Odd Global launches The Odd Forest
The AI studio is planting real trees for every generation, the good ones and the bad ones.
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From a studio in the South Island of New Zealand, Odd Global has spent the past years quietly producing Gen AI work for some of the biggest clients, agencies and production companies in the world.
Now the studio is turning its output into something you can walk through: The Odd Forest, a distributed native forest grown one production at a time. For every project Odd Global completes, native trees are planted through Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust, with the number of trees scaled to the overall size of the production and its approximate use of image and video generation. The more a project generates, the more it plants.
The intention is simple: work that begins and ends on a screen should leave something growing in the ground. The initiative launches with 38 native trees already planted across 15 AI productions.
It arrives with a launch film that plays the idea as a deadpan bush-scout comedy: an over-enthusiastic guide leads three unimpressed young scouts through a regenerating native forest, introducing iconic New Zealand natural features, and revealing that each one is supported by the AI generations behind the studio's productions. The good ones and the bad ones. As the film admits, mostly the bad ones. The film was produced entirely with generative AI, which means the film itself planted trees.
Credits
powered by"Our work usually begins and ends inside a digital environment," says Arthur Machado, founder of Odd Global. "The Odd Forest makes sure every production also leaves something tangible growing in the physical world. Every image we generate, every video, every attempt that never makes the cut, all of it now adds up to native trees in the ground."
Each tree represents a contribution of NZ$50 covering the native tree itself, professional planting labour, and initial maintenance to support establishment. The trees are planted across restoration sites throughout Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū Banks Peninsula according to ecological need, forming one growing distributed forest.
There is a quiet geography to the forest, too. Most of the productions that have planted it so far are international: work made for clients in Brazil, the United States, Europe and beyond is now growing as native bush on a peninsula in the South Island of New Zealand. A campaign delivered in São Paulo or New York adds trees to a hillside on Banks Peninsula, meaning a whole regional restoration effort is being supported, tree by tree, by countries all around the world.
"We chose Banks Peninsula because it's where we are," says Machado. "We work globally, but we wanted to support something local, visible, and part of a long-term ecological vision. We think it's important to show those things are not exclusive: you can make work for the world and still put your impact in the ground you stand on. Where you make an impact is your choice."
"We're excited about the potential of this new partnership with Odd Global. We particularly like the connection between past and present - using new technology to help recreate and restore native plant and animal species that were once abundant on the peninsula," said Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust general manager Maree Burnett. "BPCT enjoys strong partnerships with many businesses that are making nature-positive commitments. What's particularly exciting about this partnership is that it creates an opportunity for Odd Global's clients who are embracing artificial intelligence to also make a tangible contribution to nature, supporting conservation outcomes here on Banks Peninsula."
The Odd Forest counter updates with every completed production at odd.global/the-odd-forest. The work is digital. The forest is real.
