Alibaba Forest Established

September 8, the tree donation page on Roots  & Shoots Taobao was launched for the Alibaba staff. The CEO of Alibaba, Yun MA sent an internal e-mail to all his staff to initiate a 3-hour volunteering campaign. He suggested every one of the staff to spend 3 hours per year on volunteering, which could be special “birthday gift” to the 16th anniversary. Coincidentally, Shanghai Roots & Shoots will soon have the 16th anniversary as well so this might be one of the reasons that Alibaba staff chose to donate a forest through the Million Tree Project.

Except for tree donation, the Alibaba staff could as well choose another 4 volunteering challenges: having a car pool with other colleagues to reduce carbon footprint, sharing the knowledge of water and environment protection, donating a village library for children who are living in less-developed regions, or becoming a web detective to fight against fake products.

During the 48-hour challenge on September 9 and 10, the Alibaba staff have donated 2029 trees in Inner Mongolia. However, this was not the end of the story, the staff are continuously donating trees  to expend the Alibaba forest which will be planted in spring 2016.