Jony Ive donates $129,000 to UK tree-planting effort

Former Apple Chief Design Officer Jony Ive made a sizable donation to a campaign to plant trees across the United Kingdom, with the six-figure gift helping to create one thousand orchards in schools.

The donation of GBP 100,000 ($129,000) by Jony Ive to the Be A Tree Angel campaign joins donations for the same amount from restauranteur Richard Caring, prominent businessman Lord Sugar, and an anonymous donor from the last week. The GBP 400,000 from the four individuals is enough to fund the creation of orchards in 4,000 schools across the country, as well as to provide aftercare to keep the orchards healthy.

Ive told the Daily Mail "I love trees and over the years have climbed them, eaten and fallen from them, and planted as many as I can." Trees were also "profoundly good for learning and creating," according to the designer.

Trees are a fundamental concept for Apple Park's design, according to Ive, with "acres of parkland and orchards" key to its creation. "Being able to contribute to a project so close to my heart is fabulous," Ive added.

The Daily Mail is behind the Be A Tree Angel campaign, working with The Tree Council, which is accepting contributions from its readers and corporate donors for the cause. So far, the effort has raised enough to plant more than 35,000 trees.

It was the dream of late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs to fashion Apple Park's landscaping after the California in which he grew up. In a presentation video made public in 2013, architect Norman Foster said Jobs thought of California as "the fruit bowl of America," and wanted the new campus to reflect the landscapes he remembered as a child.

Along with a forest of drought-resistant varieties dotting the campus grounds, Apple planted groves of apple, apricot, cherry, persimmon and plum trees in and around the main ring structure.