Experimental Design and Method

To establish proof of concept for this paper, a small experimental study was performed to assess whether integrating an optional environmental contribution feature into an online booking platform would influence participants' preferences for using that platform. The sample size of 34 participants was determined a priori to achieve .80 statistical power to detect a medium-sized effect (Cohen’s d = 0.5) for differences in preferences between booking platforms. Each participant completed two conditions in a counterbalanced order: (1) a baseline condition replicating a typical online travel agency checkout experience (similar to Expedia or Travelocity), and (2) an experimental condition in which participants had the option to donate a small amount of money (10% of their earnings from that experiment) to help mitigate the impacts from their hypothetical flights. Participants were informed that donations would directly fund high-impact conservation projects managed by Rainforest Trust. Complete dataset available on OSF: https://osf.io/8yk2a/

Key Findings

• 69% of participants chose to contribute their own money toward forest conservation projects during the experiment.

• After going through both versions of the checkout, significantly more respondents (75%) indicated they preferred the online travel agency that offered an easy-to-use contribution feature at checkout, even if they chose not to donate.

• A significant number of participants reported being more likely to book on a platform offering seamless contributions, even if ticket prices were higher.

• Perceptions of the online travel agency and likelihood to use the platform in the future were not negatively affected by the presence of the contribution option at checkout.

Conclusions

These findings provide preliminary evidence that aligns with prior survey research demonstrating widespread willingness to financially support environmental causes to combat climate change. This study allowed participants to contribute small amounts of their own money during the checkout process. The high rate of voluntary contributions underscores genuine consumer readiness to act on environmental commitments when provided accessible opportunities. Additionally, participants consistently expressed preference for platforms offering easy avenues to support environmental initiatives.*

Implementation Considerations

• Reforestation contributions can be implemented quickly with negligible cost.

• Minimal Technical Requirements: Requires only basic integration into existing checkout and payment workflows—feasible with modest development effort.

• No New Infrastructure Needed: Organizations like Rainforest Trust are already equipped to accept contributions transparently and deliver measurable environmental outcomes.

• Positive Consumer Sentiment: Offering the ability to donate to forest preservation at checkout strengthens brand reputation and aligns with growing consumer expectations for sustainability.

• Behavioral Realism: While my controlled experiment showed 69% participation, real-world donation rates may be lower due to a documented gap between stated intentions and actual behavior (“value–action gap”). Even if real-world participation is only a fraction, even 5% of users, this would still generate significant environmental benefit at scale.