How do entrepreneurs turn challenge into change?

“We were meant to launch at the start of April 2020,” recalls Jules Buker, co-founder of Treeapp, “but then Covid hit. We had this whole strategy planned – media partnerships, launch events, everything – and suddenly, we had to cancel it all overnight.”

Jules, who co-founded reforestation platform Treeapp with fellow LBS alumnus Godefroy Harito, was forced to pivot, and fast. “We built a new campaign around planting from home,” he explains. “It actually turned into a strength – everyone was stuck inside but wanted to do something positive.” Within weeks, the duo had turned a setback into success; Apple featured Treeapp as its App of the Day and downloads surged.

Jules began his MBA, he reflects, with the clear-eyed goal of starting his own company, having already launched a couple of ventures as an undergraduate. This focus helped him meet the right people, and make the most of his time at LBS. Then, a stint at equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube – a role that allowed him to learn more about the startup ecosystem – ignited his passion for sustainability.

“As I grew into the role at Crowdcube, I started working with more clean and green tech businesses,” he reveals. “The idea that you could build a company but also have a tangible impact really attracted me.”

The spark for Treeapp came soon after. “In 2019, Turkey planted a million trees in a single day,” Jules explains. “But a few months later, 90 percent hadn’t survived because they weren’t maintained properly – I’m half Turkish, and I was really ashamed.”

At the same time, his co-founder Godefroy Harito, who is Greek, was watching wildfires devastate parts of Southern Europe. “We both felt something had to be done,” Jules says.

Jules and Godefroy conducted some research and found that while most people do care about the climate crisis, they feel powerless to help, due to lack of time, money, or knowledge. “So we thought, okay, how can we come up with a solution that is free, that you can trust, and that wouldn't take you too long to use?” Jules continues. “That's how Treeapp started.”

Treeapp launched as a simple B2C product: users watch 30 seconds of ads, and Treeapp uses the revenue this generates to plant trees. While this iteration of the business – which still exists – provided a great launchpad, another pivot, towards B2B, enabled the team to generate more revenue, have a bigger impact and plant even more trees. The B Corp now works with businesses across the globe to plant trees on their behalf (over six million to date.)

Treeapp still faces challenges, Jules concedes; “We sometimes lose bids for corporate clients because we’re not the cheapest [tree-planting organization], but often a few years later they come back saying, ‘We actually don’t even know where the trees we planted are.’ We’d rather they do it with us and do it properly.”

“Doing it properly” helps guard against any allegations of greenwashing, too – which is always a risk in this space. That’s why transparency and integrity are so central to Treeapp’s mission. “If you plant with us, you know exactly where all your trees are,” Jules explains. “We give you the information for each site, where it is on the map, you can visit it, and you get pictures every year.”

For Anoli Mehta, another sustainability-focused founder and a current MBA student, the challenge has been more about aligning to shifting consumer habits instead of changing their behaviour. Her business, Circular Threads, is the UK’s fastest growing marketplace for preloved South Asian fashion, tackling textile waste for ethnic wear – a problem hiding in plain sight.

She too looks back upon the time during the pandemic, when she first began to consider the scale of the problem. “When Covid hit,” she recalls, “like many people I was reflecting on my life both professionally and personally. I went back to my family home and was reorganising my wardrobe when I came across 12 South Asian outfits that I wore for my brother and sister’s weddings that were in perfect condition in my loft. It had taken such a long time to source them – I went to all the cultural hubs across the UK and in the end I travelled to India to buy them. Which got me thinking about the considerable cost – both economically and environmentally – of this specialist clothing.”

This is a particular issue across the diaspora, she observes. South Asian weddings often involve multiple ceremonies and events, each requiring a different outfit. People living overseas are only likely to need this clothing for a limited number of occasions, which means it remains in pristine condition and underused.

Anoli decided to sell her outfits on. “I tried all of the online marketplaces for reselling clothes,” she says, “but no platform had a dedicated community of buyers looking for these outfits. Either you can’t sell them at all, or you have to drastically decrease the price.”

Like Jules, she did her research and learnt that there was a sizeable audience who were keen to buy secondhand, but didn’t know where to look: “So we launched an MVP, building a strong community of buyers and sellers, and from there we’ve just continued to grow, saving over 12 million litres of water, from outfits resold on the platform.”

While Treeapp’s users are using their platform to be more sustainable, Circular Threads' audience are drawn in by other pull factors, with sustainability being a byproduct of their purchase. “Our customers often come to us first because of affordability or access to luxury designers, not sustainability,” Anoli explains. “So we meet them where they are, and take them on that sustainability journey.”

“When you look at the production process, one outfit requires approximately 30,000 litres of water to produce – irrigation, dyeing, finishing – with at least 4kg of textile waste, and then you add on the carbon footprint of the item travelling back and forth from South Asian countries,” she adds. “We are working hard to get South Asian fashion on the map when it comes to the topic of sustainability, because the environmental damage is being completely overlooked, especially for a $60bn+ industry, serving the largest market in the world.”

Sustainability isn’t just a marketing message for Circular Threads – it’s built into the business model itself. “Even our name reflects it,” she says. “We’re part of the circular economy. The more we grow, the more clothing we keep in circulation, the less waste we create.”

Both founders agree that while sustainability-driven ventures can be deeply rewarding, they also come with their own set of challenges.

“It can be a tough space,” Anoli continues, offering a word of advice for other entrepreneurs in the sustainability arena. “Stay connected to other founders and build a community around your mission.” Doing good is one thing, but doing well means you can have more impact, she adds; “so it’s critical to get your unit economics right and make sure your impact model is commercially sustainable too. When purpose and profit work hand in hand, that’s when real change happens.”