It’s no longer enough for brands to be ‘sustainable’ or to simply not cause harm to the environment. Instead, we expect brands to take action to positively enhance or restore the natural world. See Brewdog’s impressive transition to becoming carbon negative, for instance, rather than simply carbon neutral.

TreeCard is one such brand. The free top-up debit card challenges the idea that consumption or consumerism has to mean environmental degradation and instead turns those transactions into trees. Every payment made using the card helps reforest the planet, with 80% of TreeCard’s interchange fee profits going towards tree planting projects in 38 locations worldwide.

It’s an innovative proposition for environmentally-aware consumers, but its success could rest on the material the card is made from and whether it helps create that intangible cache of ‘cool’ around the brand. It’s the world’s first debit card made from wood with the material providing each card with a satisfying unique grain finish. It’s sustainably sourced cherry wood to be more precise — no ancient oak trees were felled in the making of TreeCard. Even the core of the card is made from recycled plastic bottles. No greenwashing here.

The wooden debit card acts as a symbol of reevaluation for consumers, drawing attention to a new and different way to think about transactions whilst functioning as a physical and desirable referral tool to onlookers in the real world. That’s the plan at least.

In 2015, Monzo launched with its eye-popping coral coloured card credited as a critical part of the brand’s growth story. Although TreeCard’s wooden card might not offer quite the same level of attention-grabbing visibility, the company will hope to repeat Monzo’s trick in 2021 and win over the next generation of early-adopters, helping spread the word, and spend our way to a greener future.

At present, TreeCard is only registering interest with those keen on an account having to sign up and join a queue. Signups can boost their place in the line by referring family and friends to join — a smart move that enables TreeCard to grow virally — perhaps demonstrated by the fact that it’s reached 100k signups in just the three months since it launched. The Berlin-based company plans to launch in the US and UK in early-2021.

Adding its weight and authority to TreeCard’s mission to reforest the planet, is Ecosia, the German search engine. Ecosia share the same purpose and business model as TreeCard and invested £1m for a 20% stake in the company in October 2020.

It’s said that money doesn’t grow on trees, but amongst some of the other absurdities of the modern world, our transactions could reforest the planet.

Jude Bliss is Research and Content Director of eatbigfish.