Xiaomi: smart life through sustainability

Technology has to make our lives easier, right? But there are those who believe it should also make our lives greener.

This is the view of Davide Lunardelli, Head of Marketing Italy, and Carlo Cannarella, Community Manager Italy for Xiaomi. We met with them to talk about the project they are working on together – a forest of 1000 trees growing in Madagascar and Ecuador, which will bring environmental, economic and social benefits. 

Davide, how did this collaboration come about?

It stems from a belief: that a smart lifestyle, which is what we promote with our products, is also about a life with reduced environmental impact. Just think that in 2018, it was Xiaomi that brought the first models of electric scooter to Italy, before they became so ubiquitous in the landscape of our cities. 

In 2020, we removed 60% of the plastic from the packaging of our Mi 10T and Mi 10T Pro series smartphones, and implemented energy saving as a core function in more than 40 types of consumer products.

Planting and gifting 1000 trees with Treedom allowed us to combine two aspects that are embedded in our DNA: green innovation and community involvement.

Carlo, you work with the community on a daily basis – can you tell us how the initiative was received?

They loved it! We gave everyone the opportunity to receive their tree as a gift, and all 1000 trees were redeemed. We decided not to link the tree to the purchase of a product, because we wanted it to be a real gift: something great, done together.

Every time an update is posted on the Tree Diary, I’m inundated with screenshots and messages from our users. “Look, news from Madagascar today!”, “Super, thank you so much for this wonderful gift!”. They feel part of a project they believe in, and they’re really happy. 

Carlo Cannarella, Community Manager Italy Xiaomi

Which message struck you the most?

You have to understand that for us, the word community makes all the sense in the world. Even before creating its first smartphone, Xiaomi developed an interface that was designed in collaboration with the community. People posted their feedback on an online forum, and their ideas were then implemented in the subsequent version.

We have 90 Xiaomi Fan Clubs all over Italy, and the best message I received came from one of them. “This initiative puts a seal on who we are now, even when we’re no longer so active in the community. It will remain a beautiful reminder of who we were at this point in time, and what we believe in.