1 Product Sold = 1 Tree Planted: Partnership with The Eden Reforestation Project

Disclaimer: We no longer plant trees as of March 2023.

Let’s start this blog with a little celebration. At the time of writing this blog we’ve planted over 86,000 trees and created jobs in Nepal, Madagascar, Haiti, Indonesia, Mozambique, Kenya and Central America; how AWESOME is that?

And it’s all because of you, our AWESOME customers. By simply buying from us you are helping us plant trees and create jobs, and for us that is truly awesome. We now get to provide you with awesome products to support your recovery, health and performance, and help the world with 2 major problems at the same time, climate change and unemployment.

We started 2020 freshly invigorated to create greater change in the industry, in our customers lives, and in the world as a whole.

As a team we are outdoors types, love health and performance, and are all mad about travel, reducing waste, and looking after the world we live in.

As a team we deliberated for a long time on how we should help the world, in what way should it take form, what would be appropriate, and we whittled it down to education, climate change, and plastic pollution in our seas. Because our sister company The BTN Academy was doing a great job giving free education to 16-18 year olds, and sea pollution didn’t feel as close to our product ecosystem and journey as climate change did, we decided to opt for planting trees around the world which would provide people with jobs, and the world a chance to fight off climate change.

One product bought; one tree planted

This means that every product you now buy you plant ONE tree, and cumulatively, as a customer base, as supporters of what we do, we all create jobs at the same time all over the world. 10% of the trees that are planted are also food crops that the village communities own, so we plant trees, create jobs, and over time provide food which villagers can eat or sell.

But you might be thinking: how does it work, where does the money actually go, is this actually happening, can we see proof?

And these are all great questions as we have all been observers of charity and giving initiatives where only some of the money reaches the people in need, and it often goes to running costs and overheads that are not conducive to maximising impact on the people it aims to serve, or the cause at large.

As such, here is a superb video from The Eden Reforestation project on how the money you give by buying Awesome Supplements makes an impact on the ground:

Feel free to explore The Eden Reforestation Projects detailed FAQs, and their detailed financial reports to check the legitimacy of what they claim. After all, we all want to know that the donations we give affects the people it claims to help, and that it does so in the way it’s intended to. The below video will also give you some more details of the work The Eden Project are doing, and the lasting positive changes they're making.

This means that if you continue to support us to reach our goals, you will help us plant 150-200,000 trees by the end 2021! Those trees will have a huge climate impact and will have created over 1,000 days of employment in countries around the world, namely Nepal, Madagascar, Haiti, Indonesia, Mozambique, Kenya and Central America.

If we continue to expand across the globe, we will have planted 1 million trees by 2025, creating lots of jobs and food in the process.

And we’re pumped to have you on that journey with us!

What’s next after this?

As we progress through 2020, we are making more changes to what we do. We are currently halfway through a companywide brand refresh, and with that comes new packaging like that you can see in our first rebranded product, our new Awesome Protein Bars.

Why not sooner? We have been waiting some time to do this as the packaging industry and recycling systems have not actually been set up to recycle and dispose of many of these new ‘biodegradable’, ‘compostable’ and ‘recyclable’ materials. In short, if we’d done it before it probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

Due to new materials being developed and improved UK recycling methods, we are now set to launch a new pouch that is recyclable across the UK and in many parts of the world. If we had made this transition before, it would have been little more than a marketing claim (made by many companies) that is not actually supported by the recycling network that the UK (and other countries) currently has.

Why not use compostable packaging?

We opted not to go down the compostable packaging route as these pouches have to go into industrial composting sites, which very few people have access to (think of your local authority dump), thus resulting in much of this packaging actually going into landfill.

The one product we are not currently happy with from a packaging perspective is our protein bar wrappers. These are not currently recyclable, and this is because of the sheer cost of recyclable foil wrapper packaging. Its approximately 7-10 times more expensive than the current offering available and we would HAVE to pass that on to you, so economically it is not viable, but that’s not all.

It is also not viable, currently, from a UK recycling perspective. The UK recycling network is not set up to recycle these materials, and as such we are working hard with manufacturers and suppliers to work on this so we can be a 100% recyclable company product wide.

SHAREQUOTE

Luckily, developments are constantly being made in new materials, the cost and recycling methods of such materials, so as soon as these developments come, we will implement them as soon as possible.

Next for 2020, becoming B-corp registered

As we move through to the rest of 2020 we are currently in the final stages of becoming a b-corp registered company, which is a very exciting move for us as a business, meaning our company as a whole is making all the right decisions when it comes to customers, employees, the wider world, and the issues it aims to serve.

In short, Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. B Corps are accelerating a global culture shift to redefine success in business and build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. Society’s most challenging problems cannot be solved by government and non-profits alone. By harnessing the power of business, B Corps use profits and growth as a means to a greater end: positive impact for their employees, communities, and the environment. The B Corp community works toward reduced inequality, lower levels of poverty, a healthier environment, stronger communities, and the creation of more high-quality jobs with dignity and purpose.

B Corps form a community of leaders and drive a global movement of people using business as a force for good. The values and aspirations of the B Corp community are embedded in the B Corp Declaration of Interdependence.

We’re super excited about this, and hope this shows our commitment to being more than “just a supplement company”. We’re here to impact the world in many ways, this is what AWESOME is to us.

Are we doing enough?

We hope you can share in our excitement of what’s to come for Awesome Supplements, we’re super happy and excited about the future. But at the same time we are always listening and are always trying to do more, where we can. We are a small business, run by a small and passionate team, but have big dreams and ambitions, so if you want to send us a message with suggestions we are always open to listening, just hit the ‘talk to us’ tab on our website.

Have an AWESOME day, and thanks for all your support to date, and in the future.