Tree planting in unconventional way

By Kwaak Je-yup

Kim Hyung-soo knows there are many ways of leaving one’s mark but the environmentally-conscious entrepreneur has chosen to take this literally, planting trees for a living.

The 25-year-old is not a conventional type. His tool for reforestation is not a shovel; it is an ad-supported smartphone game called “Tree Planet,” which converts each player’s virtual tree into a real one, when all the missions are complete.

“Most people spend their whole lives without planting a single tree,” says Kim. “I am the happiest when I receive feedbacks saying how Tree Planet has also helped them make a mark in the world.”

Within a year and a half since the official launch on the April 5 Arbor Day last year, 250 trees have been planted in Indonesia, and an additional 1,500 in the DMZ between South and North Korea. It has also garnered no shortage of endorsements, including its selection as the G20 Seoul Summit’s official app last November and partnerships forged with the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) last May. LG is its main sponsor.

But Kim is aware Tree Planet’s reach is limited even at optimistic growth projections ― and perhaps not enough to prevent desertification. He stresses the positive impact can and must come indirectly and not from trees planted via his venture.

“Cell phones are constantly near us and are turned on 24/7,” says Kim. “What better medium is there to bring about a change to (existing) life patterns?”

Kim says he first drew inspiration from his high school years dabbling in documentary filmmaking, investigating environment issues and hoping to bring about action.

One of his amateur features highlighted the problem of space-consuming Korean burial customs, which he discovered to be a key cause of deforestation. When the film won an award from the Ministry of Environment, he was invited to a dinner with Koo Bon-moo, chairman of LG Group who has long taken environmental protection as his personal mission.

“I felt at that moment my path was the right one,” said Kim, recalling Koo’s words of encouragement.

The two-year compulsory military service did not uproot but reinforce his beliefs; he met business partner and graphic artist Jeong Min-cheol there and worked on a business plan together, sometimes in unusual circumstances.

Kim says they worked on Tree Planet after the obligatory 10 p.m. lights out, often resorting to meetings under thick blankets with flash lights.

After these late-night sessions, Kim dropped his film career and set his sights on what he called a “more effective medium of change.”

“We thought games would be a more effective way to bring about change,” says Kim. “With my documentaries, I always felt I was making too little an impact.”