Tree Hospital by Green Savers

Where a livable city should have at least 25% of its area filled with vegetation, Dhaka city only has 5%, with open spaces making way for buildings - over 500,000 buildings exist in Dhaka. Our solution focuses on planting and maintaining gardens in these 500,000+ roofs.

Through the Tree Hospital, we also create more job opportunities by training urban farmers and employing them as Tree Doctors to maintain gardens and create green spaces across the city. We use technologies such as vertical gardening, hydroponics and landscaping methods to create a wide variety of gardens that suit every home and office.

Dhaka is a rapidly urbanizing and densely populated area with over 500,000 buildings and a population of 20.628 million. Imagine a city where every roof has a garden - and we will have an area of over 300km^2 covered in trees and a need of a workforce of gardeners to maintain them.

Gardening and farming in Bangladesh is considered a job of the uneducated and this results in a lack of trained tree specialists to maintain the few green areas and gardens we have. There is no such initiative to train and produce gardener either from government level or private level. Here, our Tree Hospital can bring a solution not only by providing plants care support to city dwellers but also train and develop new gardeners or Plant Doctors, creating a completely new job sector for unemployed youth.     

Home owners:

Since 2010, we have served over 5,000 rooftop and indoor gardens (about 1% of Dhaka). We have partnerships with research teams of the Department of Environment and the Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, where we have come up with over 20 models of  gardening, which we employ to suit every corner of the roof or house.

Institutions:

We have a small team of architects and landscapers who provide access to greener solutions to decorating offices and schools, and we promote the work through news coverage and social media. Till date, we have worked in over 250 schools and offices to create a green space.

Plant Doctors:

After recruitment, all Plant Doctors go through at least a 3-month training at our Tree Hospital on plant diseases, gardening techniques, landscaping and customer service. At least 30 of our former employees have used their experience to open up gardening service centers of their own.

According to our experience serving over 5,000 roofs and garden owners in Dhaka, we found that the only thing holding back most garden owners is a lack of trained and professional gardening services coupled with modern garden technologies. Our Tree Hospital provides the full package - from garden planning, design, installation to maintenance and pest management in by Plant Doctors. Our activities include:

• Plant Doctor training - Our Plant Doctors are trained in gardening techniques including horticulture, landscape design and small-scale Hydroponics for homes and roofs. The training is conducted by our employed experts who have at least 3 years experience on the field.
• Home Garden - We provide over 20 different models of potting trees, including vertical gardening and auto irrigation techniques.
• Garden Maintenance - Our Plant Doctors use pesticide free, IPM methods, trimming and use of natural compost to provide monthly service to garden owners.

Our Tree Hospital is currently the only Center in Dhaka which provides training on expert gardening services and technologies. Gardening has been done by those with no formal education or training in Bangladesh, hence our Plant Doctors stand out by providing professional services to home-owners and institutes and promote environment-friendly practices.

We aim to cover all 500,000 rooftops of Dhaka with trees - of which we covered about 1% (5,000+). We have partnered with Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) and are always developing new gardening techniques. So far, we have developed over 20 different gardening techniques and our own hydroponic nutrient solution (patent pending).

From our experience with gardening since 2017 and talking to over 5000 owners, we found a "lack of time" and "lack of professionalism" to be the biggest barrier to owning gardens. We are currently the sole trainers of expert gardening services in Bangladesh, as well as an employer of the trade.

Growing gardens not only creates more jobs, it also provides access to local produce for the owners,reducing carbon footprint due to no need of transport for purchased vegetables (reduced fuel use) and by planting more trees.

We are currently serving 5,000 household gardens, and 200 office buildings, providing planting, maintenance and/or landscaping. We have 17 Plant Doctors currently operating from the Tree Hospital. Over 150 people have graduated from the Tree Hospital training center and have opened over 30 new plant nurseries and gardening service centers.

With our current capacity, we can serve 500 more gardens and will add an additional 5 Doctors to our team.

In 5 years, we are looking to expand beyond Dhaka to 64 district cities across Bangladesh, with a team of an additional 320 full-time Plant Doctors, with over 3,000 graduates, and create over 20,000 gardens across the country.

Other than adding 5 more Plant Doctors to the team and serving 500 more gardens across Dhaka, within the next 1 year, we want to create a formal Plant Doctor training center in Dhaka city. This will provide full courses for gardening services, landscaping and horticulture, presided over by our organization, Green Savers. We plan on having at least 50 up-and-coming Plant Doctors enrolled in various courses by the next year.

