Planting 1 Billion Trees by 2030 Through a Lifestyle Brand - Derrick Emsley // Co-Founder and CEO of tentree & veritree

Disruptors for GOOD | Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises

In Episode 147 of the Disruptors for Good podcast I speak with Derrick Emsley, co-founder of tentree and veritree, on the mission to plant 1 billion trees through a lifestyle brand and building tech to verify global restoration projects.

From a young age, Derrick Emsley has been actively involved with environmental stewardship. At 16, he and his brother founded a tree planting company that sold carbon credits to businesses, a venture that saw over $1 million dollars in contracts, and planted 150,000 trees.

This venture helped pave the way to the founding of tentree in 2012, where Derrick operates as the CEO, guiding the Company's vision and strategy. tentree is a lifestyle brand that plants ten trees for every product sold.

In just under a decade, tentree has set new standards in the sustainable apparel world while also leading to the planting of almost 100 million trees.

In 2021, after identifying a need for more transparency in the global reforestation space, with his team, Derrick launched a technology company - veritree - focused on building and providing the tools to monitor, verify, and audit global reforestation work.

Named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 and Canada's Top 40 Under 40, Derrick's efforts continue to focus around accelerating the adoption of nature-based solutions globally.

About tentree

tentree believes it can inspire a new group of consumers to tackle the environmental issues we are now faced with. By planting ten trees and ensuring that all tentree clothing is produced responsibly they allow each and every customer to make a difference.

Their commitment to the environment isn't just a catchy hook to drive sales. It is something they fundamentally believe in, that will have an enormous impact on our environment going forward. It’s your world, your life, your playground. Let’s protect it – together, we can build forests.

Tree planting is a way of restoring the environment, maintaining ecosystems, and making our world a healthier place to live. This isn’t new; but what is new, is how they have used the concept of planting trees to inspire entrepreneurship, build sustainable communities, provide shelter and generally increase quality of life.

The founders of tentree have years of experience in the tree planting industry and have used this to create a business model that ensures trees are planted sustainably and in a way that will have the greatest impact. Some of the many benefits of planting trees include:

- Creating and restoring bio-diversity
- Removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere
- Creating bio-precipitation
- Building sustainable and resilient natural ecosystems

About veritree

Veritree is on a mission to accelerate the adoption of nature-based climate solutions through innovative technology.

Veritree is the only system built specifically to solve the problems of large-scale global restorations groups. Through a comprehensive suite of tools, Veritree utilizes blockchain technology to provide restoration organizations with an integrated platform to support field-level data collection, site planning, inventory (tree) management, and impact monitoring, all while delivering sponsors with a world-class experience.

Restoration projects have historically been very difficult to monitor, measure, and audit. At the same time, the need has never been greater for large-scale restoration projects. Veritree provides the systems to empower the world's best restoration projects to do what they do best - make an impact.