About Andrea – Meet the Founder

Andrea Koehle Jones is an award-winning environmental education advocate, climate + environmental Journalist and founder of The ChariTree Foundation. This ground-breaking, Vancouver-based, charity connects local and international youth to climate education to help them survive and thrive today and lead a better tomorrow.

Andrea Koehle Jones, author and environmentalist

Growing Opportunities for Children and Youth

The ChariTree Foundation connects global youth to climate education through school, camp and community programs. Within the last decade, Andrea has empowered thousands of youth to plant trees across Canada, the United States, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nepal, Mongolia and Tanzania to mitigate climate change while helping them become climate leaders in their communities.

“I want to give children opportunities to fall in love with nature because you protect what you love.” — Andrea Koehle Jones, Founder, The ChariTree Foundation.

A Canadian Climate Education Trailblazer

Andrea is a United Nations Climate Observer and formerly a journalist with CBC News and Newsworld International and a writer/producer with CBC4KIDS. She is an award-winning documentary producer and has worked as a print journalist/photographer for various daily newspapers and magazines. She authored The Wish Trees: How Planting Trees Can Help Make the World a Better Place. 100% of profits go directly to children’s climate education projects.

She also worked for The David Suzuki Foundation and Greenpeace. She especially learned lots as a communications specialist for Greenpeace Canada during the campaign to the protect The Great Bear Rainforest, the largest intact temperate rainforest on earth.

“If children are going to make a lifelong commitment to protect the environment for themselves and future generations, they first need time to explore the wonders of nature.”— Andrea Koehle Jones, Founder, The ChariTree Foundation.

 

Andrea is a recipient of the 2011 Canadian Camping Association’s Award of Excellence for her environmental education programs and her latest screenplay — The Hummingbird Trees (Diary of a Tree Girl) has advanced to:

  • Quarterfinalist, Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards (2023)
  • Quarterfinalist, Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition (2023)
  • Quarterfinalist, ScreenCraft Film Fund (2023)
  • Quarterfinalist, Filmmatic Drama Screenplay Awards Season 8 (2023)
  • #2 Family Television (One-hour) in the past month (July 2023)
  • The Red List (Coverfly 2023)

Andrea’s education spans multiple areas critical to being a leader in climate action:

  • Climate Change Leadership Letter of Completion from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University
  • Masters Degree in Journalism, Western University
  • Honours Bachelor of Arts in Geography and International Development, Queen’s University

When she isn’t attending United Nations conferences to advance children’s rights in climate action, Andrea can be found on a tree-topped island off the coast of Vancouver with her family and dogs.

Follow The ChariTree Foundation on Twitter to learn how you can advance children’s rights in climate action and connect youth to nature.