Just like so many of you reading this will relate to, I regularly feel genuine sorrow and insecurity about the relentless reports on the damage and destruction of the environment. As I write this, bush fires rage across not just habitats in Australia, but in the last month there have been over 1.6 million VIIRS forest fire reports around the world. Yet I remain optimistic about the fact that more and more people are starting to take stock of the severity of the ecological state of our planet and there is a growing motivation to act. We are still very much in the infant stage of our turn around, but I think there is movement and new ideologies. 

Just a few days ago I read a really inspiring Forbes article about how in the Philippines, which has seen forest coverage fall from 70% – 20% in a century, students are now required to plant 10 trees in order graduate. I found it such a refreshing approach at merging human and environmental development hand-in-hand. So with this in mind and given this week falls inline with the start of a new year I thought, what better challenge could there be than planting a tree …. or try a least!