PayPal Commits to Rural Development and Sustainability with the launch of PayPal Dharma

PayPal, a global leader in digital payments, has collaborated with SankalpTaru Foundation to launch project PayPal Dharma- planting trees for an inclusive climate future. Through this partnership, the company will plant over 5000 trees of native and fruit-bearing species in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, and West Bengal.

Starting 2022, PayPal will also plant a tree for each employee’s work anniversary. The initiative is aimed at lending support to local farming communities through a rural livelihood model. It will also bolster PayPal’s desire to support an inclusive climate transition in India and improve the socio-economic conditions of the communities where it operates.

As part of the rural livelihood model, this project will enable a sustainable stream of income for the farmers by planting trees that will provide a variety of fruit, medicine, and shade. The benefitting communities were selected based on the projects ability to improve financial condition, mitigate climate change impact and reduce crop failure. Additionally, employees and donors will receive a digital tree gift hamper that includes customized E-tree certificates. Thanks to PayPal’s G-5 app developed by SankalpTaru’s R&D team, every tree planted will be geotagged, providing information about day of the planting, sapling pictures, tree species, and update reports for up to two years.

Commenting on the PayPal Dharma, Guru Bhat, VP, Customer Success Platform PayPal India said, “The ongoing COVID- 19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of many around the world, including farmers in rural India. In order to help lessen the impact on these farmers, PayPal has partnered with SankalpTaru for our virtual forest project – PayPal Dharma – to focus on sustainability and rural development. The program is another step towards our mission to improve societal wellbeing and our commitment to create inclusive communities while advancing our efforts to tackle climate change.”

The Virtual Forest Project aligns with PayPal’s global mission of responsible innovation and management of key environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impacts. PayPal has committed to reaching net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across all operations and value chains by 2040, and to invest in four high-impact projects that are creating climate transition opportunities in financially underserved communities around the world.