond these examples. For each supporting action that you pledge, you will be asked to enter a written description in the space provided in the form to describe your work.

Sustainable Forestry: Actions that assure U.S. forests will remain sustainably managed, including enrolment in certification.
Avoided Deforestation: Actions by U.S. stakeholders to avoid loss of international forests, such as forest positive supply chain management of tropical forests.
Nursery Development: Establishing tree nurseries to grow seedlings in support of trillion trees activities, and other related activities like seed collection and seed orchards.
Data and Technological Tools: Creating data, applications and decision support tools that are not tied to advancing specific quantifiable projects within a trillion trees pledge, but rather designed to be used broadly by many different entities leading trillion trees activities.
Science and Technical Assistance: Research projects, workshops, and other activities that help all trillion trees stakeholders deliver scientifically rigorous work on the ground.
Tree Protection through Management: Forestry actions that will reduce loss of newly planted and existing trees from disease, invasive pests and vegetation, and other sources of tree mortality.
Forest Product Markets: Activities that create strong economic incentives for forestland ownership through forest products, such as adoption of mass timber, and therefore create incentive and capacity for landowners to keep forests as forests.
Financial Innovation: Activities that expand and/or create new ways to finance trillion trees activities, such as forest carbon markets and financial instruments.
Workforce Development: Activities that help train and build a strong forest workforce that can conduct trillion trees activities.
Environmental Education: Support for the development of and/or existing educational programs focused on conservation and environmental knowledge, environmental literacy, stewardship, and problem-solving skills for communities and youth.
Conservation Finance: Activities that create opportunities for private capital to support conserve, restore and grow activities.
Other

We welcome your creativity in identifying supporting actions! Please contact the U.S. Chapter Secretariat if you have questions about a supporting action you would like to include in your pledge.

PAGE 7: Implementation, Monitoring & Evaluation Page

The 1t.org U.S. Chapter is dedicated to advancing activities that will comply with responsible and equitable forestry principles and aims to ensure you are considering the environmental and social impacts all pledged activities. We want to help you tell the whole story of your pledge and ensure you are considering all of the benefits as you plan for implementation.

The “how will you contribute?” question is meant to determine the nature of your contribution to make the actions in your pledge possible. Will you provide an in-kind donation of time or materials? Will you contribute financial support to pay for project expenses? Will you allocate public funding or change public policy to make your pledge possible? Does your pledge include engaging individuals (such as customers, employees, members, etc.) to contribute towards your pledge? Please feel free to include additional contribution types by choosing “Other” and describing.

If you are in need of guidance and support as you look to implement your pledge in the U.S., the U.S. Chapter Secretariat can provide you with technical assistance or connect you to partners that have credibility and expertise in various regions and activities. Please check this box if you would like further information (contact us for international support).

Responsible & Equitable Forestry
Pledge actions are expected to be implemented responsibly by addressing the following issues::

Ecologically appropriate and climate-informed forestry (e.g., right tree, right place)
Long-term stewardship and capacity
Community engagement to ensure benefits to all stakeholders

To ensure that you are considering these factors at every stage of the process, we require a statement confirming your intentions to responsibly and equitably implement your pledge. You can provide information that demonstrates “right tree, right place” considerations, responsible management and maintenance planning for pledged activities, climate-resilient planning, and community and stakeholder engagement. For reference, we recommend alignment with the IUCN Global Standard for nature-based solutions to global challenges and the Four Principles for Nature Based Solutions.

Specific to the forestry interventions, you can also consider:

Forest Practices: The entity will make a good faith effort to pursue ecologically appropriate and climate-informed forestry. This means that trees won’t be planted in systems that are not ecologically appropriate, like native grasslands, and will take into account future stresses of climate change to inform factors such as species selection, genetics, and planting techniques. We appreciate that different entities making a pledge might have different resources to bring to bear in meeting this requirement.
Forest Stewardship: The entity will make a good faith effort to put in place a plan and capacity for long-term stewardship of the trees and forests that are either grown or conserved as part of a pledge.

Carbon Benefits

We encourage (but do not require) you to calculate carbon benefits (sequestration and avoided emissions) from your pledged activities. To help promote consistency across the U.S. Chapter and to assure that any entity can provide this information, we have developed a simple Carbon Estimator to calculate the estimated carbon impacts of your pledge.

