Plant A Tree For Every Sale

So many small businesses owners that I speak to are making choices that have a positive impact on our environment. Up and down the country independent retailers are adopting sustainable practices and inspiring others to do the same.

Whether it’s reducing waste, switching to renewable energy or considering your suppliers. The path to a sustainable business is a journey and not a destination, it's one that we are on too at Create.

Making a difference is at the heart of many people’s business goals and they’re driven by their passion to make positive change. We want to help enable that passion as much as we can through our platform.

That’s why we’ve teamed up with Ecologi to bring you an easy way to drive powerful ecological impact. You can now start growing your own forest with every shop order you dispatch.

What’s more is that it’s really simple to set up in just a few steps.

Once set up whenever you mark a customer's order as dispatched in your Create Order Management you’ll see a tree planted in your very own Forest over at Ecologi. You could even share this tree with your customer and let them know.

If you don’t already have an account with Ecologi why not start one today and grow your own forest. When you use this link Ecologi will give you 30 free trees to start your forest and add 30 trees to our Create forest too. That’s a win-win for nature!

Why Plant Trees?

Trees absorb Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere, help clean the air, and provide a habitat for wildlife. Can you imagine the landscape without them? Trees make the world a better place for all of us, but they continue to be cut down at an astonishing rate.

Planting a tree is not just about carbon sequestration and reforestation, the activities provide job security, and alleviate poverty for people in the areas that the trees are planted.

Below are the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that are recognised as being met by the Mangrove restoration in one of the Madagascar planting projects we have been supported. You can see how tree planting initiatives can improve the quality of life for people around the world in more ways than you might expect. 
Alongside these many environmental benefits, you’ll find tree planting activities help you attract new customers as more people are thinking about the environment when they need to purchase something.

In fact a recent Office For National Statistics survey found that 64% of adults in Great Britain reported they have made some changes to their lifestyle to help tackle climate change, 46% of these changes were in their shopping habits.

This shift in customers choosing retailers with values aligned to their own is one that is growing and activities like tree planting are a great way to show that your business is committed to making a positive difference. This can lead to attracting new customers, increased loyalty and boosting your brand awareness.

To start planting trees with every order, you'll first need to set up an account with Ecologi. It's then as simple as linking your Create account with Ecologi following the steps in our help guide

How To Plant A Tree For Each Shop Order With Ecologi >>

Once you’ve set up your tree planting integration, here are a few ways that you can share what you’re doing with your customers.

Promote Your Tree Planting

Let your customers know that you plant a tree for every order placed through your ecommerce store. You can communicate this on your website, social media, and email marketing campaigns.

Why not write a blog or make a dedicated page on your website about your tree planting activities? If you already have a page about your environmental policies you could also include this information here.

Another great way to talk about what you’re doing is to share milestones as you reach them. Sharing your progress with your customers will help to raise awareness of your commitment to plant trees and attract new visitors too.

Share Stories About Trees

Many people have a favourite tree or place where they feel connected with nature. Sharing your own stories about what inspires you when you are out in woodland, parks and even your own garden can make interesting and inspiring content for your blog and social media.

Why not consider sharing places that are special to you? Talking about why these places are important. and how this influences your business to take the actions it does can be a really powerful way to connect with others who feel the same.

By promoting your own tree planting activities you will also help to raise awareness of the importance of tree planting and encourage more people to get involved and take similar action.  

Trees are planted all over the world through Ecologi, they have different benefits, habitats and characteristics. There's lots of information that can be shared with your customers and readers. For instance, they may not know that the Mangrove trees planted in places like Madagascar are the only trees that live in saltwater! Mangrove trees also create tsunami defences for the people living near the coastlines and provide safe habitat for many fish to breed away from predators.

Keep Track Of Your Trees
 

With Ecologi it’s easy to see the number of trees you’re planting as they’ll be shown in your own digital forest. Every tree or group of trees you plant is detailed on this page and you can link to it from your website.

They also have a number of ways to display the trees on your website with ready made badges which you can configure to suit your website. The badge will automatically update to display the amount of trees you have planted to your visitors. Here's our guide on how to add your tree planting badge, the badge will look similar to ours shown below.

If you want to know the total number of trees planted for sales through your online store, this is easy to check at any time. Simply visit your Connections area in your Create account by taking the steps below: 

Wrapping Up

Whether you’re just starting out on your sustainability journey or you’re a veteran looking for a new opportunity to make your business even more green - our integration with Ecologi is an ideal way to make an impact with tangible results.

Your forest will go above and beyond carbon sequestration with the good it will do for the planet, and at the same time, give you something really positive and engaging you can share with your customers. 

Get started with planting a tree with every order >>

If you’re feeling confident (or bold) you should come and check out the Million Tree Pledge also. The pledge is a group of over 50 small organisations who are each committed to planting a million trees.  We’d love for more ambitious small businesses to come and join us so do get in touch if this is you!