Making the world a better place — this series highlights passionate people and impactful projects. Lenny from Germany has planted 17,000 trees to fight climate change.
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00:00Here comes what may be Germany's youngest climate champion.
00:05I want to protect the climate with my tree project, so I planted a forest.
00:12This big, as big as the European Union, is the size of the forest destroyed in the last 30 years around the world.
00:22That's about 420 million hectares.
00:25But here in Germany, a new forest is growing, planted by an 11-year-old boy.
00:30Introducing Lenny Kraut, a young and very dedicated climate activist, as part of our new series Smart Projects Big Changes.
00:40It all began with a simple idea, the world needs more trees.
00:45But it turned into something big, 17,000 saplings planted in an area about the size of three soccer pitches.
00:52They'll be forming a brand new forest near Lenny's hometown of Karben in western Germany.
00:59And Lenny did it almost all on his own.
01:03So Lenny, how did you come up with this cool idea?
01:08I was on vacation with my family on Crete.
01:12The land there is very dry, and on the way back we talked about climate change and stuff.
01:17I wanted to do something about the climate crisis.
01:21And I don't want my town to look like that.
01:24So I started collecting donations.
01:30Lots of people feel like they ought to be doing something, but Lenny did it.
01:34In two years, he collected some 32,000 euros.
01:38His hometown rounded the sum up to 40,000 and made the land available.
01:47Very good, you are already a pro.
01:50Forester Eckhard Richter helped to choose the best trees for the job.
01:57I thought it was sensational.
01:59I've been a forester for 30 years now, and I've never had the opportunity to reforest such a large area.
02:05It used to be cropland, and climate change has already hit this place.
02:09Many beaches are ailing and some have already died, and the spruces have practically disappeared.
02:13The trees we've planted do fairly well in dry and hot climates.
02:19Lenny planned the whole project in an office he nailed together himself in the yard.
02:24He painted posters and mapped out the next steps.
02:27In the course of two years, the project grew and grew.
02:32Where did you go and what did you do?
02:35First, I contacted our mayor, since I can't just plant some random trees in some random place.
02:43Then I ran around collecting donations, and we contacted some companies.
02:50Then TV teams showed up.
02:53Even though I never actually contacted them, they came to us.
02:59So, Lenny got the support of the entire town.
03:02And of his parents, of course.
03:04They helped with his social media appearances.
03:10Hi, I'm Lenny from Carbon, and I'd like to plant some trees here.
03:14To do that, I'm collecting donations.
03:16I'm doing this to fight climate change.
03:23We're all totally proud of Lenny, because he just went and did it,
03:27and he stayed with it for more than two years and didn't give up.
03:30Even though for a child, that's an incredibly long time.
03:37The first doorbell I pressed for my tree project was our neighbor's.
03:41And I think, since it was my first time asking for donations,
03:44they gave me three euros.
03:49That first little donation was the beginning for the forest growing now.
03:53And even while it grows, it's already taking carbon dioxide out of the earth and helping the climate.
04:00Inspired by Lenny, the town of Carbon is already planning to reforest more areas,
04:05and Lenny has new plans.
04:08I got the idea to set up give boxes in Carbon.
04:11And if it works out, maybe in other towns too.
04:15So if you've got an old pan lying around at home that you don't want to throw away,
04:20you can put it in the box, and someone else can take it and put other things in.
04:29Small projects, big changes.
04:32It will be many years before Lenny's forest looks like this one,
04:36but when it does, it will provide clean air for many generations.
04:41Thank you for watching!