Innovation

TREESHOES was originally created to involve its consumers in the movement to which they contribute. They wanted to be able not to only raise awareness in people by telling them about their product, but also take action by giving them the resources to do so themselves - in this case, a kit which the consumers can use to plant a tree. The kit carries the name of "germinatree" a mix of the Spanish word "germinar" (germinate, blossom) and English word "tree" which literally means "germinate a tree".

The kit consists of a little box which contains a seed and fertile land so you can put it in a flower pot. "The opportunity that TREESHOES wanted to take advantage of is getting its consumers and clients involved in this (environmental) movement. You have all of these different brands that support society, but they are not getting its clients directly involved", said Alejandro Galarza, creator of TREESHOES, when asked about what makes the TREESHOES business different from its competitors. As stated before, TREESHOES differentiates itself from other companies by getting its direct consumers involved in this green movement, which, ultimately, contributes more to the environmental movement than anything else.

According to Mr. Galarza, the enterprise has incurred many endeavors to make the product 100% sustainable. One of the things that makes the products of TREESHOES special is its ecofriendliness. After having done a lot of research and having developed its product, TREESHOES found a way to make the sole of the shoe 100% biodegradable, an event to which Alejandro refers to as "one of our greatest achievements".

Inspiration

"I knew I wanted to do something for the planet since I learned about bean germination at school, that was when I developed a personal interest in the environmental issue. Through TREESHOES I wanted to create a company that involved clothing and in the same way had a impact on society".

The inspiration behind TREESHOES goes back to the childhood of one of its founders. When asked about the moment that helped define his interest for sustainability and for the environment, he says he actually started these concepts at school. "When I was little, at school, they gave us a bean in order for us to plant it. That is when I told my mom that we should plant more trees. Years later, we already had many trees: a lemon tree, an orange tree, a papaya tree. I find it really cool that with that class that I had when I was little, I took interest in all of these topics about sustainability".

Another source of inspiration that helped TREESHOES founders establish the enterprise was their interest in getting its market involved in the green movement that is so popular nowadays. "We realized that there were people who wanted to get involved in this movement", says Mr. Galarza, referring to one of the motivations that helped him and his co-founders define the way TREESHOES was going to operate.

Overall impact

The overall impact that TREESHOES creates is bigger than that of regular companies. TREESHOES has a gradual impact by communicating that each action has an effect in every aspect, referring to economic, social and environmental matter. This impact should not stop at awareness, it should be shown through actions. Alejandro explains it as "We think that promoting information about the actual environmental issues we are dealing with, should give society a chance to do something about them." TREESHOES seeks to transcend in what they do while they can and while it is not too late, TREESHOES wants to show that competitiveness can be built out of doing good for our planet, and not only to create profits.

We think that if other companies consider this kind culture in their organizational values, the whole business perspective could be recreated as more conscious and effective. We also consider that transcendence gives companies more value than their profits. At the end of the day, the way that the customers identify their preferred business is by how the organization makes it self known. Now, we understand that there are ways to make profits taking care of both, environmental and social aspects.

Business benefit

Almost all the companies are in search of a monetary benefit; they seek higher profits, but the business benefit for TREESHOES is more than that. It gets its business benefit by offering a product that includes the whole package of sustainability: according to Alejandro "it is profitable, it is eco-friendly, and it takes into consideration all of its stakeholders in the way we work in our daily basis." Therefore TREESHOES wants to create a positive impact and an added value to its society. "We want to work in order to make an actual change not only in the environmental situation but also in a social matter" Alejandro said.

As it has been mentioned before, TREESHOES seeks to be a transcendent company. We find attractive the perspective of having better benefit and value as a company, when there is a mutual impact. "We cannot be truly effective if we do not involve our costumers with our cause". Which makes us understand that if every organization applies the above, they could create more competitive and sustainable markets.

Social and environmental benefit

TREESHOES' main concern, according to Alejandro, is that "I wanted to promote awareness about the carbon footprint through my company and also I wanted to support local reforestation programs with donations." Perhaps, that's why a certain percentage of the total selling goes to local reforestation programs. "As a company we wanted to contribute first at the location where we live, and this is because we noticed that Monterrey is growing faster at the globalized industries. Though this might be a good sign for economic development it is also a warning signal for contamination". And this is why we think that this organization might be the most down to earth company there is in Monterrey.

Because of TREESHOES we understand that if we truly want to have a great impact in society and environmental issues, we should address our focus first where we live. We consider that this learning is applicable for highly coherent discipline and that it is valuable for life.

Interview

Alejandro Galarza, Mr.