Turning a Tree-Planting Mission Into a Global Brand | Derrick Emsley | Tentree

Derrick Emsley is the co-founder and CEO of Tentree, a purpose-driven lifestyle apparel brand that plants ten trees for every product sold. With a background in environmental stewardship, carbon markets, and sustainable business strategy, Derrick leads Tentree’s mission to make regeneration scalable through consumer action.Since launching Tentree in 2012, Derrick has grown the brand into a category leader in sustainable apparel, helping plant nearly 100 million trees worldwide. Without relying heavily on paid media, his scaled impact through values-aligned partnerships, product storytelling, and community-powered growth. In 2021, he co-founded Veritree, a technology platform built to verify, monitor, and audit global reforestation with end-to-end transparency.Grounded in climate impact and systems thinking, Derrick focuses on building businesses that convert everyday consumption into measurable environmental good. Whether guiding Tentree’s brand vision or driving tech innovation with Veritree, he offers a blueprint for founders' scaling mission with integrity, traceability, and long-term environmental ROI.In This Conversation We Discuss:[00:48] Intro[00:58] Naming the brand after the mission itself[01:55] Pivoting purpose into a consumer brand[03:54] Partnering with retailers to gain early traction[05:49] Running mission ops while scaling the brand[06:22] Building tech to verify real-world impact[08:22] Responding to unexpected product demand[10:10] Connecting funders to verified outcomes[11:35] Embedding impact to boost DTC performance[12:53] Electric Eye, Social Snowball, Portless, Reach & Zamp[20:15] Building a global supply chain from scratch[23:21] Balancing co-founder strengths from day one[24:10] Creating decision fatigue with too much choice[27:33] Leveraging impact as a growth advantageResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeEarth-First, sustainably made apparel that plant trees tentree.com/Verified reforestation projects for your business veritree.com/tree-plantingFollow Derrick Emsley linkedin.com/in/derrickemsleySchedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connectDrive revenue through affiliates & referrals socialsnowball.io/honestRevolutionize your inventory and fulfillment process portless.com/Level up your global sales withreach.com/honest  Fully managed sales tax solution for Ecommerce brands zamp.com/honestIf you’re enjoying the show, we’d love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!