These Companies Plant A Tree When You Make A Purchase
- Briesha Bell
- Jul 28, 2021
- 8 min read
Updated: Mar 17
Wanna feel less guilty on your next midnight shopping spree? Check out these awesome companies that follow the BOPO (buy one, plant one) business model with every purchase you make! Supporting these brands is a great way to help the environment and feel slightly better about those late night splurges.
As our society continues to grapple with climate change, businesses are stepping up with creative ways to empower shoppers. While monetary donations are still impactful, businesses have began leveraging a different marketing trend— tree-planting initiatives.
From clothing, to accessories, stationary, and even outdoor gear- there are a growing number of companies engaging in eco-conscious business models. Take a look at some brands practicing the buy one, plant one model below!
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tentree
Features | Eco-conscious Clothing
Best For | Men, Women, & Kid's
EcoFocus | Sustainable Sourcing; Designs for Circularity
Planting Partners | Eden Reforestation Projects; Trees for the Future; Plant With Purpose
Certifications or Ecolabels | Certified B; Climate Neutral Certified
tentree is a Canadian clothing brand that has been part of the BOPO model for 10+ years and has impressively planted over 81 million trees since it's founding!
The company uses recycled or organic materials in their clothing to help reduce the amount of water and emissions that are produced in standard clothing production. Some of these materials include TENCEL™ lyocell, organic cotton, REPREVE® recycled polyester, and recycled nylon.
While I've only purchased a few items from tentree, one of them included my prized black winter parka and I can't rave about it enough. As I finish up my third winter with the coat, its condition is just as good as the day I received it. Happy to report it’s definitely buy it for life quality!
Is tentree's BOPO initiative verifiable?
Yes, tentree's BOPO initiative is verifiable through veritree. In fact, transparency about tree planting was (and still is) such an important value to the company, that the founders created veritree, which allows customers to track the trees that they help plant. veritree partners with lots of tree partners
With each purchase, you receive a stamped card with a scannable code. After scanning, you click the link to register your code and track your trees in an interactive virtual forest. Heads up, the forest map kinda gives Minecraft vibes, whereas, I was initially expecting Google Earth quality... but veritree is constantly testing new technology and they're a very young company. Regardless, this is by far the most transparent technology I've seen that allows customers to verify trees are planted using their money.
PAPER CULTURE
Features | Holiday Cards, Invitations, Photo Books
Best For | Christmas Card Senders, Party Planners
EcoFocus | Sustainable Sourcing
Planting Partners | Trees for the Future; Arbor Day Foundation; Friends of the Urban Forest; Our City Forest
Certifications or Ecolabels | Certified B
Paper Culture specializes in holiday cards and wedding invitations (think: eco-friendly version of Minted or Shutterfly). Unlike most standard holiday card companies, Paper Culture prints cards on 100% recycled paper, using either post-consumer recycled paper or alternative non-tree fibers.
I've purchased my annual holiday cards from Paper Culture for the past five years and their customer service staff is super friendly and helpful, despite it being the busiest time of year for them.
With every order placed, a tree is planted where reforestation is most needed. At checkout, you're given the option to write a special tree dedication. I dedicate mine to my dad each year, who planted a tree before passing away— but the tree continues to thrive today.
Is Paper Culture's BOPO initiative Verifiable?
Yes, Paper Culture's BOPO initiative is verifiable. You can check out their tree counter on the Trees for the Future website, that has logged over 1.3 million trees planted. I also love that Paper Culture partners with a couple of local tree planting orgs (Friends of the Urban Forest and Our City Forest) in the San Francisco Bay Area, where their corporate office is located.
OAKYWOOD
Features | Home Office Essentials
Best For | Remote Workers
EcoFocus | Sustainable Sourcing; Designs for Circularity
Planting Partners | One Tree Planted*; Forever Forest
Certifications or Ecolabels | uses FSC certified wood
While I've recommended Oakywood in the past, their BOPO model is yet another reason you should check out their products! Oakywood crafts stunning home office furniture and accessories in a modern minimalism meets Montessori style.
The Polish founded business offers a slew of electronic accessories, like AirPod Cases (my personal fave), and genuinely innovative WFH accessories.
When you buy any item from Oakywood, the company uses a portion of the profit (usually $1) to plant a tree. Their transparency around their environmental initiatives, materials, and labor, as it relates to total prices for customers is commendable.
Is Oakywood's BOPO initiative Verifiable?
Yes! Oakywood's BOPO initiative is verifiable through One Tree Planted. However, the company is not publicly listed as a partner of December 14, 2024, This appears likely due to website updates and donor feature changes from One Tree Planted.
Through One Tree Planted, Oakywood has planted 87,919 trees. This comes out to be 2,197,975 kg of CO2 saved.
While Oakywood has a handful of distribution sites around the world, their workshop is still located in Ciche, a small town in Poland. As such, they also have a local planting partner, Forever Forests, through which 10,959 m2 of forest has been planted.
WOODCHUCK USA
Features | Sustainable & Customizable Wooden Gifts
Best For | Eco-conscious gifters & creative professionals
EcoFocus | Sustainable Sourcing
Planting Partners | Various Partners via veritree
Certifications or Ecolabels | N/A
One glimpse of the Woodchuck USA site and it’s nearly impossible not to find something you’ll love! Woodchuck has an expansive collection of customizable wooden gifts—coasters, bottle openers, notebooks, candles, picture frames, wooden gift boxes, and lots more!
