Save Screws: Derrick Emsley, tentree | Waste No Potential

Greg Malpass saves screws. Why? As a successful CEO, he knows every screw, idea, code snippet, or passion has the potential to be useful, it’s just a matter of having it when you need it.

Entrepreneur Derrick Emsley knows the same. When his first business venture didn’t get off the ground, he didn’t scrap the idea completely. He took the valuable lessons he learned and applied them to a different concept.

While still in high school, Emsley and his brother started a company that maximized farmers' unused land by planting trees and selling carbon offsets. It became apparent that what started as a great idea wasn’t going to develop into a feasible business model. However, they realized planting trees was a passion. Plus they had become entrenched in the tree-planting community — a community that was not only helping to reforest the planet but was having huge social impact all over the globe. That's when they sowed the seed of ‘tentree', an apparel company that plants ten trees, somewhere in the world, for every item sold.

In this episode, you will hear how Emsley took his save screws moment and turned it into a sustainable business that makes clothing out of some of the most eco-friendly material on the planet; led reforestation efforts in remote areas that helped lift a community out of poverty and servitude; and is moving into a world of transparent reforestation.

An inspiration to anyone with a passion to blend commerce and sustainability, Emsley’s story of turning tees into trees, is about adaptability, recognizing opportunity, and keeping passion in frame. With the addition of Greg Malpass’s insights on maximizing potential, this episode will have any listener saying, “oh!”, “wow!”, and “ahhh…”