Peter Shrimpton always wanted to build something that could be seen from space. With his latest project, the South African social entrepreneur believes he might just manage it. In the outskirts of his hometown of Stellenbosch, Shrimpton is overseeing the planting of a vast labyrinth that he says will eventually cover the same amount of land as Egypts Great Pyramid of Giza.

What Shrimpton is most excited about, however, is not the size of the labyrinth but whats being used to grow it: hundreds of thousands of spekboom trees.

This succulent plant also called Portulacaria afra used to cover swaths of South Africas Eastern Cape before being nibbled to a fraction of its former glory by farmed goats and sheep. In recent months it has shot back to fame amid claims it is a carbon-busting miracle shrub with the potential to negate whole countries emissions.

This is in actual fact a wonder plant, said Shrimpton. He has been growing spekboom for three years via a network of growers in South Africas slums and selling them to individuals and companies wanting to reduce their carbon footprint. Eventually Shrimpton hopes to persuade the South African government to commit to planting a billion of them.