Our Tree Projects
1 Product, 1 Tree
We try to take responsibility with House Raccoon . That's why for every product & workshop participant (!) we plant 1 tree. We do this since the start of our label (October 2017) with a lot of partners including our current partner Trees.org. At Trees they plant trees in partnership with local (Sub-Saharan) communities who benefit tremendously from the increase in biodiversity, soil richness & shade on their fields due to the trees. The most visible result: parents who have money with the increased yield to give their children the opportunity to go to school. So not only climate and environmental changing but life changing!
To better track the planted trees and make sure the trees are planted at all, we are partnering with Dollar Donation Club. They keep 10% of the donation proceeds to support their organization.
Campaign: 5 Million Trees
On June 27, 2018, we launched our "5 Million Trees" donation campaign, which ran until August 31. The goal was to plant 5,000,000 trees in 2 weeks by collecting and donating 500,000 euros to Trees for the Future. Of course, this number was "a little" optimistic, but focusing on a very high number only brings more attention to the campaign (and thus more trees that will be planted). And it didn't really matter if we would actually reach the goal, because planting 1 tree is still better than no trees. So we just went for it and after extending the campaign from 2 weeks to 2 months, we raised a magnificent €10,886.59, good for 108,865 trees. A result to be absolutely proud of!
Green Friday
Black Friday is not our best friend. The word "expensive" is in "durable" for a reason. The cheaper things are, the more easily we throw them away. You don't throw away an expensive designer item so easily. So no discounts on Black Friday at House Raccoon . That's why we always organize Green Friday on Black Friday. We plant 10 trees per product instead of 1!
Instagram comments
Our Instagram audience also gets involved. Very occasionally, when we are like "ah well, let's donate some extra money because why the f*ck not, money has to roll" we allow our customers to plant trees by simply commenting on an Instagram post. Mega fun right, ofni or ofni? 😄
Campaign: design trees
Occasionally we also plant extra trees when we launch our new products. For example, at the launch of our designer trees, we planted no less than 10 trees instead of 1 for each tree!
Other Projects
Do you have any fun tree-planting ideas for us? Then be sure to send them in and who knows, maybe we can make even more of an impact with you! Omt (oh my tree) 🤓🌳
Trees FAQ
How do you plant trees?
We don't plant trees ourselves. After all, we're not very good at that. So we partner with Trees.org through Dollar Donation Club. After long research, the best tree-planting organization in the world.
We also worked with Bos+ & OneTreePlanted but they turned out to be a little less transparent than our current partners.
Where do you plant trees?
Especially in Sub-Sahara (much in and around Kaffrine) in the Green Belt project. After all, trees grow much faster in tropical regions (and thus absorb more C02) and their social impact is much greater than in Europe.
Why don't you plant in Belgium?
One tree in Belgium easily costs 30 times more than in the projects of Trees.org for a lower environmental impact (lower C02 uptake the further north you go) and virtually no social impact (in the projects of Trees.org the trees provide shifts to more food, better education etc...). It seems the logical choice to invest where 1 euro delivers the most impact.
Why do you plant trees?
Because we want to do something right. Or maybe better: because it doesn't feel right to "just sell" products. So much already exists and then somewhere it seems pointless to start creating even more? But on the other hand, we are also in favor of people being able to pursue their passions, and sometimes these passions conflict with other values.
Therefore, if profits are to be made, it feels like a logical choice to invest a portion of them in charities so that not only we become happy living our passions, but also hundreds/thousands of other people along with us via the extra (green) impact each sale generates. ❤️
How much money does 1 tree cost?
It depends from project to project. We did projects of €1/tree at Bos+ and OneTreePlanted. At Trees.org, we started with a project of €0.1/tree (because we immediately planted several million with other Belgian entrepreneurs through Promobutler vzw). The current cost is about €0.3/tree.
How many trees have you planted already?
We already planted more than 180,000 trees. You can find the exact number in our counter on this page! Click here for an overview of our invoices and certificates.
Can I follow the projects?
Through our current (intermediate) partner Dollar Donation Club, you can see exactly where your Trees.org trees will be planted after purchase!
What is your take on greenwashing?
Greenwashing is saying you are doing something but then not doing it. Or doing it only for a very small part and meanwhile advertising it excessively so it looks like you've done a lot more.
To avoid this, we think it's very important to be very transparent about everything. Hence our choice of Dollar Donation Club and trees.org!
Other question
Do you have any other questions? Feel free to send us an email at info@houseraccoon.com and we'll be more than happy to help!