The Zero-Tree™ Campaign: How It Works, Who It Helps, and Why Your Business Should Get In

A conventional paper bag starts with a tree being cut down. It gets used once — carried from a counter to a car — and then it's thrown away. To make that bag, something that took 80 years to grow got pulped. That math never sat right with us.

So we built the Zero-Tree™ Campaign. The idea is simple enough to explain in one sentence: for every 1,000 American-made hemp paper bags donated, one tree stays standing — and the bags go to a food bank, a classroom, a coast cleanup, or a small business that can actually use them. Your name, or your company's, goes on the donation.

This is the full breakdown: how it works, who it helps, and why a growing list of businesses are putting their name on a thousand bags.

How the Zero-Tree™ Campaign Works

There's no fundraiser dinner, no pledge form, no waiting to see where your money went. The whole thing takes about ninety seconds and runs in two steps.

Step one: pick a tier. You choose how many hemp bags you want to donate. Every tier is priced so that $198 covers 1,000 bags — and keeps one tree in the ground.

Step two: pick a cause. You decide where the bags go. Four lanes are open: food banks, classrooms, coast cleanups, and small businesses. The bags are American-made hemp paper, USDA Certified Biobased, and they ship to a real organization doing real work.

That's it. You get a confirmation, your name lands on the live donor wall, and the tree count on the campaign page ticks up. Hemp grows back in about 120 days. The tree you just spared would have taken 80 years to replace. That's the whole pitch, and it's the part we like best.

The Tiers

There are three set tiers and an open custom amount. Pick whichever matches your budget — the per-bag math is the same across all of them.

Supporter — $198. 1,000 hemp paper bags donated, 1 tree kept standing. The easiest way to get your name on the wall and put real bags in real hands.

Backer — $1,800. 10,000 blank hemp paper bags, 10 trees. This is the sweet spot for small businesses and brands that want to make a visible dent. Backer and Builder tiers can also add custom print — your logo on every bag (more on that below).

Builder — $4,000. 25,000 blank hemp paper bags, 25 trees. For companies that want to anchor the leaderboard and put serious volume into a cause they care about.

Custom — from $10. Not a fit for the set tiers? Contribute whatever works. The math holds: roughly $0.198 a bag, and a tree for every thousand.

Where the Bags Go: Four Causes

When you donate, you choose the lane. We don't pool the money into a vague fund — you decide who gets the bags.

Food banks. Food banks move an enormous volume of groceries and need durable bags to do it. Hemp paper holds up to weight and moisture far better than thin conventional kraft, which means fewer blowouts and fewer spilled boxes on the way out the door.

Classrooms. Bags for school programs, field trips, fundraisers, and take-home projects — and a tangible lesson in what packaging can be when it isn't made from a tree.

Coast cleanups. Volunteer crews hauling debris off beaches need bags that won't fall apart when they're wet and full. Hemp paper is built for exactly that — and it doesn't add new plastic to the shoreline it's helping clean.

Small businesses. Independent shops, markets, and makers who want to hand customers a better bag but can't justify a five-figure packaging order on their own. Your donation gets sustainable, American-made packaging into the hands of businesses that would otherwise be stuck with plastic or cheap tree paper. (If you run one of these shops yourself, here's why food-service operators are already switching.)

Who It Benefits

The honest answer is: everybody in the chain. That's the point of building it this way.

The cause gets free, premium, American-made packaging it can put straight to work — no strings, no invoice.

The trees stay in the ground. Every 1,000 bags donated is one tree that doesn't get pulped to make single-use packaging. Across the campaign goal, that's 10,000 trees this year.

The donor — you, or your business — gets your name on a real, measurable contribution. Not a logo on a banner nobody reads. A specific number of bags, going to a specific cause, with a tree count attached.

The planet gets the long-game version: hemp is a fast-growing annual crop that pulls carbon as it grows and regenerates in a single season, instead of a hardwood that takes most of a human lifetime to come back.

Why Your Business Should Get In

Plenty of companies want to do something real on sustainability and get stuck because the options are either expensive, vague, or impossible to point at. Zero-Tree fixes all three.

It's specific. "We donated 10,000 hemp bags to Hawaii food banks and kept 10 trees standing" is a sentence you can put in a newsletter, an investor update, or a storefront window. Try doing that with a generic carbon offset.

It's visible. Every donation lands on the campaign's live donor wall and leaderboard. Backers and Builders sit at the top where customers and partners see them. This is brand association money usually can't buy — tied to an actual good deed, not an ad.

It puts your logo in the world. On the Backer and Builder tiers you can add custom print — your brand on every single bag you donate. Those bags then go out into food banks, shops, and community events carrying your name. Our design team reaches out within 24 hours to lock the artwork.

It's the cheapest marketing you'll run all year. A small business spends thousands on ads that vanish in a scroll. A Backer donation puts your logo on 10,000 physical bags people carry around town — while feeding a food bank and saving 10 trees. The goodwill is real because the deed is real.

It's effortless. No account to set up, no contract, no logistics on your end. You pick a tier and a cause, we handle the bags, the shipping, and the recipient. You get the receipt and the recognition.

Put Your Logo on the Bags

This is the part businesses tend to get excited about. On the Backer and Builder tiers, you can add custom print and turn every donated bag into a brand impression.

Check the print add-on at checkout, and our design team contacts you within 24 hours to finalize the artwork, color, and proof. The bags ship with your logo on them — into the exact community lane you chose. Supporter-tier and custom donations ship as clean blank kraft bags; custom print is reserved for the Backer and Builder volumes where it makes sense.

The Numbers

Here's what we're chasing this year, in plain figures:

10,000 trees. That's the goal — 10,000 trees kept standing through bag donations in a single year.

10,000,000 bags. Ten million hemp paper bags donated into food banks, classrooms, coast cleanups, and small businesses.

120 days vs. 80 years. The hemp that makes these bags regrows in about four months. The tree it replaces takes roughly 80. That gap is the entire reason this campaign exists. For the full breakdown of why hemp beats wood pulp on the numbers, see the true cost of tree paper vs. hemp paper.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do the bags actually get donated, or is it just a number on a screen? They actually get donated. You pick the lane — food bank, classroom, coast cleanup, or small business — and the physical hemp bags go to a real organization in that category. The counter on the campaign page reflects real donations.

Can I donate as an individual, or is this only for businesses? Both. The Supporter tier at $198 is built for individuals who want to put their name on 1,000 bags. Businesses tend toward the Backer and Builder tiers for the volume and the custom-print option, but every tier is open to anyone.

How does "one tree per 1,000 bags" work? It's the campaign's accounting for the trees that conventional bag production would have consumed. Hemp bags are made from a fast-growing annual crop instead of trees, so every 1,000 hemp bags donated stands in for roughly one tree's worth of pulp that never had to be cut.

Can I put my company logo on the bags? Yes — on the Backer ($1,800) and Builder ($4,000) tiers. Add the print option at checkout and our design team reaches out within 24 hours to finalize the artwork.

Where can I see who's donated? The campaign page has a live donor wall and a leaderboard. Your name appears there after you donate, unless you choose to give anonymously.

What makes these bags different from regular paper bags? They're American-made hemp paper, USDA Certified Biobased, and stronger than conventional tree paper. Same look and feel as premium kraft — without the felled tree behind it.