If you have previously estimated the carbon sequestration benefits of your pledged activities using your own methodology and tools, for example as part of developing an agreement with your partners or funders, you are invited to use those calculations instead. Please provide this estimate in metric tons of CO₂ or CO₂ equivalent after 50 years.

Co-Benefits

You will also be asked to provide co-benefits from your pledge beyond carbon. Examples include clean water and air, biodiversity and employment. Please use this space in the form to add information to your pledge with details like wildlife species and water supplies protected. Please feel free to share quantification, but this is not required. This is most importantly a chance to tell the story of your pledge in compelling terms.

There is an upload tool at the bottom of this pledge page that can be used to upload supplemental materials on co-benefits, carbon, or any other aspect of your project that was addressed in early parts of the pledge form. You can also upload information about already-implemented activities relating to your pledge that showcase your commitment to the mission of 1t.org.

Finally, you will need to agree to the annual Reporting Requirements of 1t.org U.S. as outlined on the website.

PAGE 8: Pledge Review

Before submitting your pledge, you will have an opportunity to review the details of your pledge and make edits to any pledge page needed.

Once you submit your pledge, an account will be created for your entity and you will receive an email about the next steps in the process.

Next Steps

Thank you for your willingness to submit a pledge! Each pledge submitted through the 1t.org U.S. Chapter website will be received by the U.S. Chapter Secretariat and reviewed for sufficiency. If any questions arise, the Secretariat will engage the point of contact for that pledge to request any additional information. In general, pledge reviews are complete and pledges posted to the 1t.org U.S. Chapter website within two weeks. You may contact the U.S. Chapter Secretariat at any time during the review process.

Pledging and Reporting FAQs

What are the minimal expectations of a pledge to the 1t.org U.S. Chapter?

US-based entities are eligible to submit a pledge. If you or your organization is based outside the U.S., your pledge activities must be at least partially committed to take place within U.S. territory.

Entities are encouraged to complete as much of the pledge form as they are able before submitting. The required fields in the pledge form are as follows:

Background information on your entity (name, headquarters, etc.)
Name and 500-word description of your pledge (written in your own words)
Location (US and/or International) and date range of your pledge
A statement of how you plan to ensure responsible and equitable standards of implementation.

In order to submit a pledge, please view the entire pledge form here.

Can an entity submit a pledge based on a dollar amount (or other currency), quantity of carbon removal from natural sources, or other metric besides trees/acres?

Entities are highly encouraged to pledge in terms of acres conserved and trees planted. If you are using other metrics to report your pledge (such as dollars or carbon sequestered) you can include that your narrative description of your pledge instead. There are also multiple categories of “Supporting Activities” that do not count towards the tree count but are welcomed aspects of a pledge as well. These can be quantified to the best of your ability using any appropriate metric.

Can pledges submitted to 1t.org U.S. include international activities, such as conserving, restoring or growing trees outside the U.S.?

Pledges submitted through 1t.org U.S. can cover international commitments as long as the pledge is being made by a U.S. entity.

Can non-US headquartered entities submit a pledge to 1t.org U.S.?

Yes, an entity based outside U.S. territory is able to submit a pledge to the 1t.org U.S. Chapter as long as their pledge activities are at least partially committed to take place within U.S territory.

Can an entity also submit an “indirect pledge” that includes activities to inspire and enable others to take actions through their platform?

Yes entities can submit a pledge that includes enabling of others (individuals, customers, employees, members, etc.) to contribute to their pledge. In fact, many of the leading trillion trees efforts in the United States use this approach, for example, by encouraging customers to make a donation to support tree planting as part of a purchase or financial transaction. This kind of pledge can be indicated in the “How will you contribute to the implementation of this pledge?” question with the checkbox “engage individuals” or “other” and then an explanation of how the pledging entity will do this activation.

Do entities pledging have to actually plant the trees themselves or can they fund projects with partners?

