With the news breaking this week on the Kawhi Leonard – Clippers situation involving the sustainability-as-a-service company, Aspiration – The Action Network has redirected the website what-tree.com into Kawhi's wikipedia.
We only hope that this move will encourage Kawhi, the Clippers and Aspiration, to get planting some trees!
According to their wikipedia page, Aspiration claimed to have planted 35 million trees to offset carbon emissions, with co-founder Andrei Cherney telling ProPublica that only 12 million trees had been planted.
How Many Trees Does Kawhi Need To Plant To Offset His NBA Travel?
Using the ESPN schedule for the LA Clippers, The Action Network calculates that the LA Clippers and Kawhi Leonard (assuming he travels) will roughly travel 46,570 miles this season.
Based on Clippers’ season travel, Kawhi Leonard’s flights would generate roughly 27 tonnes of CO₂e — about the same as the annual footprint of two average Americans (roughly 14.2 per capita).
Kawhi would need around 1,300–2,700 tree-years to balance a season of flights — that’s roughly 75–190 new trees growing for 25 years (allowing for real-world survival).
Method For Calculating Carbon Footprint:
Distance
Based on the Clippers’ 2025–26 schedule, total travel distance ≈ 46,570.
- This aligns with published analyses of NBA team travel (often 40–50,000 miles per season).
- Source: ESPN schedule + NBA travel distance research.
Emissions factor
- Used 0.18 kg CO₂ per passenger-km (in between economy ~0.09–0.12 and business/charter ~0.20–0.25).
- Source: UK DEFRA air travel conversion factors; peer-reviewed averages for short/medium haul flights.
Non-CO₂ multiplier
- Multiplied by 1.9 to account for radiative forcing at altitude (non-CO₂ warming effects).
- Source: UK DEFRA guidelines + European Environment Agency reports
Offset estimates use a tree sequestration range of 10–21 kg CO₂ per tree per year, meaning ~1,300–2,700 tree-years would be required to balance his flights.
Actual emissions vary by aircraft type, occupancy, routing, and tree survival rates; these figures use standard conversion factors and are indicative only.
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