In 2012 Derrick Emsley took the gutsy step of launching a clothing company that promised to take an “Earth-first” approach, provide safe, fair working conditions and plant ten trees for each garment it sold. Ten years later the Vancouver, BC-based company is on the verge of planting its 100 millionth tree and has launched a sister company to enable other firms to run ethical and effective tree planting programs.
David Hessekiel: Please describe the personal journey that led you to your leadership of tentree and veritree.
Derrick Emsley: I think it's fair to say that, in many ways, I stumbled into it. When I was in high school, my brother and I started a tree planting company with the goal of creating carbon offsets and helping companies with high emissions offset their footprint. While this business was too early given the maturity of the carbon markets, it provided us with an incredible opportunity to learn and, most importantly, see the impact tree planting could have. That said, at that time I couldn't have expected that 10 or 15 years later we would be running both tentree and veritree.
Derrick Emsley, CEO, veritree and tentree
Looking back, our journey has truly been an effort in trying to solve problems. tentree was a business that we chose to build, not because we wanted to build an apparel business, but because we wanted to create a sustainable way to fund reforestation efforts. As well, we wanted to connect individuals with their ability to have an impact. veritree was created because we weren't able to verify the tree planting investments and impact effectively. It's only been in the last year that we had other organizations approach us to use the technology because they were facing the same challenges. Everything we have accomplished over the past 10 years has been because we have approached our journey with the goal of creating a positive impact and, fortunately, good things have come from it.
David Hessekiel: You’ve described tentree as a tree planting company that sells apparel. Coming from such purpose-driven roots how have you built a fashion-focused company? What have you found the role of purpose to be in your acquisition and retention of customers?
tentree plants ten trees for every product it sells and expects to have planted 100 million trees by ... [+]
Derrick Emsley: The funny thing about creating a "fashion" company with the goal of restoring the planet is that you have to do a fair amount of introspection. We all know that fashion plays a significant role in climate change while also being a massive contributor to waste. On the flip side, fashion also holds an incredibly important spot in our cultural zeitgeist and, for many, is seen as a way of expressing their values to the world. So, considering all that, we've approached the creation of tentree with some principals that we hold very close: (1) reduce the negative impact of any product we create as much as possible, (2) anything we cannot reduce, we offset, (3) plant trees. With these principals, our goal is to create a product that has no "negative impact" but, rather, creates a positive one. Last, while we understand that the creation and sale of tentree product is what fuels our mission, we are also pursuing ways to allow our supporters to have an impact that either don't require buying anything new - resale programs - or, in some cases, don't require buying anything at all - our climate positive subscriptions.
As to the role our purpose plays in our customer relationship, what we have found is a few things. First, impact doesn't make up for bad product. Second, while purpose might support the purchase decision, it doesn't drive it. And third, when done correctly, connecting your supporters with a brands purpose can greatly increase their loyalty.
More tactically, what we have seen is that a customers purchase decision is first driven by the product - right look, right price, right time - and second by the impact. The impact storytelling however, can provide us with more opportunities to get in front of that customer and, we believe, also leads to a higher comparable conversion rate. Where impact really drives postive comps however, is in the retention conversation. When you connect with your customer on an emotional, values-based level, loyalty is dramatically higher. For instance, when a customer registers a tree code with tentree (every product comes with a scannable QR code that ties directly to the customers impact in the field), their lifetime value tends to be 70%+ greater.
David Hessekiel: You are on the road to planting your 100 millionth tree this year — clearly you take growing trees seriously. There has been a lot of criticism of the tree planting movement in recent years which I know you share. What led you to create veritree and what do you hope it will accomplish?
Derrick Emsley: The journey to 100MM trees hasn't been a straight line. We've gotten many things wrong along the way and, unfortunately, experienced the challenges of verifying the work we were funding firsthand. In certain cases, we've seen projects where planting organizations didn't fulfill their obligations. At other times, we've examined satellite imagery 5-6 years later only to see that there was very little long-term impact in the form of new canopy cover. Poor planting practices, multiple organizations claiming the same trees, poor communication and more are all challenges we've wrestled with for the last decade. veritree was created to help us solve these issues. It is a technology we developed internally at tentree to serve as our own monitoring and verification framework for our planting efforts. Until this year, we never intended to open it up to the public but, after receiving requests from many other businesses that were planting trees and had identified the same challenges and wanted to use veritree, we chose to transition it to it's own entity.
tentree is on course to plant its 100 millionth tree
Today, our focus with veritree is to transition the conversation on tree planting from inputs to outcomes. Collectively, we need to focus on planting trees the right way and this is, unfortunately, not happening frequently enough in the space and, because satellite monitoring doesn't really become a part of the solution until beyond year 5, we need better ground management. At veritree, we are trying to make nature investable through better verification, better monitoring, and better management.
David Hessekiel: Not to end on a gloomy note but 2023 looks to be a very tough year economically. You’ve described tentree's pricing as “accessible but realistic” in being able to support your sustainability efforts. How are you preparing to continue to give back and operate profitability?
Derrick Emsley: Impact is a part of every product we sell. If we can't afford to support restoration, we don't sell the product. In many companies, investing in impact is a line item in Sales & Marketing, G&A, or a line-item after profit. For us, we think of it as a Cost of Goods Sold. Because of this, our investment in nature is factored into every single piece of apparel we sell. Looking towards 2023, there's no doubt we're in for some rocky waters and, considering what I mentioned above, we are likely to see many companies take a significant step back in their investment in sustainability. We believe we're prepared for these challenges.
