BARCELONA — Canela PR has been chosen to lead global communications for the Tree-Nation reforestation platform, which has already planted more than five million trees worldwide.

The Spanish agency, which has offices in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon, will manage 14 agencies around the world – all part of the Brands2Life Global Network – to support Tree-Nation.

It is the first time the agency has taken the lead on a global communications campaign, with markets including Australia, the US, Israel, Latin America and South Africa. The brief covers developing Tree-Nation’s messaging and content, as well as broader communications around climate change and the threat of deforestation.

Tree-Nation has so far been involved in 177 plantation projects in countries from Colombia to Burkina Faso. It works with partners including Google, Mars, P&G, Unilever, Accenture, PWC and SAP, using proprietary technology that allows them to accurately offset carbon emissions and track tree planting and growth in their “corporate forest.”

Canela PR founder and CEO Deborah Gray said the agency had been working with Tree-Nation on a local project before winning the global brief: “We felt very identified with the values of Tree-Nation and a year ago we started collaborating with them for the launch of El Bosque de Canela PR, our agency initiative that already has 115 trees planted in Barcelona for clients and staff.”

Gray added: “They initially asked us if we could help with marketing in the UK, US, France and Spain, but we went back to the network and every agency agreed to take it on as a six-month project.” Central messaging and content work will be charged, but country-level execution will be carried out on a pro bono basis.

In a novel and sustainable addition to the usual range of measurement and evaluation metrics, Tree-Nation will be planting a tree for every piece of media coverage achieved by the network.

Tree-Nation founder and CEO Maxime Renaudin said: “Tree-Nation is a social platform, the more people we know, the more value we can bring to society through the reforestation of our planet. Thanks to this collaboration with Canela and its coordination with the other participating agencies of Brands2Life Global we hope to plant one million more trees by 2020.”

Other agencies in the Brands2Life network are also following Canela’s lead in planting trees as part of their business model, including Brands2Life itself – the UK partner agency for Tree-Nation – which has committed to plant a tree for each member of staff and client, and to offset its carbon emissions for 2019.

Tree-Nation joins Canela’s growing portfolio of clients focused on environmental sustainability, including scooter-sharing company eCooltra, sustainable housing developer Privalore, filter manufacturer TAPP Water, electric car-sharing platform Zity and powerbank rental firm Chimpy.