Türkiye's First "StayHomeForest" to Be Created Without Human Presence

The Ecording team, made up of young entrepreneurs, will use drones to afforest an area the size of 22 football fields in support of the 'stay home' movement due to the coronavirus. The area, where 250 thousand seeds will be planted, will come to life under the name 'StayHomeForest' (EvdeKalOrmanı).

The Ecording team, which carries out its work at the Bahçeşehir University Incubation, Entrepreneurship Application and Research Center (BAUICE), is preparing to bring 250 thousand seeds to the soil in support of the 'Stay home' movement against the risks of the spread of the Covid-19 virus. In the project, which aims to raise awareness on the path to leaving a greener, healthier and more livable world, seeds will also be planted on behalf of companies and individuals.

With the support of the General Directorate of Forestry and partner brands, for every day spent at home as part of preventing the coronavirus pandemic, the seeding and afforestation drones (ecoDrone) developed by Ecording will drop a seed ball into the Stay Home Forest to be established in Ankara. In the campaign to be created on social media, also sponsored by world-renowned technology companies Dell and Intel, a seed ball will be dropped into the #EvdeKalOrmanı via ecoDrones for every post shared from home with the hashtag #EvdeKalOrmanı.

Speaking about the Stay Home Forest Project, Ecording founder Mert Karslıoğlu said: "These days, we are going through a time that makes us deeply feel the unique value of our health and our loved ones. In addition to all this, as humanity, we are coming to better understand the importance of our role in our world, our lives and our nature. As Ecording, we have paused a certain part of our ongoing work during this period and started producing solutions to fight the coronavirus. One of our greatest advantages as a brand is that we are already making afforestation work unmanned. That is why the #EvdeKalOrmanı project emerged, with the aim of encouraging the social isolation recommended as a precaution against the risks of the virus spreading."

Ecording is a social enterprise that works to increase individual and corporate environmental awareness and develops environmental technologies for this purpose; its unmanned aerial vehicle, ecoDrone, offers a fast and technological alternative for afforestation. The drones, which carry a tank and a seed ball launcher on their bodies, drop seed balls from the air into hard-to-reach areas. On each flight, ecoDrones stay in the air for 15 minutes and can drop 2,500 seed balls over a 2-hectare area at the planned frequency and time. They drop seed balls consisting of a seed and a mixture that adheres to the surface where it lands and helps the seed take hold. The seed balls are produced by women experiencing income inequality caused by climate change, thereby both supporting women's employment and collectively fighting climate change.

"They are fighting to reduce the carbon emissions of Türkiye and the world"

Ecording aims to develop a model of Ecording-labeled products, dropping a seed ball for every product or service sold in the retail sector, and to carry out this work with brands and institutions from every sector. In the short term, the company aims to carry out afforestation through an independent model with institutions, associations and companies, and in the long term, to enter international markets with the exporters and global partner firms it collaborates with. This also means reducing the carbon emissions of Türkiye and the world. In addition, for 2 years Ecording has been raising environmental awareness by dropping a seed ball into areas in need of afforestation for each of its social media followers.

About BAU ICE: The Incubation and Entrepreneurship Application and Research Center (BAU ICE) operates in an open, shared office with BAUTTO on the ground floor of Block D, BAU South Campus. Within the Incubation Center, entrepreneurial faculty members, students and alumni are accepted under two separate programs: "pre-incubation" and "incubation". The Bahçeşehir University Incubation, Entrepreneurship Application and Research Center, which supports the creation of ventures that add value to and shape the global entrepreneurship ecosystem by establishing sustainable mechanisms, supports numerous innovation-focused projects by helping scalable ventures come to life.