Click A Tree, Mark Thunberg and caritalism

If you haven’t just been on a silent retreat in the forest, then you probably know that we were on “The Lion’s Den” on June 7, 2021. That’s where Chris introduced Click A Tree’s travel brand B’n’Tree.

What’s really cool about the performance? The episode ended with a situation that has never been seen before on the show: four lions wanted to be part of Click A Tree.

Find out what has changed since the show was recorded at the beginning of 2020, who Mark Thunberg is and why the one-off deal fell through.

Click A Tree – For the love of elephants

We bring sustainability into everyday life and make it super easy for you to create forests. Because saving the planet should not be an action for a few selected people, but a task in which we can all participate.

Chris came up with the business idea of bringing sustainability into everyday life when he lived in Thailand and saw the effects of deforestation and climate change on elephants with his own eyes. They are rapidly losing their habitat and thus their basis for survival.

As Chris has a lot of experience with the tourism industry, he launched Click A Tree’s travel brand B’n’Tree.

B’n’Tree – Make the world a greener place with just one click

B’n’Tree, our booking platform, integrates various travel booking portals and enables you to plant a new tree for every booking with just one additional mouse click, creating jobs for local communities and habitats for endangered species.

There are countless reasons to plant trees, but you don’t always realize that you also need trees as a traveler. They offer us shade and delicious local fruit on our summer vacation. And they are our resting place on city trips.

Die Höhle der Löwen – Why the deal fell through

Recap: Although four lions made an offer, Chris opted for Judith Williams and Carsten Maschmeyer: €75,000 for 25% of the company shares. However, 10 % of this was to be converted into employee shares.

Although there was a lot of interest and we would have been happy to work together, the deal fell through. You may have seen the investors’ reasoning on Twitter. Not only has the pandemic been an obstacle for them, but they have also lacked certifications.

Why we decided against certification

Of course, the opinions of independent third parties are immensely important. And, of course, we obtain this information from experts from the business world or from professors at various universities, for example.

For the moment, however, we have decided against official certifications, as these are very time-consuming and cost-intensive. We prefer to invest this time and money in the growth of Click A Tree as well as in the establishment of our projects. We want to get things done and make a difference, not get lost in bureaucracy.

Nevertheless, official seals of approval are planned for the medium term. We meet all the criteria – usually well beyond the set standards. But at the moment there are more pressing matters and ultimately trees only make a difference if they are planted.

But even without a deal, we have already achieved a lot, if we can say so ourselves. You don’t believe us? Then read on.

What happened after the Lion’s Den recording?

Despite the deal falling through, many things have changed. The broadcast has brought us great new partners, but also a lot of media attention. These include Bild, Wirtschaftswoche, Gala, Stern, Promiflash and Business Insider.

There is also news on the investor front.

New investor for Click A Tree

Following the failure of negotiations with Carsten Maschmeyer and Judith Williams, we were able to attract Dr. Paul Blazek as an investor.

Short declaration of love: We love you Paul! Thank you for your support.

Paul was Chris’ mentor at first, but then decided to be part of Click A Tree as well. Or in his words: “I am enthusiastic about Click A Tree’s holistic, sustainable approach. Several times since 2019, I have been able to see for myself the effectiveness of Click A Tree’s activities in countries such as Ghana and Kenya. The coherent focus on all three dimensions of the triple bottom line – planet, people and profit – creates immense potential for Click A Tree.”

Our new investor has of course helped us to grow further.

Constant growth after the Lion’s Den

Our mission is to bring sustainability and forest creation into everyday life. And our various partners enable us to do this.

We now work with various companies from a wide range of industries: Roofers, driving schools, florists, cosmetics companies, recruitment agencies, restaurateurs,…

Doing good no longer has any limits. Charitable work and capitalist thinking are no longer mutually exclusive with caritalism. You can now go out to eat and plant trees. Buying car tires and planting trees. Learning about Bitcoin and planting trees. Taking driving lessons and planting trees. And, and, and.

Click A Tree Growth

Despite the pandemic, we were also able to build up the core team in Germany. In the second and third quarters of 2020, we were joined by Susanne as PR rock star and people manager, Sandra as social media and visual specialist and Margarita (hi, that’s me) as website and newsletter professional.

(Pssst… don’t worry, we’ll let Chris have his say from time to time).

Are you the talent we are still missing? Then take a look here and get in touch with us.

Mark Thunberg at the Lion’s Den? Huh? Who?

Mark Thunberg is the person who brought Click A Tree to life. However, his parents still call him Chris.

In “The Lion’s Den”, Chris came up with an ingenious play on words:

“When Mark Zuckerberg plants trees, he is accused of greenwashing. When environmental activist Greta Thunberg demands money for planting trees, it’s called capitalist! What you need is a mixture of Greta Thunberg and Mark Zuckerberg. That’s me – Mark Thunberg.”

We are far from finished

Even though the deal with the lions fell through, we proved last year that it is possible to combine charitable work with capitalism. Since the recording, Click A Tree has grown, created forests and gained many great new partners.

But we are far from finished. We are working hard to bring sustainability into everyday life and plant countless more mixed forests to create jobs and habitats for elephants and other animals.

Help us reach our goal of 1 million trees planted

Plant a tree with just a few clicks.

Share this post with your friends and tell them about Click A Tree and how easy it is to plant trees.

For companies

You want to do something good with your company, but don’t know how, and don’t really have time to deal with the planning? No problem, because Click A Tree allows you to concentrate on your core business while we take care of the rest.

Write to us today. Simply click on the green button and send us this mandatory e-mail.