Stories
About Our Work, Environmental Restoration
Trees Are Only Part of the Story
Plant With Purpose celebrates planting 50 million trees and so much more Plant With Purpose celebrates planting of our 50 millionth tree. This represents decades of growth, lessons learned, and lives changed since our first seedling was placed in the ground in 1984, 38 years ago. Planting 50 million trees in 38 years may seem […]
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DR Congo, Our Response
Drilling in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Rainforest
How will this impact ongoing restoration work? And how should we respond? You may have seen the news about the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s oil and gas concessions recently. It was picked up by most major news outlets and trended on social media. Many of the stories included terms like “carbon bomb” and “environmental […]
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About Our Work, Academic, blog
Ethical Photography: Upholding the Dignity of Our Partners
Photographs are one of the most powerful forms of communication. They can motivate, inspire, and introduce you to people and places you may have never been exposed to otherwise. But what happens if we publish the wrong photo? You know, the one that catches a subject making an unflattering expression or captures them at their […]
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Climate Solutions, Tanzania
Can a climate vulnerable community become 6x more sustainable?
Note: A draft of this blog was posted in error. Please disregard it entirely and review this corrected post, updated August 16, 2022. Plant With Purpose values sharing accurate and factual information, and we will promptly notify readers when that has not been the case. Thank you for your trust and understanding. Climate change is […]
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Climate Change
As the world heats up, the world’s poorest suffer most
As global heatwaves increase it is the poor who suffer the most. Two months ago, South Asia faced a lethal, record-breaking heatwave that many took as a warning for what, in light of climate change, could become increasingly normal. India and Pakistan and their 1.5 billion residents bore the brunt of the excessive temperatures. Jacobad, […]
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Our Response
Plant With Purpose statement on West Virginia vs. EPA
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia vs. EPA to limit the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to prevent uncontrolled greenhouse gases from the power sector. We recognize that the effects of those emissions go beyond any one state or nation and have a harmful impact on our planet, including its most vulnerable […]
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Climate Change
Hope for compassion fatigue
When everything is crisis, look for where things connect To say the past few years have been overwhelming is an understatement. From large-scale reckonings with racial injustice, to the impact of the pandemic, to the flare up of war and conflict in different parts of the world, there have been no shortage of urgent and […]
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About Our Work
Plant With Purpose... what's in a name?
This month, we celebrate our 12th anniversary of being Plant With Purpose. While the unveiling of our new name in 2010 was a rebrand, it also helped clarify the impact we would seek to have in our partnering communities over the next few years. Here, our CEO Scott Sabin reflects on the decision-making process behind […]
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Haiti, Updates
The challenge of working in Haiti in 2022
Plant With Purpose works in some of the most difficult places in the world where people live. Our program supports resilience and progress in these challenging settings. As you can imagine, over the past couple years, life has gotten more difficult in many of these areas, largely due to the effects of the pandemic and […]
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About Our Work
When planting trees, be sure to tell the whole story
Don’t oversimplify the complex, and don’t over-complicate the simple. This simple charge is one that’s stuck with me throughout years of work in communications and storytelling focused on international development and climate solutions. Both of these errors have the potential to do harm. The world of international development is full of cases where complex problems […]
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About Our Work
Why Spiritual Renewal?
Plant With Purpose’s mission encompasses a threefold approach. The three spheres of environmental restoration, economic empowerment, and spiritual renewal are integrated, leading to transformational change. While we believe strongly in the relationship between these areas, they each have unique nuances, especially the area of spiritual renewal. It is less tangible than environmental restoration, and it […]
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About Our Work, Academic
The Spiritual Stakes of Endangered Species
The following is a guest contribution by Christian environmental writer, Betsy Painter. Betsy Painter is a creative writer and conservation biologist who is passionate about environmental care and its human dimensions. She has studied Religion and Ecology in graduate school with a focus on the beautification of nature in the redemptive Biblical narrative and its […]
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All, Resources, Sustainability, Updates
How Black History paves the way for a more sustainable future
Being sustainability-minded typically comes with an orientation toward thinking about the future. After all, one of the ultimate goals of sustainability is to leave the planet better than one found it as a loving act toward future generations. So what role does history, specifically, Black history play in this? A significant role. In order to […]
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Dominican Republic, Environmental Restoration
Andres from Zumbador
Like much of the world, Andres relied on land to live Getting to Andres’ farm from any of the Dominican Republic’s main roads takes a series of dusty streets and switchbacks. The closer you get to the farm, the more and more it starts to look like the Garden of Eden, with coffee, bananas, cassava, […]
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Living Sustainably, Resources, Sustainability
Greenwashing: Avoid Falling Prey to Deception While Trying to Do Good
Evidently, going green is good for business. Over the past five years, internet searches for sustainable goods have increased by 71%. As global concern heightens with images of Amazonian deforestation, ocean garbage patches, and the lived experience of increasingly erratic weather patterns, consumers are looking for avenues to lessen their role in the environmental devastation […]
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