It is very common for entities making a pledge to actually accomplish the on-the-ground outcomes through the efforts of others, for example by providing financial support. Entities are encouraged to pledge their support to 1t.org in the best way possible to support the scale-up of ambition and begin to break down barriers to implementation. For some entities this could mean significant philanthropic financial support, for others it is engaging employees or members in volunteer projects, and for others it is building technological tools to track and monitor. Entities are encouraged to submit pledges in partnership with other stakeholders aligned to their goals in order to maximize impact.

How can I find credible partners to help implement my corporate pledge?

We intend for the 1t.org US Chapter to provide a convenient and trusted way for new partners to find each other. We believe the pledging organizations are a strong point of entry when considering implementation partners, given that making a pledge to 1t.org U.S. Chapter entails embracing high standards of forestry, and providing annual reports on project success, location and natural benefits like carbon sequestration. We consider these important benchmarks. We know that many of the NGO and government entities making pledges to 1t.org are actively seeking additional partners to fund and support their work, and many of the corporations have developed programs that welcome organizations to join alongside their efforts.

What happens after an entity submits a pledge?

Each pledge will be reviewed by the U.S. Chapter Secretariat. The pledging entity will be notified when it is approved, and the pledge will appear on the “View Pledges” section of the U.S. Chapter website.

Pledging entities are encouraged to do communications about the pledge, and the Secretariat will seek to engage in supportive communications activities (e.g. sharing an entity’s social media posts about the pledge) whenever feasible.

For pledges covering work in the U.S., the Secretariat will be standing up a “Community of Practice” to support implementation and innovation on topics such as broadening potential pathways to engage private sector carbon finance in the work of trillion trees, and collaborating to innovate, share and propagate best forestry practices, such as climate-informed reforestation techniques.

Any companies that submit a pledge will be invited to join the global 1t.org Private Sector Working Group (PSWG) led by the World Economic Forum. The PSWG meets monthly to collaborate and sharing learnings with peers on the journey from commitment to science-based and equitable implementation at scale.

Does supply chain/procurement work to avoid deforestation (such as with the Tropical Forest Alliance (TFA)) count towards 1t.org?

1t.org considers avoided deforestation an extremely valuable and important activity for the overall goals of forest conservation. To appropriately integrate it into our unique accounting methodology for 1 trillion trees, avoided deforestation via sustainable procurement policies is currently considered a “Supporting Activity” that enables collective progress towards the goals of 1t.org but does not directly contribute to a tree count. This is because these actions avoid cutting down a tree, but do not guarantee its permanence nor protection, and nor do they restore degraded ecosystems. If an entity seeks to support the total tree count for 1t.org, pledgers are encouraged to go beyond just avoiding deforestation and commit towards investing in responsible restoration and permanent conservation.

Why does the pledge form require a statement about responsible forestry?

1t.org is very focused on ensuring that we deliver long-term, durable results in a manner that is ecologically appropriate and harmonious with the needs of people and communities. This requires getting the science right such as “right tree, right place”, climate-resilient restoration and focusing on a variety of co-benefits beyond just carbon sequestration (e.g. biodiversity).

It requires a commitment and plan for long-term stewardship. It requires that the communities impacted are engaged positively. This is in line with respected global standards, such as the new IUCN principles as well as Four Nature Based Solutions Principles. We are not requiring compliance with any specific standards, just a statement from the pledging entity to describe their consideration of these principles.

Will the information submitted in the 1t.org U.S. pledge form be made public?

Yes, you must agree to allow all aspects of your pledge form, with the exception of contact information, to be made public via the 1t.org U.S. website. 1t.org U.S. will not share your entity’s pledge card or pledge page without your explicit consent, but your pledge will not be officially registered with the U.S. Chapter until this consent is provided. This transparency is vital so that interested stakeholders can fully understand the nature of this effort, and the strong credibility behind it.

Will the 1t.org pledge reports be scored?

No, at this time there will be no ranking or comparing of pledges across stakeholders, nor deep analysis of progress reports, beyond confirming accuracy and completeness. Since many pledges are submitted as partnerships or use different metrics, it would be unfair to rank individual entities or score their level of ambition.

What happens if organizations who pledge to 1t.org don’t report?

1t.org encourage all pledgers to submit annual reports, as per the criteria in the pledge form. 1t.org U.S. reserves the right to remove pledges from the website if the entity refuses to submit annual implementation reports in a timely manner.

