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Why Fabric plants trees
Every Fabric subscription plants mangrove trees on the coasts of Kenya and Brazil. Here's why we built that into the product from the start.
I want to explain something about Fabric that has nothing to do with files, search, or AI. It's about trees.
Every paid Fabric subscription plants mangrove trees on the coasts of Kenya and Brazil. It costs our subscribers nothing extra. It's built into the price. And it's one of the decisions I'm most glad we made. You can read the full details on our environment page, but I wanted to write something more personal about why we did it and what it means to us.
The short version
We love building with AI. We also know that AI runs on real, physical resources: electricity, water, servers that generate heat. The planet provides all of it. If we're going to build a company that asks people to trust us with their data, we think that trust should extend to how we treat the world those people live in.
So we put part of every subscription back into the earth. Literally.
How we got here
When we started Fabric, we spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of company we wanted to be. The product question was clear enough: build a workspace where people can keep everything they care about, with AI that understands it and search that finds it. But the company question felt just as important. What do we owe the world beyond a good product?
I don't think technology companies talk about this enough. Most of the conversation around AI focuses on capability. What can it do? How fast is it? How much can it process? These are worth asking. But there's another set of questions that tends to get less attention. What does it consume? What does it leave behind? And who bears the cost?
We wanted to have an answer to those questions that went beyond words on a website.
The idea of tying tree planting to subscriptions came up early. At first, I worried it would seem like a gimmick, the kind of thing companies do to look good without changing anything fundamental. But the more we looked into it, the more it felt like the right fit, especially once we found the right partners and the right kind of tree.
Why mangroves
We chose mangroves for specific, practical reasons.
Mangrove trees grow in shallow water along tropical coastlines. Their root systems are dense and tangled, and they do several things at once. They hold shorelines together, which protects coastal communities from storm damage. They trap carbon in the mud beneath them, storing it for decades. They create habitat for fish, crabs, and birds. And across East Africa, they support livelihoods directly: families rely on mangrove forests for food, work, and income.
Replanting mangroves does more than put carbon in the ground. It restores an ecosystem that people depend on. The planting itself creates work. The forests, once established, support fishing and other local industries. Environmental restoration and economic development happen at the same time.
This mattered to us. We didn't want to plant trees in a place nobody ever sees, just to offset a number on a spreadsheet. We wanted the planting to do something real for the communities involved. Our environment programme goes into more detail about the specific sites and the impact so far.
How it works
The mechanics are simple. When someone subscribes to a Fabric paid plan, whether as an individual or as part of a team, a portion of that subscription goes toward planting mangrove trees. Local community planters on the Kenyan and Brazilian coasts do the actual planting. These are people who know the land, who live near the planting sites, and who have a direct stake in the forests' survival.
Every planting is recorded. GPS coordinates, satellite imagery, drone footage, photographs, video, and field sensor data all go into verifying that the trees were planted where they were supposed to be planted, and that they're growing. Sites are monitored for three years after planting.
We work with two partners to make this happen. GoodAPI connects Fabric to the planting projects. Veritree handles on-the-ground verification in Kenya. The verification part matters to us. It would be easy to say "we plant trees" and leave it vague. We wanted a system where every claim can be checked.
The trust question
I think there's a deeper connection between what Fabric does as a product and why the environmental piece feels so natural.
Fabric is a place where people keep their most important information: notes, files, research, documents, creative work. When someone chooses to store their work with us, they're making a trust decision. They're saying, "I believe this company will take care of something I value."
That's a serious thing. And I think the logic extends outward. If we're asking people to trust us with their digital lives, it feels wrong to be careless about the physical world at the same time. The two things aren't the same, obviously. But they come from the same impulse: take care of what matters, and be honest about what you're doing.
We try to be clear about what running Fabric takes. AI workloads use electricity and water. We track that. We're working towards being 100% carbon and water neutral by 2030. That's an ambitious target, and I'd rather state it plainly as a goal we're working towards than pretend we've already arrived. You can follow our progress on the environment page.
What this isn't
I want to be careful about what I'm claiming here. Planting trees doesn't make a technology company virtuous. It doesn't erase the environmental cost of running servers. It's one piece of a larger set of decisions we're trying to get right.
We're not saying Fabric is a green company and therefore you should use it. We're saying that we think about these things, we act on them where we can, and we're transparent about the rest. The reason to use Fabric is that it's a good workspace with strong search, a thoughtful AI assistant, and real privacy protections. The trees are part of who we are as a company, not a selling point.
What I hope it becomes
My hope is that this becomes unremarkable. I'd like to live in a world where putting a percentage of revenue back into the earth is just something companies do, the way they pay taxes or carry insurance. It shouldn't require a blog post to explain. It should be ordinary.
We're a small company. The number of trees we've planted is modest compared to the scale of the problem. But I'd rather do something real at a small scale than make grand promises at a large one. And as Fabric grows, the planting grows with it. Every new subscriber, every team that comes on board, every founder who chooses Fabric adds to the total.
If you're curious about the details, the verification process, the planting sites, the carbon accounting, all of it is on our environment page. I'd encourage you to look. We built it to be read, not just to exist.
We've also put together a few comparisons for people who care about this when choosing their tools: how AI apps, cloud storage providers, note-taking apps, and productivity tools stack up on sustainability. If this is part of how you make decisions about software, those pages are worth a look.
A note on doing this publicly
Some people might wonder why we write about this at all. Couldn't we just plant the trees and not mention it? We could. But I think transparency works in both directions. If we're going to be open about how we handle data, how our AI works, and how we think about privacy, then we should be equally open about how we think about our environmental footprint.
Writing about it also creates accountability. Once you've told your users that every subscription plants trees, you can't quietly stop doing it. The public commitment is, in a small way, a mechanism for keeping ourselves honest.
So that's why Fabric plants trees. It's a small thing, done carefully, and it matters to us. I hope it matters to you too.
Frequently asked questions
How many trees does my Fabric subscription plant?
Every paid Fabric subscription contributes to mangrove planting on the coasts of Kenya and Brazil. The exact number of trees per subscription depends on the plan. Full details are available on our environment page.
Does tree planting cost me anything extra?
No. Tree planting is included in all paid Fabric plans. There is no additional charge, no opt-in, and no upsell. It's part of what a Fabric subscription is.
Why mangroves instead of other types of trees?
Mangroves are exceptionally effective at storing carbon, protecting coastlines from storms, and supporting local ecosystems. They also provide direct economic benefits to the communities that plant and maintain them. The combination of environmental and social impact made them the right choice for our programme.
How do you verify that trees are planted?
Every planting is recorded with GPS coordinates, satellite imagery, drone footage, photographs, video, and field sensor data. Our partner Veritree handles on-the-ground verification in Kenya. Planting sites are monitored for three years after the initial planting.
Who plants the trees?
Local community planters on the Kenyan and Brazilian coasts do the planting. These are people who live near the sites and have expertise in mangrove restoration. The planting programme creates employment and supports local livelihoods.
Who are Fabric's environmental partners?
GoodAPI connects Fabric to the planting projects. Veritree runs on-the-ground verification in Kenya. Both organisations specialise in transparent, measurable environmental impact.
Is Fabric carbon neutral?
Not yet. We are working towards being 100% carbon and water neutral by 2030. We think it's more honest to state that as a goal we're actively pursuing than to make premature claims. Our progress is documented on the environment page.
Can I see where my trees were planted?
Yes. Plantings are geotagged and photographed. Verification data, including GPS coordinates, satellite imagery, and field documentation, is part of the monitoring process. Visit our environment page for more information about the planting sites.
