Launched from a family’s basement in rural Canada selling t-shirts to fund tree planting to combat climate change, tentree today announced it has reached a milestone of 100 million trees planted. Formed in 2012, tentree has quickly become a leader in restorative apparel with its recent B Corp score of 136.2 in 2023. Last year, tentree launched a closed-loop system for customers to resell or recycle their old tentree clothing. The brand uses fabrics that are ethically-made and sustainably-sourced like organic cotton, recycled nylon and kapok, and most recently recycled polyester made from plastics saved from the ocean. Video and photos of tentree’s planting sites can be downloaded here.
“Planting 100M trees is an exciting milestone in our journey to plant over 1 billion trees! However, it’s not just about the number of trees, it’s about the impact those trees will have,” says Derrick Emsley, co-founder and CEO of tentree and veritree. “Over their lifetime, these trees will remove as much CO2 from the atmosphere as taking 6.5 million cars off the road for a year and restore an area the size of over 44 central parks. All the while, this planting has helped to create thousands of full-time jobs in communities all around the world. And now, with the addition of planting kelp and coral, we’re improving the health of the planet both on land and underwater.”
Currently, tentree has planting projects around the globe including the US, Canada, Madagascar, Kenya, and Indonesia. The positive impact from planting trees, kelp and coral goes beyond removing carbon and cooling the planet, it directly creates community impact through funding improvements to infrastructure, job creation, and agroforestry. Through the 100 million trees tentree has planted, they’ve provided 2 million hours of work in their planting communities, restored 15 thousand hectares of land, and sequestered over 30 million tonnes of carbon.
“We know our customers support us because they believe in the importance of having a positive impact on nature, climate, and people through their purchase,” adds Emsley, “They rely on us to do the work to make sure that the trees their purchase plants actually drive meaningful impact. After having planted 100MM trees, we’ve seen just how hard this can be and, in answer to this problem, we created veritree, a now independent technology company that helps us verify our planting outcomes as we manage the lifespan of the trees, kelp and coral for decades. And, with veritree, our reach extends beyond tentree connecting other businesses to verified tree planting projects to restore our planet.”
With each apparel item purchased, customers can claim their items planted and add to their tentree Impact Wallet – an online system where consumers can track the impact they are making through their tentree purchases. “We know that consumers are as invested as we are to support initiatives to help restore the planet and protect communities. Having an online tracker of their individual support shows that even small efforts can contribute to big change,” adds Emsley.
tentree’s key materials consist of REPREVE® recycled polyester, TENCEL™ lyocell, organic cotton and hemp. These materials are blended together to create their signature fabrics: TreeWaffle™, TreeBlend™, TreeFleece™ and TreeLinen™. This year, tentree has expanded their fabric lines to the Ocean Collection, featuring recycled coastline plastic, and the Undyed Collection, highlighting undyed colorways of their best sellers.
You can check out tentree’s video celebrating their 100 million trees mark here.
About tentree
tentree is an earth-first lifestyle apparel brand whose mission is to plant 1 billion trees by 2030 to drastically reduce climate change. Every tentree purchase has a purpose: for each item sold, the company and its partners plant trees, kelp and coral around the world where it is needed. With over 100 million trees planted to date, tentree is becoming the most environmentally progressive sustainable apparel brand on the planet. tentree is BCorp certified (136.2) as well as a Certified Climate Neutral Company. For more information, visit tentree.com or follow on Instagram @tentree.