In a world oversaturated with travel booking options, what is a travel app to do to separate itself from the crowd? How is one supposed to compete with the likes of Google Flights, Expedia, and Kayak.com, among many, many others?

Well, for the folks behind travel booking app Hopper, the answer to those questions is, apparently, appealing to environmentally-conscious travelers. To that end, the company behind the app has unveiled a program it’s calling “Hopper Trees.” Through it, Hopper is partnering with Eden Reforestation Projects to plant trees for every flight and hotel booked through its app.

For every flight booked, Hopper says it will donate money to Eden to plant up to four trees; meantime, every hotel booked is equivalent to the planting of two trees. Eden, which began its work in Ethiopia in 2005, plants those trees all over the world, including in countries like Indonesia, Madagascar, and Haiti.

“The planet is facing an unfolding climate crisis and unfortunately, travel plays a role in the carbon emissions that contribute to this crisis,” Hopper’s site says. “We are super keen to take this step toward a more sustainable future, and it’s great to see that our customers are viewing this as a priority too.”

In addition to offsetting about 900 kg of carbon dioxide over the course of their lifetimes, trees also come with a number of other benefits. According to Hopper (and science), those benefits include providing habitats for animals, purifying water sources, controlling flooding and erosion, and replenishing soil with the nutrients needed for farming.

Hopper’s user-friendly interface helps you find and keep tabs on flight and hotel prices

You may think of it as gimmicky (it is) and you may say that planting a few trees every time a transaction of some sort occurs cannot possibly make up for the overwhelming damage the travel industry causes to the environment, but I’d ask this: what’s the alternative? Doing nothing? Going about your business earning commissions and damaging the planet all the same?

Even if Hopper’s attempt to repopulate the world’s supply of thick, leafy, oxygen-producing sticks is just a drop in the bucket as far as battling the negative effects of climate change is concerned, isn’t that drop still better than an utter drought, than no effort at all? The answer, of course, is yes.

When the itch to travel and environmental consciousness are both stitched into your DNA in equal measure, it can be difficult to justify the former at the expense of the latter, but having the ability to offset some of the environmental harm via initiatives like Hopper Trees should allow you to take a little heart. As environmentalists have noted, carbon offsetting isn’t the answer to the overall problem, but it does do some good.

Until the day airlines do away with fossil fuels completely, it’s at least a short-term remedy.

-LTH

The Travel App That Wants to Help You Save the Planet