The Arbor Day Foundation’s Energy-Saving Trees and Community Canopy programs are designed to help utility companies, municipalities, and corporate organizations distribute trees to their communities. The core purpose is to lower energy bills, improve air quality, sequester carbon, and manage stormwater runoff.
Central to the program is an interactive online tool that was created through a Foundation partnership by The Davey Institute, a division of The Davey Tree Expert Co. The tool uses peer- reviewed scientific research from the U.S. Forest Service’s i-Tree software to calculate estimated energy savings over time. People use the online tool to personally plot their yard as seen from satellite imagery to select the right tree provided by their utility provider, municipality, or other organization and the right place for planting that will yield the greatest energy and cost savings.