Ireland was once so covered in trees that a squirrel could travel from Malin to Mizen head without ever touching the ground. This Irish social enterprise aims to plant one million trees, all with the help of Ireland’s school children. 
Teacher Orla Farrell is the brains behind EasyTreesie, an environmentally-friendly social enterprise that aims to plant one million trees, with the help of school children, on the island of Ireland over the next five years. 
How did this all begin?
I remember celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Independence of Ireland as a six-year-old in first class; our teacher told us the story of how our native forest cover had been reduced to one percent. Ireland was once so covered in trees that a squirrel could travel from Malin to Mizen head without ever touching the ground.
The new State had made a start, but tree cover had not even gone up to four percent in that year. I also found it extraordinary to hear that Ireland was seven times better at growing trees than Scandinavia yet our teacher held up a wooden clothes hanger that said: A tSualainn Tír a dhéanta – Made in Sweden.
“Planting the first thousand trees was the hardest. We made lots of mistakes and are thinking of making a film called ’50 Ways to Kill a Tree’.”

And now you want to plant one million trees?
Yes. My husband was helping out a group called Conservation Volunteers who came to schools and helped plant trees. I had just moved to job share in a school on the Baldoyle Estuary, and we had lots of space. The team arrived, and we planted a native hedgerow and a stand of trees, over 200 in all. The children had so much fun, but best of all, the school started to benefit in

Are you interested in growing your business and finding new customers? Ireland’s National Enterprise Week is about to kick off.

National Enterprise Week, the national business development week, which runs from November 17-24 in towns all across Ireland is designed with one thing in mind – to support SMEs and startups in driving the country forward.
The principal theme of this year’s National Enterprise Week is ‘Scaling your business’.
Raising money, growing and winning
To learn more about raising finance, hiring people, exporting to new markets, increasing sales, business sectors on the rise, how to deal with Brexit, and how to win new customers check out the full list of events here.

Well-known speakers at the various nationwide events include Helen Carroll, ‘Ear to the Ground’; Bobby Kerr; Gavin Duffy; Anton Savage; Joe Healy, the IFA; and Martin Shannan, CEO, IDA.
Registration is free of charge and events will be taking place over the week in numerous venues across Leinster, Connaught, Munster, and Ulster.
National Enterprise Week is also one of the best business networking opportunities in Ireland, so make sure you take full advantage of what’s on offer.
 

John Breslin is a senior lecturer at NUI Galway, and co-founder of boards.ie, adverts.ie and the PorterShed. Here he talks about emerging trends in business, his passions, and his daily routine.
What would a typical day involve?
I wake up after my wife and kids and then check my emails, Twitter and the news over breakfast. I drop the kids to school before nine, drive to work, and spend a lot of my time in Google Docs working on shared documents or presentations, creating, reworking graphics and PDFs in Adobe Illustrator, communicating via Slack, Twitter, and LinkedIn, or otherwise in meetings and telecoms. I try and leave work around 5 pm, but I respond to emails and social media much later than I should. In the evening its science fiction and fantasy shows or novels and then bed. John Ryan liked to hire people who read sci-fi; it improves your imagination and creativity.
“I am a big fan of Bill Aulet, MIT professor and author of ‘Disciplined Entrepreneurship’.”
What are you passionate about?
Technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. All things that are French, Japanese and Irish. Electronic music. Carcassonne. Manga and comics. Electric cars. Honda cars. Branding, logos and fonts. Social media. Science fiction and fantasy. Geeky stuff.
“The trends I see emerging include innovation districts, coworking spaces and entrepreneurship skills that complement storytelling.”
What are your ambitions?
Growing the innovation ecosystem in Galway and the West of Ireland, through TechInnovate, AgInnovate, the PorterShed, the Galway City Innovation District, Startup Galway, and WestBIC.
What trends do you see emerging?
Innovation districts, coworking spaces and entrepreneurship skills to complement storytelling. More mobile computing, deep learning, smart contracts, agri-drones, smart privacy protection, and all of that other crazy stuff you see in Black Mirror.
“I get very frustrated by empty vessels making noise and people who claim they are doing stuff when they

Ashlee Chin is the chief operations officer of K.C Consulting, a specialist Asian marketing and channel development agency, and is also the head of events for the Irish Chinese Society Galway, a non-profit organisation in the West of Ireland.
In her role as COO, Ashlee helps companies of all sizes to plan and implement their Asian marketing projects by assessing new Asian markets and improving their Asian marketing presence.
Ashlee was nominated for JCI Galway’s ‘Outstanding Young Person of the Year Award’ in 2017 and also worked with a number of large corporate brands. Here she talks to ThinkBusiness.
What is the Irish Chinese Society Galway?
The Irish Chinese Society Galway was founded in 2011 and it’s a non-profit organisation, open to Chinese people, as well as Irish and other ethnic communities. It aims to protect the rights of Chinese people in Galway, to enrich the cultural life of the overseas Chinese, and to preserve Chinese culture and traditions among the Chinese in Galway, especially among the younger generation. The Irish Chinese Society Galway also seeks to help the Chinese community integrate into Irish society and help the Irish people learn more about Chinese culture.
“I believe there are massive opportunities for trade between Ireland and China.”
What would be a typical day for you?
A typical day for me would start at 5:30 am where I wake up to talk to my boyfriend who is currently working as a lawyer in Hong Kong. I would then get ready to go for a jog near the River Corrib around 6.30 am. I usually start work around 8 am. A lot of my work involves liaising with clients face-to-face, as well as Skype and phone calls or emails to discuss contract terms between different parties. I have to travel a lot to Dublin, London, Hong Kong and China to meet

The best ideas often emerge from difficult experiences. Fleet is one such idea.
What sparks great business ideas? Truly disruptive ideas often emerge from bad experiences. They are solutions to problems. In the case of Maurice Sheehy, his idea sprang to life following a horrendous time when booking a rental car.
Why couldn’t it be like Airbnb?
On a holiday to the Canaries a few years ago, Sheehy and his friends booked a house on Airbnb. They had also booked a rental car.
The Airbnb experience was smooth and seamless, he says. “However, when it came to the car booking, that was a nightmare. We were hours waiting for it to happen and then we were upsold stuff we didn’t need, and it cost us double what we had thought we should pay. When we got to the Airbnb, we noticed the owner’s car parked outside. It remained there all week. We talked about this and said wouldn’t it be great if we could have got a taxi to the house and then rented the owner’s car when we needed it? Why couldn’t our rental car experience be like our Airbnb experience? The car rental company left a very sour taste in my mouth, and that’s when the seed was sown for what is now Fleet.”
Sheehy, an entrepreneur from Wicklow, who owns the Pure Fitness gyms in Wicklow town and Arklow, describes his new business as the ‘Airbnb for cars’.
So, what’s the business model?
People who sign up for the service can rent other people’s cars and can list their cars as well.
The idea is simple – people can have their cars make money for them while they are not in use. Garages can also list any unsold cars they may be struggling to sell. These cars must be taxed and have an NCT.
The Fleet app