Irene’s Red Velvet Leads Environmentally Friendly Program Into Its Next Phase: Wilderness Forest Creation Project 2.0

“I am grateful for the love fans have shown me as I release my first solo album. But I want to give back in a different way. Where the fans and I are both helping the environment.”

– Red Velvet’s Irene

Album Sales Impact on the Environment

While Irene sat with her team and mulled over ideas for her first solo album, the word nature kept appearing in the conversation. It led to the idea of shooting album teasers in the wilderness and giving back to the environment.

K-Pop fans seek out photocards to complete their collection. Depending on K-Pop retailers like MAKESTAR, Withmuu, Everline, or Ktown4u fans receive exclusive pre-order benefits, often an additional photocard. These retailers also host fan signing and videocalls where the winners are picked at random, the more albums sold, the higher of a chance a fan must meet their favorite group.

And fans mass purchase in droves, at times thousands of albums. Yet, what happens to the extra albums? At times some are left out in the street as trash or for others to take home.

Acknowledging this issue, Irene decided to do her part to aid where she could, jumpstarting the Wilderness Forest Creation Project 2.0

Irene x Wilderness Forest Creation Project 2.0

IRENE The 1st Mini Album 【Like A Flower】 Mood Clip #1

The first project created by SM Entertainment was created to preserve biodiversity in an urban setting.

You can read more about the 1.0 project here.

Irene, with the help of SM Entertainment, are expanding their reach outside of Seoul and in Irene’s hometown of Daegu. For every sale of Irene’s solo album, SM Entertainment plans to plant a tree native to the region in the city of Daegu, offering the citizens a piece of nature outside of the city bustling environment. This project will monitor sales for a year and within every quarter, a set of trees will be planted and each album purchaser will receive a digital certificate acknowledging their contribution.

Will you receive one?