by Kevin O’Hara
Five years ago, 1t.org US was born out of a simple yet powerful vision: to create an ambition platform — a space where companies, governments and nonprofits could make bold, public pledges to conserve, restore and grow trees and forests.
And we did just that. We captured a wave of energy and momentum, bringing corporate commitments, state and local government pledges, and NGO goals into the spotlight. It was about declaring, loudly and proudly, that trees and forests must play a central role in solving our twin crises of climate and biodiversity.
But as we’ve known all along: ambition alone isn’t enough.
We are now at a turning point. The next five years will be about action — rolling up our sleeves and transforming commitments into measurable, scalable, on-the-ground impact.
From Pledges to Partnerships that Deliver
What excites me most is this shift from promises to projects. We have the right mix of actors at the table:
• Governments, nonprofits and Fortune 100 companies like Salesforce, Bank of America and Meta.
• Cities like San Francisco and Detroit alongside states like Wisconsin and Washington.
• Nonprofit organizations that make this work real, such as American Forests, Arbor Day Foundation, One Tree Planted, the National Forest Foundation, and the Girl Scouts of the USA.
This diversity of voices is what sets 1t.org US apart. It’s not a coalition; it’s a community — one that bridges the “forest proud” with the “forest curious,” creating new pathways for collaboration, learning and problem-solving.
The Next Chapter: Scaling Action
We’re entering a new phase of catalyzing large-scale action. We are accelerating reforestation, expanding urban tree planting, and doubling down on forest conservation. Over the next five years, you’ll see us piloting place-based initiatives that unlock solutions around partnerships, policy and finance. These initiatives will be about achieving faster and smarter impact at scale.
We also know that communications matter. Speaking with a collective voice at events like NYC Climate Week, COP30 and the Green Biz will continue to amplify the role of trees and forests as powerful, nature-based solutions.
How You Can Get Involved
The road from ambition to action is one we travel together. You can:
• Join our Community Collaborative: Connect with peers across sectors. Swap lessons on implementation, urban canopy programs, wildfire resilience funding structures, seedling supply pipelines, monitoring tools, community engagement models and more. Sign up for our next webinar here.
• Collaborate and Share Knowledge: Engage with others who are tackling similar challenges, or completely different ones, with solutions worth sharing. We host multiple in-person events throughout the year. Make sure you are signed up for our newsletter to learn about the next one.
• Raise Your Voice: Partner with us to elevate the role of trees and forests in the climate conversation, ensuring they remain a key pillar of local and global action. Connect with me and let’s talk about ways we can raise our voices and show up for nature together.
• Invite a Friend: Bring a friend to our next in-person event or forward the next Community Collaborative webinar to a colleague. Help celebrate our anniversary by sharing your experience with 1t.org US on social media. We’ll be sharing a social media toolkit for our current community members soon to make it easy, so keep an eye out!
Looking Ahead
The first five years were about building the strongest coalition of forest champions this country has ever seen — a “Rolodex for trees” unlike any other. The next five years will be about putting that collective power into motion.
This decade is critical. It’s our moment to prove that, together, we can not only dream big but deliver big.
So here’s to the next five years: where ambition becomes action, and where action changes the world.