12 months, almost 200,000 native trees, and one tree-mendous partnership later, Air New Zealand and Trees That Count are thrilled to celebrate their first year of partnership through the airline’s FlyNeutral programme. FlyNeutral enables customers to offset their share of a flight’s carbon emissions with carbon credits from international projects, as well as help support improving in New Zealand’s native biodiversity through Trees That Count.

Air New Zealand chief sustainability officer Kiri Hannifin said the airline is incredibly proud to partner with Trees that Count to help restore, regenerate, and protect our precious natural environment. “Trees That Count is a shining example of a charity using an innovative platform to direct support and funding to native tree planting projects.”

While celebrating one year of partnership is a special moment for the airline, there are others involved who should be feeling very proud about the impact they are making. “It’s our customers who should be feeling proud, as they’re the ones who opt in to our FlyNeutral programme every day and help us in our work to support a greener country.

“With your support, we are Trees That Count’s number one funding contributor and are about to hit the 200,000 native tree milestone – that’s a pretty incredible effort. Ka pai Aotearoa!” “We want to thank Trees That Count for their dedication to supporting Aotearoa’s biodiversity and for their partnership over the last year. We look forward to continuing to enable our customers to support their efforts to plant more native trees around our beautiful country”.

Robyn Haugh, CEO of Project Crimson Trust (which operates Trees That Count), is delighted to be celebrating the milestone with Air New Zealand. “With the help of Air New Zealand and FlyNeutral customers, we’ve been able to support incredible restoration work by planters all around Aotearoa. Every native tree planted by projects we support – from Kaipara Moana in the north to Whakatipu Reforestation Trust in the south – helps to make a real difference for our whenua and our future.”

When a customer opts in to FlyNeutral, 50% of their contribution is directed to Trees That Count. The other 50% of a customer’s contribution is used to purchase carbon credits to offset the emissions of their flight. Carbon credits are purchased from certified international projects that prevent carbon from entering the atmosphere. Customers can contribute to Trees That Count through FlyNeutral when they book a flight, or at any time afterwards.