2022-September-20

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Join Our Movement. All You Need is a Smartphone.

BY MARCOS YAMAMOTO · CLIENT OPERATIONS LEADER · BRAZIL

WITH KRYSTAL CHENG

3 MINUTE READ · 5 MINUTE LISTEN

Picture this:

It’s January 1, and you receive your entire year’s salary. It is supposed to take care of you for the next 12 months.

But over the year, you decide to splurge. You buy expensive cars, treat yourself to the finest restaurants every night, and jet off on luxurious weekend getaways.

Your salary, which should have lasted until the end of the year, quickly runs dry by July.

To maintain your lavish lifestyle, you start borrowing money. You go into debt.

This is exactly what’s happening with how we “spend” our planet’s resources.

Because we have consumed more resources than Earth can regenerate in a year, we are in environmental debt.

The day of the year when this occurs is called Overshoot Day.

This year, Overshoot Day was July 28, 2022. At this rate, we would need 1.7 planet earths to support our civilization.

The big question is: How can we prevent this overshoot from happening?

If you're feeling that your individual efforts to recycle, compost, and save energy are not enough, you are not alone. If your heart is breaking for our planet, you are not alone.

However, there is still hope.

For a moment, imagine a flock of a thousand birds flying in formation. All their moves are in sync — going up together, down together, turning as a single unit.

You might wonder: How do they simultaneously decide where and when to move? Are their minds connected? Is there a central brain?

Actually, it starts with just one bird.

The movement of that bird influences its five-to-six neighbors. This results in a chain reaction, which causes the entire flock to move as one.

Just as a single bird can influence the direction of thousands, our individual work to help our planet can inspire a chain reaction.

But to start, we must believe that our small actions matter.

The Cisco Green Team envisions an environmentally sustainable world and empowers Cisconians to help drive social and environmental change.

Together with the Country Digital Acceleration program, working as a global community, we can help change the direction the planet is heading.

One way we’re doing this is by planting trees.

On July 28, 2022, the Cisco Green Team Network released the Digital Forest app to over 100 countries. It encourages people to plant or adopt trees and document their experiences. With geolocation technology, the app identifies where trees are planted and creates a digital map.

The goal is to plant 500,000 trees by 2025 to delay future Overshoot Days. If a single tree can push back the Overshoot Day by seconds, then an entire forest can add days or weeks.

The app will serve as a collaborative platform to inform events, track progress, show the regenerative potential of regions, and — most importantly — inspire others to take action.

In the future, scientists will have access to the data to estimate the positive impact generated by this program.

Want to join the Digital Forest?

Here’s how:

1. Download the Digital Forest app on your mobile device.
2. Plant local seeds at home or adopt abandoned trees that need your care.
3. Share your experiences on the app.
4. Each month, repeat the process to help build a forest of 500,000 trees.

The digital forest is more than a mobile app or social network. It’s a movement with a purpose. Technology is an ally when it comes to connecting and transforming our future.

Inspiring change is like changing the direction of a flock of birds. Your single action can be part of something big that can impact the planet.

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