An audacious and inspiring mission

Capgemini achieved a major milestone on August 31, 2021, as we planted a million trees in just 400 days. The Mission Million Trees (MMT) project is a key global initiative towards sustainability and carbon neutrality by 2030.

As Ashwin Yardi, CEO-India, explains, “Climate and environment are key priorities for the Capgemini Group. Green energy, solar plants, electric vehicles and one more step
towards our ambition is to increase forests.”

Mission Million Trees was launched on August 15, 2020, in Capgemini India’s Mumbai campus. The project took on momentum through the year with plantings across the length and breadth of India – a million saplings went into the ground in Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Jammu, Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Assam and Haryana.

The millionth tree was planted by Aiman Ezzat, Chief Executive Officer, Capgemini Group, in the Mumbai campus. Called the Capgemini Banyan, this sapling represents the power of the banyan species to create a self-sustaining ecosystem. Says Aiman about MMT, “It’s a part of our work as a responsible organisation, and this is only the beginning.

We are going to continue to plant trees and contribute to the planet.” Capgemini is part of the One Trillion Trees community (1t.org).

The MMT project has been taken to heart by Capgemini leaders and colleagues who have planted thousands of tree saplings on the occasion of birthdays and work anniversaries. Our clients and
partners such as Bayer, ICREAS, WWF, International Association for Human Values (IAHV) and Enbitech helped us drive this audacious project forward. State governments, academic institutions and NGOs supported us throughout in this effort to regreen India. Community engagement was embedded into the project as saplings of mango, peach, plum, pomegranate, lemon, etc., were planted so as to become income sources for smallholding farmers.

“Mission Million Trees is more than a mission or a project, it’s a part of who we are. It’s about our sustainability, our grass root connectivity, and the way environment is given the importance it deserves,”

-says Anurag Pratap, Head-CSR, India.