Urban Tree Utility aims to help energy companies profit from managing urban forests and other “ecostructure” to mitigate the Heat Island Effect and reduce the electricity needed to cool homes and businesses.
Urban Tree Utility
Overview
Vision
Cities worldwide have been heating up for decades due to the well-documented Heat Island Effect. As green spaces that once absorbed sunlight and converted it to plant energy are replaced by buildings and pavement which store heat during the day and release it at night, average urban temperatures keep rising.
Electricity providers—often regulated or publicly owned—earn most of their revenue from infrastructure maintenance, not electricity sales. Meanwhile, customers who turn on air conditioners, in essence, are buying coolness, not electrons. Because of this inherent demand for coolness, my vision is to create Urban Tree Utility companies that provide “cooling as a service”.
By working with municipalities to allow utilities to profit from maintaining urban forests and other “ecostructure” alongside electrical infrastructure, utilities could deliver the cooling service customers want with less energy use. Communities would benefit from lower electricity demand, cooler temperatures, and lower overall utility bills, while up electrical generating capacity for emerging high-demand sectors like data centers, AI, and cryptocurrency—without building as many new power plants.
Plenty of opportunities are on the horizon to profitably put nature to work in our cities. As transportation shifts toward autonomous vehicles and multimodal systems, large parking lots and garages are losing relevance and can be repurposed. Many cities already have abundant empty tree boxes, underused rooftops suited for natural installations, and growing interest in integrating urban farming into the built environment.
Green spaces have so many ancillary benefits to society, which is why one will always find more trees in the wealthier parts of town. Developing Urban Tree Utility companies would create a financial mechanism that recognizes the real work done by nature to affect the local climate, making these ancillary benefits available to everyone who lives in an urban areas.
Electricity providers—often regulated or publicly owned—earn most of their revenue from infrastructure maintenance, not electricity sales. Meanwhile, customers who turn on air conditioners, in essence, are buying coolness, not electrons. Because of this inherent demand for coolness, my vision is to create Urban Tree Utility companies that provide “cooling as a service”.
By working with municipalities to allow utilities to profit from maintaining urban forests and other “ecostructure” alongside electrical infrastructure, utilities could deliver the cooling service customers want with less energy use. Communities would benefit from lower electricity demand, cooler temperatures, and lower overall utility bills, while up electrical generating capacity for emerging high-demand sectors like data centers, AI, and cryptocurrency—without building as many new power plants.
Plenty of opportunities are on the horizon to profitably put nature to work in our cities. As transportation shifts toward autonomous vehicles and multimodal systems, large parking lots and garages are losing relevance and can be repurposed. Many cities already have abundant empty tree boxes, underused rooftops suited for natural installations, and growing interest in integrating urban farming into the built environment.
Green spaces have so many ancillary benefits to society, which is why one will always find more trees in the wealthier parts of town. Developing Urban Tree Utility companies would create a financial mechanism that recognizes the real work done by nature to affect the local climate, making these ancillary benefits available to everyone who lives in an urban areas.
How did I create my vision?
I launched my first environmentally focused business, Energy Saving Equipment Company, in 1983 to pursue market-based solutions to environmental issues. Early projects included installing water-saving showerheads in institutions and gyms. An early $12,000 installation saved the client millions in water and the natural gas used to heat it. My thesis was that mutually beneficial transactions with environmental benefits could achieve large-scale impact without mandates.
I later introduced energy-efficient lighting which dramatically cut commercial energy use, typically saving more than the initial cost in the first year. From working to reduce my client’s utility bills, I learned that most utility regulations prohibited investment in conservation, even though it offered far greater returns on investment in than building new power plants plants. Legal changes in some states later allowed utilities to profit from reducing demand—an approach I saw firsthand when a D.C. utility offered to retrofit my nonprofit’s office lighting for free.
In the 1990s, my focus shifted to protecting native forests, combining ecological and forestry expertise to replace subsidized logging with sustainable economic options. Across these efforts, I learned about the Heat Island Effect as well as how small regulatory shifts in almost any industry can open large-scale, ecologically-beneficial economic opportunities.
Since 2001, I’ve concentrated on mastering enterprise formation to train others. Even though I designed this project years ago, it wasn’t until late 2024 that I realized that the common obstacle for most of the people working on these types of business opportunities was simply figuring out how to pay their personal bills during the development process. In January 2025, I began work on Make My Nut, a recurring payment application for solving this constraint for project leaders in over 100 countries. With the app now in early release, I felt the time was right to start sharing this project.
I later introduced energy-efficient lighting which dramatically cut commercial energy use, typically saving more than the initial cost in the first year. From working to reduce my client’s utility bills, I learned that most utility regulations prohibited investment in conservation, even though it offered far greater returns on investment in than building new power plants plants. Legal changes in some states later allowed utilities to profit from reducing demand—an approach I saw firsthand when a D.C. utility offered to retrofit my nonprofit’s office lighting for free.
In the 1990s, my focus shifted to protecting native forests, combining ecological and forestry expertise to replace subsidized logging with sustainable economic options. Across these efforts, I learned about the Heat Island Effect as well as how small regulatory shifts in almost any industry can open large-scale, ecologically-beneficial economic opportunities.
Since 2001, I’ve concentrated on mastering enterprise formation to train others. Even though I designed this project years ago, it wasn’t until late 2024 that I realized that the common obstacle for most of the people working on these types of business opportunities was simply figuring out how to pay their personal bills during the development process. In January 2025, I began work on Make My Nut, a recurring payment application for solving this constraint for project leaders in over 100 countries. With the app now in early release, I felt the time was right to start sharing this project.
Milestones
My current milestone is to add US$2500 – US$6000 in monthly membership revenue to support the first leader anywhere in the world who is ready to lead this project in their local community,
Budget
Depending on the country, the initial project budget, above the monthly cost of living for the project leader and perhaps a small support staff will be to develop a business plan of sufficient quality to engage local government and utility leaders in conversations about the economic opportunities possible by letting nature work for the benefit of the community. I estimate the cost to develop this business plan and the underlying studies to be from US$100,000 to US$250,000 per location.
My aim is to cover the initial salaries from membership revenue and then train each local leader step by step how to develop the business plan and raise any additional capital that might be needed to get to profitability.
My aim is to cover the initial salaries from membership revenue and then train each local leader step by step how to develop the business plan and raise any additional capital that might be needed to get to profitability.
Website
Project website pending further development.