Being a Developer and Planting 1,000’s of Trees with Phil Sturgeon

Phil Sturgeon is a renowned API and PHP developer. He's now starting a charity called Protect Earth to plant trees across the UK.

In this interview, I talk with Phil about his environmental work, and cycling around the world to fundraise for the project. How does he manage to launch a hugely ambitious new project and hold down a high-level day job?

We discuss small steps all of us can take to create a more sustainable world, even if we're running a million miles an hour with our businesses and development work.

Watch the interview with Phil

Here's a quick guide to our discussion:

• 1 min: Introducing Phil. Sign up for Phil's newsletter!
• 3 mins: How Phil became interested in environmental work.
• 5 mins: Introducing Ecologi as a very valuable charity.
• 9 mins: Phil's bike travels.
• 12 mins: Starting the new charity.
• 13 mins: Financing for the new charity.
• 15 mins: Finding land for the trees.
• 18 mins: Buying the first plots of land.
• 20 mins: Holding down a full-time job alongside this work.
• 22 mins: Where your money goes if you support Project Earth.
• 24 mins: Talking with people about the climate crisis.
• 26 mins: What we can do to help. BloomClimate.com and Planetly.org are useful tools. Phil's article on how to get involved.
• 27 mins: What's next for the tree-planting project?

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All the PublishPress interviews

Click here for a collection of environmental talks. Below is a list of all the WordPress people we've talked with.

• Johannes Benz on hosting that’s good for the Environment and Society.
• Phil Sturgeon on being a developer and planting 1000's of trees.
• Tim Frick on building better WordPress businesses with B Corps.
• Tom Greenwood on sustainable WordPress sites and businesses.
• Zack Katz on values-drive WordPress businesses.
• Hannah Smith on the environmental impact of WordPress.
• Steve Beatty on the Newspack project.
• The Tag1 Consulting team on YJS and collaborative editing in Gutenberg.