Mobitel and Thuru’s joint project - ‘Reforestation through Technology’ - has been shortlisted for the ‘Best Mobile Innovation for Climate Action award’ at GSMA Global Mobile Awards 2020, popularly known as the GLOMO Awards, scheduled to be held in Barcelona in February 2020, where winners will be announced.
This recognition is yet another feather in the cap for Mobitel which has embarked on far-reaching green sustainable initiatives powered by its core strength - technology. Mobitel partnered with Thuru’s intriguing digital reforestation innovation startup by being the technology and communication partner for Thuru and by co-innovating together to introduce many services and features with newest technology trends to make this initiative a game-changer. Mobitel and Thuru applied for GSMA GLOMO Awards under ‘Tech4Good - Best Mobile Innovation for Climate Action’ category and was shortlisted for the same. GLOMO Awards recognise and celebrate those innovators who continue to build a connected world where mobile is enhancing our everyday lives, helping improve education, enabling greater political participation and driving higher economic growth. The awards celebrate major milestones and deep impact that mobile communications and it can be identified as the ‘Oscars of the mobile industry’ and help keep the spirit of innovation alive within the industry.
Thuru was one of the 10 finalists of the Season 2 of ‘Kotiyak Vatina Adahasak’, Sri Lanka’s first-ever innovation and entrepreneurship based tech reality TV show powered by Mobitel, as part of its strategy to launch sustainable products and services. With the aim of bringing joint synergies and strong potential for collaboration, the show brought Mobitel and Thuru to collaborate on reforestation initiative. Through the Thuru app, people can plant a real tree and monitor its progress. People can plant trees and upload images and details and the app will automatically generate points, and the person can climb up in the leader board as a true nature hero. The longer the person takes care of the tree and uploads images, the more points he gets. It will be a guide to tree planting and will help users link up with like-minded nature lovers and tree huggers across the globe. To promote a green mindset, Mobitel is extending a special data offer for Thuru users entitled, ‘Join Thuru, plant trees and earn Green Bytes (Data) from Mobitel’.
‘Reforestation initiative through Technology’ is one of the many under the purview of Mobitel’s green initiatives, as it breaks new ground in other sustainable areas such as utilizing renewable energy for its base station operations and promoting E-bill with a catchy campaign by planting trees for each E-bill registration of its subscribers along with Thuru. Mobitel plants trees in Mobitel base station locations to promote urban forestation and to offset/minimize the carbon dioxide emission caused by entire network. As the National Mobile Service Provider, Mobitel has taken on the mantle of a mentor to nurture tech entrepreneurs and innovative startups that can succeed as successful businesses.
Mobitel, under its credo, ‘We Care. Always’, is focused on environmental and social responsibility initiatives and this collaboration provides an ideal balance of both technology and greening, while engaging the larger community to become conscious of the need to reforest Sri Lanka for future generations. Mobitel is continuously supporting and encouraging tech entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka, through many initiatives, to offer encouragement for innovators.