At Mobile Pathways, our big idea is simple: actionable immigration data for everyone. Hundreds of thousands of people rely on us to understand and navigate a system that is famously opaque, and we believe that information belongs in everyone’s hands, not locked away.
Delivering that at scale takes artificial intelligence. And AI, for all its promise, carries a real ecological footprint: data centers, energy, water, resources. As a father raising his family in the woods of northern Michigan, that cost weighs very heavily on me.
So we asked ourselves a hard question: how do we build the technology our partners need without turning our backs on the planet we all depend on? After all, a large portion of the world's migration issues are directly related to the exacerbating climate crisis.
The Path Unfolds
The answer started with a conversation.
I met Farmers for Forests at the Skoll World Forum, where they were presenting during a session called “The Trillion Dollar Question.” Afterward, I struck up a conversation with their co-founder about something close to my heart: living in a forest, and what it means to steward the land around you.
That conversation turned into a partnership built on a shared belief: that AI, the planet, and immigration justice don’t have to compete. They can live in harmony.
Why Farmers for Forests
Mobile Pathways is proud to offset all of our AI investments by planting trees. Every answer our technology delivers to an immigrant or legal aid worker should also give something back to the earth. That’s how we’re building a better world for people and the planet at the same time, by partnering with Farmers for Forests.
Through agroforestry with smallholder farmers in India, Farmers for Forests regenerates soil, lifts farmer incomes, and builds real climate resilience. And because they’re a tech nonprofit like us, they use AI and drones to show exactly where each tree is growing and to track its health over time.
For us, that means accountability you can see. Farmers for Forests built Mobile Pathways a custom portal where our top partners and donors can see the trees planted to offset our AI, with custom maps showing exactly where their forests are taking root. When we offset the AI that powers our immigration data, our funders don’t just take our word for it. They see their forest.
People, Planet, Progress
Technology nonprofits like Mobile Pathways and Farmers for Forests share a firm belief: people and the planet can live in harmony with the technologies now shaping our future. Built with care, those tools can create a better, more just world for everyone. That’s what it means to see the forest through the data.
Mobile Pathways is grateful to our partners at Farmers for Forests, the Fast Forward accelerator network, the 100X Impact Accelerator, and the Skoll World Forum.
