Duran Duran’s Nick Rhodes Talks Band’s Eco-Friendly New Zealand ‘NFTrees’ Initiative

For as long as NFTs have been the hottest commodity in digital keepsakes, the joy of owning a unique digital piece of art from your favorite musician has often been accompanied with the worry that crypto crafts are also a concerning source of carbon emissions.

So a month after Duran Duran issued their first series of 100 NFTS to celebrate their 2021 single “Invisible,” the New Romantic pioneers have found a very clever, sustainable way to give back while promoting sustainability. “People really enjoyed [the original NFTs] and they sold out within 24 hours… but of course we were concerned about carbon issues and what does it take to create an NFT?” band co-founder/keyboardist Nick Rhodes tells Billboard about their 2021 collaboration with AI artist Huxley on 100 NFTs tied to the single from the band’s 15th studio album, Future Past.

In what they are calling a world-first, DD are now offering the purchasers of the original NFTs a chance to receive a second, eco-friendly NFT with new artwork designed by Huxley that will be accompanied by the planting of a living native species tree in Jardine Park, Queenstown, New Zealand in the person’s name.

Rhodes says the band wanted to make sure they were being responsible with the first run of NFTs, so when their partners at AI studio Nested Minds Solutions floated the idea of the second, greener line of tokens, the band was instantly sold. “We wanted to offer them as a gift to everyone who bought the NFTs and link them to a real tree on the blockchain planted by kids to offset the carbon,” he says, proudly noting that DD were also happy to coin a catchphrase to go along with the second part of their digital project: NFT(rees).

“There’s something really special that each person can trace their tree and see where it is,” he says about what they plan as a new, ongoing conservation collection called Digital Native. The band, after all, has been fretting about keeping our planet safe since the release of their debut single in 1981, “Planet Earth,” on which singer Simon Le Bon warned, “look now, look all around, there’s no sign of life.”

“I think as human beings we all have a responsibility to think about the planet as we get older and think about the next generation and what we’re leaving them,” says Rhodes, 59. Each Digital Native NFT is tied to a living tree and will be fully tradable online, with the band, Huxley and blockchain technology partner Cube pledging 100% of the proceeds from secondary sales to planting more micro forests in perpetuity.

Rhodes also says that those NFT owners who choose to give up 50% or more of their sales revenue to the tree-planting cause will get a special “key” to the forest that unlocks future benefits, which could include more NFTs. “Who knows [what the endgame is] for this… but this is a seed and as we know from many seeds great things have grown,” says Rhodes.

“There’s no reason for people not to do it [sell their NFTs to plant trees]… it’s a very positive thing and the New Zealand government is super forward-thinking and we hope other governments will see this and do it too,” says Rhodes. The first micro forest — small, densely planted groups of trees comprised of a variety of native species aimed at improving biodiversity — were recently planted by local school children.

According to information provided by the band, micro forests grown 10 times faster, become 30 times more dense and more than 100 times more biodiverse than conventionally planted forests; that results in the absorption of 30 times more carbon than a traditional lawn in areas as small as a typical tennis court. “It’s a gift to those who bought the NFTs who can see who planted the trees on the other side of the world and see tiny seeds turn into sprigs and hopefully grow into gigantic trees,” says Rhodes.

Check out images from the campaign below.

Children in Queenstown, NZ plant trees in support of Digital Native, an all-new project supported by Duran Duran to connect NFTs to newly-planted, native trees in an effort to build micro forests around the world.

The micro forest being built near Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown New Zealand by legendary rock band Duran Duran as part of an all-new project to connect NFTs to newly-planted, native trees in an effort to build micro forests around the world called Digital Native.

Children in Queenstown, NZ plant trees in support of Digital Native, an all-new project supported by Duran Duran to connect NFTs to newly-planted, native trees in an effort to build micro forests around the world.