Pledge by Mastercard International Incorporated
Priceless Planet Coalition
Total Trees Pledged: 100,000,000Supporting actions: Nursery Development,
In January 2020, Mastercard launched the Priceless Planet Coalition and committed with our partners to preserve the environment through the restoration of 100 million trees. Mastercard believes that by working collectively with our banks, merchants, business and consumer customers and other partners we can drive more positive change than if we each acted alone.
Priceless Planet Coalition partners will lead campaigns to engage consumers to contribute to the tree-planting goal. Mastercard’s global payment infrastructure will provide additional ways for cardholders to contribute, including “round-up” campaigns at a range of leading retailers that allow consumers to add a tree-planting donation at the point-of-sale. Mastercard corporate customers can also contribute to this effort every time employees use their cards for travel, goods or services. These businesses can contribute rebates received from their issuing banks to tree-planting projects by using their Mastercard cards.
Large-scale restoration programs need to be executed deliberately, with consideration given to several factors. Mastercard has selected global environmental organizations Conservation International and World Resources Institute to lead the design, mobilization and coordination of the program based on their science-based and holistic approaches to restoration, monitoring and evaluation, and successful track records in global conservation. With the help of these organizations, Mastercard is developing a global portfolio of high-quality restoration projects, emphasizing those with the most potential for positive impacts on climate, community and biodiversity.
All restoration efforts under the Priceless Planet Coalition will adopt and adhere to rigorous science-based best practices for project selection, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. Importantly, Mastercard has also established an independent advisory committee for the Priceless Planet Coalition to keep our effort on track. This group of experts considers the latest scientific data and insights to ensure that our commitments achieve the most good for the environment.
Conservation International and World Resources Institute are our implementation partners. Coalition partners who will help fund this pledge through consumer campaigns and direct donations include: American Airlines, bunq, Citibank, IHS Markit, L.L. Bean, Saks Fifth Avenue, Santander UK, and city transit institutions New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Transport for London. Additional partners will be announced in fall 2020 and throughout 2021.
Trees: 100,000,000
In many cases, selected projects will require nursery development and/or will support seed collection efforts. Flagship projects will be designed to demonstrate effective restoration at scale.
Our projects will be designed and implemented with Conservation International, World Resources Institute and other local partners using leading methods of restoration science. The Priceless Planet Coalition will adhere to robust science-based best practices for project selection, implementation, and monitoring to maximize climate, community and biodiversity safeguards and benefits. Project standards will include:
• No planting of invasive species.
• No support for afforestation in areas historically not forest.
• Proactive engagement and partnership with local communities ensuring free, prior and informed consent.
• Project selection will support and prioritize collaborations with local communities and stakeholders for long term forest stewardship.
• Only support ecologically and socially appropriate restoration methods.
• Inclusion of robust and standard monitoring and maintenance plans.
• Restoration areas will be monitored and evaluated for at least 5 years.