According to trendspotter Springwise, the Life Box can be made to virtually any dimension and used by consumers and companies alike to package or ship goods.
What sets the Life Box apart, however, is that within its corrugations are hundreds of tree seeds and thousands of spores of beneficial mycorrhizal fungi.
How it works: Once a consumer removes whatever was shipped inside their box, they can tear it up, plant the pieces and water them. In about two months, tree seedlings will emerge, nurtured by the mycorrhizal fungi.
In about two years, the young trees can be planted in the ground where they’ll ultimately reside. Birches, alders, pines, hemlocks and cedars are among the tree species represented, a quarter of which will survive in 90 percent of the continental United States.
The Life Box company, which is based in Olympia, Wash., estimates that one tree from the hundreds of seeds in each box will survive for 30 years, allowing one ton of carbon to be sequestered.
Those who planted them, meanwhile, can visit the Life Box site and enter their GPS coordinates, making it possible to see the emerging trees and track carbon credits or offsets for generations to come.
Photo by Life Box.