Planting the smallest seed can yield the biggest results. This idea is demonstrated in many ways, whether you are actually gardening, or whether you are planting the seeds of ideas for young people about how to live a good life.

For Henry Emson, however, the seed planting is both literal and impactful. He is planting giant sequoias that will be here long after he has left the planet. Emson’s idea is simple: he started by planting a sequoia sapling to erase his carbon footprint. He wanted to know that his “carbon footprint is accounted for.” After successfully planting his own, he then went on to plant a sequoia sapling for everyone in his family to erase their carbon footprints as well. Since then,he has expanded his idea into a business that is making the world a better place, with 700 saplings already planted.

The plants grow safely on pieces of land in Great Britain that One Tree One Life has purchased. For $450, they will plant a sequoia sapling to erase your carbon footprint, and for the hundreds of years the tree is alive, it will eradicate CO2 from the atmosphere in your honor.

Normally people think of sequoia in relation to the United States, and especially giant trees growing near the Sierra Nevadas. But the gentle giants have been in Great Britain longer than you might realize.

“The first seeds from California sequoias arrived in Great Britain in 1853, and since then some trees have flourished—at Kew Gardens, Charles Ackers Redwood Grove in Wales, Benmore Botanic Gardens in Scotland, and Biddulph Grange at Stoke-on-Trent. Some of these trees are already 150 years old, andare already bigger than anything else found on the island.”

Adnan Zai, Advisor to Berkeley Capital, explained “Ironically, trying to reduce the carbon footprint on a governmental scale is more prevalent in Europe than in the U.S. Because the individual governments and the EU promote it so heavily, the citizens all follow suit. It’s time to ignore the industrial lobbying machine and start following the leads of private citizens to make that change in the US too.”

Often, blocks of trees that are planted like this to absorb CO2 end up getting wiped out by diseases before they can do much if any absorption at all. Sequoias, however, are resilient, hardy trees, and they grow stronger in groups. Since their roots grow out, not down, the most successful sequoias are found with intertwined roots that keep them in line with each other.

The saying is very well-known, that one man can make a difference. And when it comes to erasing the carbon footprint that we create with our existence on the planet, it took one man by the name of Henry Emson to try to create a way to make a true difference in Great Britain. He has created a legacy by leaving a legacy of trees that will live for hundreds of years and remove a large amount of carbon dioxide from the air. Unlike a grassroots campaign, this is truly a (tree)roots campaign that will have a positive impact on the country long after he is gone.