The City of Allentown swaps parking meters for trees

VANCOUVER, CANADA, March 20, 2025 – The City of Allentown, Pennsylvania, today announces it has signed up to Meters for Trees, the multi-award-winning tree planting initiative from PayByPhone, a global leader in mobile parking payments, effective immediately.

Oswaldo Tosado, Deputy Director of Allentown Parking Authority, says, “Partnering with PayByPhone on its Meters for Trees initiative is an exciting step toward sustainability. This program allows us to drive greater adoption of mobile parking solutions while actively contributing to environmental conservation through tree planting.”

PayByPhone, a parking payments provider in Allentown since 2022 across its 72 on- and off-street parking locations, first launched Meters for Trees in the UK in 2019, as part of its broader environmental campaigns, including Green December. These initiatives help forward-thinking cities, universities, and parking operators reduce their costly parking hardware as they opt for a mobile app-based parking service. Over the past five years, PayByPhone’s environmental campaigns have collectively planted over 225,000 trees globally.

Meters for Trees supports Allentown in establishing a green legacy by removing parking hardware and planting trees while at the same time saving costs. Removing payment hardware and encouraging digital parking payments helps to reduce costly compliance issues for the Allentown Parking Authority and limits the need for expensive readers in the payment hardware. In return, trees are planted in the Allentown Parking Authority’s and the City of Allentown’s Parks and Recreation Department’s name, benefitting the environment.

The Allentown Parking Authority has removed approximately 200 single-space parking meters under Meters for Trees, and PayByPhone will also contribute $500 towards helping plant a tree locally, which will be planted in cooperation with the City of Allentown's Parks and Recreation Department. Each tree planted absorbs CO₂ as it grows, directly benefitting the local environment through carbon footprint reduction as CO₂ is sequestered from the atmosphere.

Carmen Donnell, Managing Director North America for PayByPhone, says, “Welcoming the City of Allentown to Meters for Trees is a meaningful step toward building a greener tomorrow. We’re proud to work alongside partners who share our vision of sustainability and environmental stewardship, making it easy for parking operators to contribute to reforestation efforts.”

Meters for Trees is a multi-award-winning initiative, having won 12 international awards, including a Global Gold Award at the 2019 Green World Environment Awards in the Carbon Reduction and Local Authorities categories, the Green Champion Award in Carbon Reduction at the 2019 Green Apple Environment Awards, and the Environmental Initiative Award at the 2020 SEAL Business Sustainability Awards.

For more information about Meters for Trees, please visit www.paybyphone.com/meters-for-trees.