Lightspeed Marks Earth Day with Carbon Free Dining Expansion and Tree Planting Announcement for Africa

Montreal-based Lightspeed, a leading provider of cloud-based, omnichannel commerce platforms, announced on Friday two significant initiatives for Earth Day 2022. That includes an expansion of its Carbon Free Dining initiative as well as plans to plant 3,000 trees in Africa. 

Lightspeed’s Carbon Free Dinning is an exclusive Restaurant Rewards program in partnership with Sustainably Run which allows diners at restaurants using Lightspeed to have the option to add a small contribution to their bill so Sustainably Run can plant trees in developing countries. 

The tree planting, as a result, is said to help reverse the problems caused by industrial farming that can have a negative impact on the biodiversity of a region caused by soil erosion, water pollution and an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide. 

For every six trees planted because of that particular restaurant, Lightspeed says that it will credit the restauranteur to save on their subscription with Lightspeed. 

Since it was piloted in the UK, Lightspeed’s Carbon Free Dining initiative has resulted in over 1-million trees having already been planted. On Friday Lightspeed announced intentions to plant a further 3,000 trees in Africa, which has been hit hard by industrial farming. Lightspeed also says that it will also be incentivizing its employees to participate in their Sustainability Week LinkedIn Learning Challenge to learn more about sustainability by completing a pre-set course.

Lightspeed was founded in 2005 by Dax Dasilva, beginning with four employees working out of a Montreal apartment. Lightspeed has seen remarkable growth — the company is now publicly traded and is a force to be reckoned with in the world of retail as well as restaurants and other services as Lightspeed offers various options in the omni-channel world. Dasilva recently stepped down as CEO with JP Chauvet taking over the reigns — Dasilva himself is working on various environmental initiatives which includes millions of dollars in philanthropy. 

The first Earth Day was observed on April 22, 1970, when 20 million people across the US celebrated by filling their local streets, parks and auditoriums to demand a healthy, sustainable environment. They were concerned about their cities laden with smog, polluted rivers, rampant pollution, and other environmental hazards.