REALiTREE, virtual trees in urban centers that will measure the health of the environment

The creatives from the Snark Design agency have developed a digital projection of a tree that will allow us to care for the environment through mobile devices. The intention of this original initiative is to involve everyone, company and institution to participate and contribute to the “health” of the tree, whose roots, stem, branches and leaves represent a set of factors in our environment that must be protected.

As part of a joint action with The Climate Reality Project -The Climate Reality Project- Founded by former US Vice President Al Gore, the portal for design and advertising ideas PSFK invited creative agencies from around the world to participate in Gaming For Good, a challenge to innovate and create potential solutions against environmental deterioration.

The agency Snark Desing started from the idea that climate change is a personal responsibility, and developed the REALiTREE, a digital representation of our local environment and the role we are playing in maintaining its wellbeing. It is a game in which different groups participate from different places: individuals, teams, communities, cities and even countries compete against their opponents through Twitter, Facebook and other social tools.

REALiTREEs are massive projections that run on renewable energy, showing digital image of a tree, with leaves, remaining, roots, heaven and earth. REALiTREEs will be installed in a specific location and will operate under the general environmental conditions of that location, acting like a real tree, that thrives and suffers according to the health of its environment.

Every tree has to be cared for like a Tamagotchi, but instead of being attended to by a person, It is cared for by thousands of them. The health status of the tree is always in sight: with good deeds it will grow and its branches will sway with appreciation; with bad actions, will begin to tremble and wither.

The health of the REALiTREE will be dictated by two types of data. People can interact with the digital tree with actions in favor of the environment, messages on social networks and ecological actions such as donations or check-ins at “green” businesses through Foursquare. Likewise, can suffer from bad news, actions harmful to nature, increase in polluting emissions, environmental data statistics of the surrounding community, etc.