Within the next five years, we plan on expanding to all 64 district cities in Bangladesh, each with their own Tree Hospital and Training Center. We can project an approximate total of 320 full-time Plant Doctors, over 3,000 graduates in the next 5 years, and over 20,000 gardens created by Green Savers across Bangladesh.

• Gardening as an informal occupation - Gardening is considered a profession for the untrained and uneducated in Bangladeshi culture, so we face significant challenges in getting students in botany or horticulture to come work with us.
• Lack of awareness on climate change - There is little to no awareness on the reasons and science behind climate change in Bangladesh, despite Dhaka being the second most polluted capital city in 2019, according to Greenpeace. So, most people do not actively seek out solutions to climate change.
• Lack of market players - Since gardening is considered an odd-job, there is a lack of new players in the industry, which leads to a lack of promotions and interest in gardening and working in the industry.
• Lack of access to new technology - Most of the technology we use, such as NFT for hydroponics and peat pots for planting, we need to locate suppliers and import from countries such as China and India, or develop from scratch.

We promote our cause primarily through grabbing media attention via projects and partnerships.

We partner with as many organizations as we can to promote climate change awareness and develop innovative solutions. So far, we have partnered with over 12 organizations such as Save the Children, Epyllion and World Economic Forum and conducted workshops in over 200 schools to promote awareness. All our projects are centered around bringing attention to the issue of global warming. We document them here.

Our work has gained attention from a lot of news and media outlets. You can see the news coverage here, or see our updates from events on ourFacebook page.

We currently have 17 full-time Plant Doctors and 2 customer service officers on our team.

All Plant Doctors under employ either have over 3 years of experience in gardening services, or are being trained by senior employees, on-the-job. 

We are always researching new technologies to augment our service, and our partnerships with the Department of Environment gives us access to a wide range of opportunities to acquire and develop these techs.

• We Set-up 380 Oxygen Banks at different schools in collaboration with the Department of Environment (DOE), Save The Children, ActionAid, Practical Action & Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN
• We Developed 360 Model School Gardens with the help of FAO, Sailor & DOE
• We Imparting regular support by Plants Doctor App with the support of UNDP, UNV
• We Operate a mobile Plants Clinic with the help of Dhaka North City Corporation
• We provide Monthly plants care service jointly  implemented with GrameenTelecom Trust
• We Initiated 100 Green Clubs in different schools and colleges supported by DOE
• We Arranged 42 Plant For Planet program with 32 schools the support of Sailor, Epyllion Group
• We Installation of 3 urban lab gardens at three different schools with the help of IDLC
• We Contributed to the greenery of 30 Public toilets with the help of WaterAid and H&M foundation
• We Developed and maintain the green at 10 garments Factories with the help of Social and Economic Enhancement Programme (SEEP).
• We developed and maintain the largest Agricultural and environmental web and news portal, Krishibangla.com  jointly with ITR.

Value Proposition

We provide top-of-the line gardening services, landscaping and technology at your doorstep. 

Key Resources

Our main resource is a trained workforce of Plant Doctors providing a one-stop solution for building and maintaining gardens backed by innovative gardening solutions and a strong after-sales service.

Key Stakeholders

Corporate Brands for investing in climate-based CSR activities and leads, and News and Media outlets for coverage of our work.

Key Activities

• Providing the best after-sales service to the gardens we make
• Develop and train a workforce of garden experts to help build an industry that promotes planting and nurturing trees
• Programs to raise Awareness, such as school workshops, which engages the community and gains media attention

Cost Structure

2 out of every 5 people we hire will switch or open their own business within 6 months after receiving training. This cost is expected to decrease as we scale up, since we can invest in Brand Value and employee benefits to improve retention.

Type of Intervention

Service

Channels

We actively promote through social media, but use print media and TV to promote when we get coverage after an awareness event.

Surplus

Our surplus is invested in R&D and training of new gardening technology like hydroponics.

Segments

Our primary clients are home owners in form of making a new garden and/or monthly gardening services, and business owners for expert landscaping services.

Revenue

For every dollar we make, 50% is cost, 20%is salaries, 15% is upkeep, 5% is promotional and 10% is R&D.

Our main source of revenue is through service fees for setting up gardens and landscapes, as well as monthly garden and lawn care. 

We plan on building the Plant Doctor training center with investors and/or grants and generating a new revenue stream through paid workshops.

Our interest in Solve is the network opportunity and possible mentorships with agro-and business experts to build a sustainable business that goes on to impact more lives. We also see the Platform as an opportunity to form more local and international partnerships that will not only inspire more people to bring in innovations in this industry, but also create more awareness to fight climate change in Bangladesh.