University of Saskatchewan swaps parking meters for trees
VANCOUVER, CANADA, 5 August 2025 – The Parking and Transportation Services department at the University of Saskatchewan today announces it has signed up to Meters for Trees, the multi-award-winning tree planting initiative from PayByPhone, the global leader in mobile parking payments, effective immediately. The University of Saskatchewan is the first Canadian organization to sign up to Meters for Trees.
Dwayne Kawchuk, Manager for Parking and Transportation Services, University of Saskatchewan, says, “Meters for Trees is a meaningful and easy way for us to move toward an eco-friendlier future. By encouraging mobile parking payments, we ensure we are not only addressing local air quality but also supporting our own environmental goals through local tree planting.”
PayByPhone, the parking payments provider for the University since 2018 across its campus 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.
Under the terms of Meters for Trees, PayByPhone will plant one tree for every multi-space pay station and for every ten single-space parking meters that are removed at the University of Saskatchewan, totalling 50 trees, in 2025.
Meters for Trees supports the University in furthering its sustainability initiatives by removing parking hardware and planting trees while at the same time saving costs.
Trees will be planted in Alberta through PayByPhone’s partner, veritree, an organization that connects businesses with verified tree planting projects to elevate global reforestation. In addition to planting trees with veritree, PayByPhone will contribute funds to plant trees on campus. By removing payment hardware and planting trees, CO₂ is absorbed by each newly planted tree 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 University of Saskatchewan, the first Canadian organization, 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 http://www.paybyphone.com/parking-operators/meters-for-trees
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