Growing Forward: Surendra Kumar 1% Pledge to the Planet
A personal commitment to nature, legacy, and the power of small, consistent actions
What started as a small habit during Covid has grown into one of the most meaningful commitments of my life.
During those quieter, slower months, I found myself returning to something my grandparents, Nana Ji, had always shown me. A deep, unhurried respect for nature. The kind of wisdom that doesn't shout. It simply grows, quietly and consistently, season after season.
That's when I made my pledge. To dedicate at least 1% of my time, energy, and heart each year to giving something back to the planet.
It started small. It always does.
Where It Began
Three years ago, I planted 50 trees. It felt significant at the time and uncertainty of where this was going to take me, but deeply right.
The following year, I planted over 250.
This year, I planted 1,350 saplings and young trees, each supported by an automated drip-irrigation system designed to improve survival rates while conserving water.
Looking back across the years:
1,350 plants this year
250+ plants two years ago
50 plants three years ago
And many more along the way
Together, that's approximately 1,600 plants and trees planted to date.
Each one a small act of faith. Each one a promise kept.
More Than Trees
This year I also installed 25 automated bird feeders across the plantation, creating small but meaningful spaces for birds and other wildlife to find food, shelter, and safety.
It's easy to overlook how much biodiversity depends on these small interventions. A bird feeder in the right place can support an entire local ecosystem. A tree planted today becomes a home, a food source, and a carbon store for decades to come.
The numbers are modest. The impact, I believe, is not.
The Promise Behind the Pledge
What makes this journey truly special isn't the planting. It's the promise behind it.
I made a commitment to my grandparents to continue the path they showed me, one of care, patience, and deep respect for the natural world. Nana Ji didn't lecture about environmentalism. They lived it. In the way they tended their garden. In the way they noticed the seasons. In the way they understood, instinctively, that everything we take from the earth deserves to be returned.
I honour that legacy by turning life's milestones into living memories.
Birthdays. Anniversaries. Family gatherings. Each becomes an opportunity to plant a tree and watch it grow alongside the people and moments it celebrates. Long after the cake is eaten and the photographs are filed away, the tree remains, growing quietly, year after year, as a reminder of that moment and those people.
There is something profound about that kind of permanence in a world that moves so fast.
The 1% Philosophy
I'm not an environmentalist by profession. I'm not an expert in conservation or biodiversity. I'm simply someone who made a small commitment and kept it.
That's the entire philosophy behind the 1% pledge.
Not grand gestures. Not dramatic change overnight. Just 1% more, a little attention, a little action, a little consistency, repeated year after year until the results become impossible to ignore.
Over five or ten years, those small efforts compound in ways that are genuinely extraordinary. 50 trees becomes 250. 250 becomes 1,350. 1,350 becomes a forest.
The same principle applies to almost everything worth doing in life. Small actions, repeated consistently, create lasting impact.
My Invitation to You
If this resonates with you, even a little, I'd love for you to consider making your own 1% pledge.
You don't need land. You don't need expertise. You don't need to start with 1,350 trees.
You just need to start.
Here are three simple ways to begin:
1. Plant a tree for a birthday or special milestone: Instead of, or alongside, a gift, plant something living. Something that grows. Something that lasts.
2. Invite a friend or family member to plant with you: The act of planting together creates a memory and a shared investment in something bigger than both of you.
3. Care for what you've already planted: If you've planted before, go back. Check in. Water something. The act of returning is as important as the act of beginning.
A Closing Thought
Every morning, I look at the saplings and the bird feeders and I think about Nana Ji. About the patience they had. About the quiet confidence that small things, tended carefully, become extraordinary things over time.
I think about my 1,600 plants. I think about the birds that have already found the feeders. I think about the years ahead and the trees that will grow far taller than I ever will.
And I feel, deeply, that this is exactly what 1% of a life well spent looks like.
Thank you to my family, my friends, and Shiftlogic who have supported and encouraged this journey. And thank you to the saplings and birds that remind me every day, small actions, repeated consistently, create lasting impact.
It is great to work for a company that supports the Pledge 1% initiative and actively encourages us as a company to do this.
What will your 1% be?
Inspired by the wisdom of Nana Ji, and every season that follows.