Can partnerships submit a “pledge” together?

Yes. Few entities are positioned to implement entire pledges by themselves. One entity can lead and submit the pledge on behalf of the group. The lead logo will be the shown on the pledge card, but the pledge form should include further details about the partnership or coalition partners. Alternatively, each partner is independently also welcome to submit information about their pledge (including overlapping aspects) including their own logo in the pledge form and indicating all relevant partners. Any double-counting in the pledges will be addressed by the US Secretariat and aligned in the annual reporting.

Does the company who made the pledge have to handle the reporting portion or will the NGO actually doing the tree planting take care of that?

Yes, the pledging entity is responsible for submitting annual reports of progress on the pledge. We understand that for many organizations, especially corporations, this information might actually be tracked by their partners. This information will be known upfront so it can be requested from the partner organizations on an annual basis, well ahead of the deadline to submit the pledge report. Some entities may choose to request more frequent updates from implementing partners but 1t.org U.S. will only request the information once annually.

We work with multiple NGOs on our tree planting efforts, do we need to get all of their permission to enter the pledge? Will their information be public?

The only information made public will be based on what is submitted in the pledge form. Entities are encouraged to list all relevant partners for the pledge, but not logos or other details.

How will we handle making a pledge if we have operations in another country and they will have a chapter too?

1t.org U.S. encourages entities who are based in the U.S. to submit their pledge covering all U.S. and/or international activities to the U.S. Chapter. If your pledge covers actions outside of U.S. territory, you will be able to indicate your intention for your pledge activities to take place in those regions. As 1t.org considers launching Regional Hubs in specific geographies, pledges supporting work in those areas will be engaged more directly.

Can the pledge goal change? What if we don’t meet our pledge?

Yes 1t.org U.S. understands that pledges can be aspirational, and the learnings gained through early implementation can inform future plans. Furthermore, entities can expand their pledge to include higher ambition or additional areas of focus (Conserve, Restore & Grow, Supporting Activities) over time. Entities who wish to edit their goal can contact the 1t.org U.S. Secretariat to discuss options.

How is 1t.org U.S. ensuring double counting doesn’t happen?

Through the pledge approval process, we are carefully tracking any pledges that contain overlapping partners and/or activities (e.g. project work in the same location). As these overlaps are identified in a new pledge, we will engage with the entity making the pledge to assess the amount of overlap. This will not change that entity’s pledge, but we will use this to adjust the overall tree count for the U.S. Chapter accordingly.

This system will be effective but not perfect. Our goal is to maximize participation in the form of pledges, and so the potential for some inadvertent “double pledging” is accepted by the U.S. Chapter in order to meet our goal of inclusivity. Importantly, the U.S. Chapter tree count is not a formal number for any legal or international obligations. So while acknowledge that there might be some inadvertent double pledging, it will not have any ramifications in terms of compromising legal obligations, carbon emissions reductions requirements, or other potentially damaging outcomes.

Lastly, we do expect that our reporting process will provide an additional opportunity to even more precisely true up any potential double counting within the U.S. Chapter, given that the reported results from each entity will have more specific information about partners, project locations, and tree counts.

Is 1t.org focused only on trees or also on broader forests/landscapes/ecosystems? Do ecosystem restoration pledges count?

1t.org is working to conserve, restore and reforest a trillion trees by 2030. Pledges of “Permanent Conservation”, “Rural Conservation Policy” and “Facilitating Natural Regeneration” are encouraged to be pledged in acres of land instead of trees. American Forests will work with entities to ensure appropriate calculations are conducted based work in specific geographies.

Further, our Supporting Actions pledges can include many activities (e.g. forest health treatments) that advance forest landscape restoration even beyond our quantified activities in Conserve, Restore, and Grow. This enables entities to pledge the entirety of integrated actions they are pursuing to advance landscape and ecosystem restoration.

Do entities have to be a member of American Forests and/or the World Economic Forum to submit a pledge to 1t.org?

No, 1t.org U.S. encourages any entity based in the U.S. to submit a pledge to the U.S. Chapter. Entities do not need to be a member of either American Forests or the World Economic Forum to submit a pledge and participate in the activities of 1t.org.

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