Future Forests has made enemies as well. Some environmentalists say that planting trees is a distraction that allows business to shirk responsibility for cutting CO2 emissions. But Morrell says that his clients know his prescription is no cure-all: "The problem of greenhouse gases is way too big for us to solve with tree planting, but our mission is to challenge mind-sets. Forestry is not a panacea. It's not the answer to climate change. But as part of an integrated carbon-management program, it's an important part of the answer."

Planting trees for individuals, says Morrell, is simply good fun. More than 10,000 people own trees through Future Forests, from the police chief in Hartfordshire who made all of his patrol cars carbon-neutral to the college kids in Southampton who persuaded their local Kentucky Fried Chicken to go carbon-neutral.

Morrell is casting his net wider through Future Forests's innovative ecocommerce Web site. Enter miles driven, vacations taken, information from your utility bills, and so on, and a calculator determines how many tons of CO2 you generate. Then go online and buy the exact number of trees needed to offset that amount. Choose where you would like the trees to be planted, and Future Forests emails back a certificate and a map showing the exact location of your trees.

Climbing High

The first tree that Morrell planted -- a cherry tree planted along a railway path outside Castle Carey station -- is now tall enough to climb. He walks past it each time he takes the train to London's Paddington terminal. "Our forests are not just about carbon offset. They're about biodiversity, natural habitats, and having a cool place to go."

Morrell believes strongly enough in planting trees that he's willing to put it first in his life. He has reduced commitments to his music business and works almost exclusively for Future Forests. Now that Future Forests is bringing in nearly $3 million a year, it no longer needs Fullview to pay the rent on its Castle Carey and London offices.

From its Web site, Future Forests intends to offer renewable electricity and carbon-neutral holidays. In a deal with Green Globe 21, the company hopes to be able to advise flight passengers of carbon-neutral air routes. The plan would allow you to fly from Atlanta to Adelaide, or from Seattle to Singapore, and have trees planted for you that would offset the flight's carbon emission. And Morrell and his celebrity chums have already booked some time at a studio next year to cut a CD titled Global Cooling.

The zeitgeist is on Morrell's side. Climate-change levies are looming, and when the Kyoto Protocol is ratified (perhaps as soon as 2002), offsetting CO2 will be mandatory in the UN. But that has Morrell a little worried: "There could be an unacceptable face of carbon-offset forestry, an ugly side that fells rainforests and replaces them with fast-growing trees such as eucalyptus just to gain quick carbon credits."

Governments and such environmental pressure groups as Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have expressed concerns about irresponsible forestry, and Morrell is keen to differentiate his brand. "Future Forests is about putting something back into communities. We plant indigenous natural species for local people. In India and Mexico, for example, we plant fruit trees so that the local people can gain a living from looking after them. There is public access to all of our forests, and we do a lot of urban planting. We also work with schools, helping kids to understand the issues."

It takes as many as 100 years for trees to fulfill their carbon-offset potential, and Morrell says that his clients are fully aware that they're entering a long-term commitment to the environment. "I like trees. They're simple and easy to explain. But there's no time for quick PR fixes when you're helping to save the planet."

Ian Wylie (ian@wylienet.demon.co.uk), a Fast Company contributing editor, is based in London. Contact Dan Morrell by email (dan@futureforests.com), or visit Future Forests Ltd. on the Web (www.futureforests.com).

Sidebar: Who's Fast

Dan Morrell, founder and CEO of Future Forests Ltd., applies market incentives and marketing savvy to an intractable environmental problem -- climate change and global warming. Here are some of his marketing techniques for winning people over to his cause.

Keep it simple. "Humans have a massive capacity for digesting hugely complicated packages of information. But to make an idea memorable, you have to keep it simple. That's why we came up with the idea of one car, 5 trees per year -- one citizen, 15 trees per year. The reality is much more complicated than that, and it depends on the species of tree, soil type, rainfall, longitude, latitude, and all sorts of other factors. We average it all out so that the figures stack up, so why complicate the message?"