Woodchuck USA's best sellers include their wooden journals, phone cases, and flasks. While the wood used in production is not FSC certified, this is likely due to the fact that Woodchuck utilizes a mix of reclaimed and recycled wood (which ironically isn't allowed under the FSC certification) in addition to sustainably sourced wood.
In the past, Woodchuck USA has partnered with the NFF. However, they've seen a hugeee surge of success (since I originally highlighted them in 2021), which has led the company to expand their tree planting initiatives through a partnership with veritree.
The growing company pledges to BOPO with each item purchased. A unique QR code is included with every wooden keepsake from Woodchuck. The code allows you to to track your tree’s location to see where it’s rooted. To date, the small business has been able to plant over 4 million trees!
Is Woodchuck USA's BOPO initiative Verifiable?
Like tentree, Woodchuck USA uses veritree, which provides shoppers with individual QR codes to track their tree. In addition, the NFF's latest annual report confirmed that Woodchuck USA donated between $5,000-$9,999 to their mission.
EARTHEASY
Features | Products for sustainable living
Best For | Wooden garden beds
EcoFocus | Sustainable Sourcing
Planting Partners | Trees for the Future
Certifications or Ecolabels | N/A
While Eartheasy sells a variety of sustainable living products, they’re most known for their signature garden beds and planting boxes. The owners of the company have decades of firsthand experience with green living, having raised two kids ‘off grid’. Today, they manufacturer beautiful wooden planter boxes and curate their top recommended tools for integrating sustainability into your lifestyle. I also find their puppets, made from recycled wool to be incredibly cute and are on my wishlist!
Is Eartheasy's BOPO initiative Verifiable?
Yes, Eartheasy's BOPO initiative is verifiable through Trees for the Future. I actually had to update the number of trees they've planted on my database tracker, from 50K to 173K, which tells us that (1) Eartheasy is still actively partnering with Trees for the Future and (2) they're selling a heck of a lot of products!
GET STAMPED
Features | Rubber stamps
Best For | Wedding or housewarming gift
EcoFocus | Sustainable Sourcing
Planting Partners | Trees for the Future; World Land Trust
Certifications or Ecolabels | N/A
Rubber stamps are so classic, we often forget about them. Of course, Get Stamped goes way beyond selling your average stamp. All stamps are made from natural components, including environmentally sourced oak and green eco rubber. What's really cool is that you can design stamps featuring names, initials, addresses, and pretty much anything you can imagine— probably best to keep it PG rated though. Here are a few other use cases that came to mind:
Wedding Gift: Know a couple getting married and combining their last names? Gift them a stamp with their new hyphenated last name!
Housewarming Gift: Have friends that just moved or recently became homeowners? Gift them a stamp with their new address.
Kids' Activities: Toddlers and even big kids will awe in their ability to create art so effortlessly. Stamps are such a fun addition to any arts & crafts collection.
Stamps are also a more eco-conscious alternative to stickers! If you're looking to give kiddos stamps on their hands as a reward, Get Stamped even has a specially formulated Skin Ink Kit, because they've seem to think of everything!
Is Get Stamped's BOPO initiative Verifiable?
Yes and no. Get Stamped partnered with Trees for the Future for five years (2018-2023) and supported in the panting of over 74,000 trees, which is verifiable with the planting partner.
However, they've since switched to a partnership with World Land Trust. Under their new model, one square meter of wild land is purchased with every order. Each meter adds up to acres of land that Get Stamped is able to purchase and conserve as designated wildlife. So far, consumer purchases have preserved over 20,700m2, which is about the size of 4 American football fields!
Trees for the Future still has Get Stamped listed as a corporate partner. I only discovered the switch from doing research on Get Stamped's website. I decided to still include them in the BOPO lineup because they seem like an awesome company that has merely shifted to focusing on conservation efforts vs. reforestation. And technically, World Land Trust does offer tree planting initiatives as a service to corporate partners.
KÜAT
Features | Travel Gear Solution
Best For | Outdoor Enthusiasts
Planting Partners | NFF; Trees for the Future; One Tree Planted
EcoFocus | Accessibility to Nature
Certifications or Ecolabels | N/A
Küat designs car solutions for adventurers transporting recreational equipment. A car rack is definitely one of those things you don’t realize you need until you really need it. By then, it’s usually too late… there’s no way you could possibly pick out your rack, order it, and have it arrive before your road trip.
If you're an avid bicyclists, surfer, kayaker, snowboarder, or skier, chances are you’ll need a method for transporting your gear at some point.
Küat products are designed to support folks in enjoying the outdoors, so it's fitting to invest in a car rack from a company that's giving back to the environment! When you make any purchase through Küat, a donation is made to support their Future Forest initiative, where they report that they've planted 685,342 trees planted so far!
Is KÜAT's BOPO initiative Verifiable?
Yes, Küat's BOPO initiative is verifiable through Trees for the Future, with whom they've planted 357,043 trees. In 2023, they donated between $10,000-$24,999 to the NFF.
So, there you have it, seven awesome companies to go checkout! Do you buy from any companies that give back through BOPO initiatives? Is this list missing any great companies? Leave a comment to let us all know!
Sincerely, Briesh
P.S. Stay Conscious + Curious!
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