Brand Spotlight: Rewards.Earth

This month we’re delighted to be welcoming Rewards.Earth to the Tillo network, an organisation that will offset your carbon footprint by planting trees on your behalf. We caught up with Rewards.Earth’s CEO, Jim Holland, to discuss why the organisation was formed, who benefits from a Rewards.Earth membership, and how Tillo will help them reach millions of new customers.

Hi Jim, thank you for taking the time to talk to me. Can you tell me a little bit about your career so far? 

Sure, happy to. I was in the Royal Navy for 13 years, and afterwards went to university and studied a degree in Computing. I then worked at a couple of big corporates - Vodafone, and Sky - which was brilliant, and my most recent job was working at an airline as Head of Commercial. Currently, I’m a Co-Founder and CEO of Rewards.Earth. 

Why was Rewards.Earth founded? 

During the pandemic, a lot of planes were grounded, so it meant I had time to reconnect with a lot of my old colleagues from the Navy. One of them was Andrew Steel, who I’d known for 25 years. He founded the Plant A Tree Foundation 15 years ago, which has planted over three million trees, many in Southeast Asia. He also founded the Green Taskforce, which helps ex-force members make a successful transition back to civilian life and overcome conditions such as PTSD through nature-based therapy; the veterans are also employed to plant trees in the UK, and work towards gaining a qualification in horticulture. About five years ago I lost a close friend and Navy veteran to suicide, so the Green Taskforce’s work is very close to my heart.

After talking to Andrew, I realised I wanted to find a way to support his charities and others around the globe that were fighting against climate change and helping ex-service members. I had the idea of offering a monthly tree-planting subscription that would allow people to offset their carbon footprints - after all, trees are the oldest, most effective carbon-capturing tools we have! I got in touch with three  of my closest friends, told them my idea, and Rewards.Earth was born.

How does the monthly subscription work? 

We offer three different Climate Hero tiers, and people can choose the one that’ll allow them to live a carbon-neutral lifestyle. 

A Carbon Conscious plan offsets 44.6 tonnes of CO2 per year and plants 146 trees, the Carbon Neutral plan offsets 89.2 tonnes of CO2 and plants 292 trees, and our Carbon Cruncher plan offsets 178.4 tonnes of CO2 per year and plants 584 trees. 

The money we collect is used to support tree planting/conservation projects around the globe being run by our trusted and reputable partners. Most importantly, every time we plant your trees, you’ll be alerted via email. You can then log into the dashboard on the site and see the number of trees you’ve  planted and the impact that will have in terms of CO2.

What made you decide to come onboard the Tillo platform?

I think your reputation precedes you, being the market lead in the digital gift card sector, and everyone I have spoken to says very good things about Tillo. On top of that, I knew your product could expose Rewards.Earth to millions of completely new customers, so it was a bit of a no-brainer. 

I really like the idea of companies being able to gift their employees with a year of living completely carbon-neutral through rewards & recognition programmes. There’s also potential for a cash-out solution, where consumers could redeem points they have earned through shopping as a Rewards.Earth subscription. There seem to be so many opportunities for growth with Tillo, I can’t wait to get started! 

What do you hope Rewards.Earth will have achieved in the next five years? 

Our ultimate goal is to help people and companies offset their carbon footprints and to support veterans and wildlife at the same time, so we’d like to keep growing our subscriber base and developing other innovative solutions. We hope and believe we could offset millions of tonnes of CO2 in the next five years because our product offering is so strong and uniquely placed - particularly in the UK marketplace. Ultimately, if I could spend the next five years doing this, and working alongside three of my best mates whilst supporting such important causes, I’ll be more than happy.

Thanks so much for the chat Jim. We’re really excited for Rewards.Earth to launch on the network later this month.

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