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    The gift that keeps giving: Why we began growing trees as greetings

    Synopsis

    Pradip Shah, the founder of CRISIL, India’s pioneering and leading credit rating agency, is also the co-founder of Grow-Trees.com, which is among the largest non-governmental tree planting organisations in the world. Writing in ET Evoke, Pradip discusses what growing trees means to him — and the benefits this offers to multiple communities:

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    Representative Image
    In 1991, the 80-year-old credit rating concept that had made no headway outside the USA was getting traction in India, thanks to CRISIL, India’s first credit rating agency, which I was the founder managing director of. Following a talk I gave at an SEC event in the US, an Israeli rating agency asked us for technical assistance — in appreciation for our help, it then planted a garden of 100 trees in my honour.

    That special moment was the genesis of the idea of Grow-Trees.com. When my son Karan was finishing his undergraduate studies in the US in 2009 and planning to start a business in India, I asked his help to set up Grow-Trees.com. We realised we had limited resources of our own and had to make this both viable and scalable. We thus created the concept of Greet with Trees, and a TreeBank, where one could plant and ‘store’ trees that could be dedicated via eTreeCertificates to greet one-toone, one-to-many, many-to-one. We also wanted to earn trust and therefore instituted — for the first time anywhere — independent audits of the tree plantings. Our vision was to offer a positive way by which each person could fight climate change. Towards this, we wanted to inculcate the habit of planting trees to greet dear ones, making the process convenient and affordable. We therefore made this web-enabled people could plant trees with a few clicks, starting at Rs 50 per tree, the cost of buying and mailing a decent greeting card. Later, we made this mobile-friendly.

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    Pradip Shah, founder, CRISIL

    Wanting to benefit society, we decided to plant only in public lands. We’d seek the permission of the appropriate authorities and involve local communities in our planting activities. We standardised a planting process based on creating nurseries and nurturing saplings of a mix of local species. Instead of just scattering seeds to get numbers, we determined an optimum quantity to plant at each project-location for cost-effectiveness. We researched and identified locations across India and created planting themes to address the needs of local communities.

    With an eye on viability, we decided to run this organisation like a social enterprise — it would never be condescending, it would be customer-centric and stakeholder-focused. As a family, we’d support it with interest-free advances and office inputs. Also, we chose not to seek any tax deductions as a charity in order to not take away revenues from the government for priorities such as mid-day meals for children.

    Ever since the Business Roundtable in August 2019 announced a modernised statement on the purpose of a corporation, which, as it envisions, is not just to serve shareholders but ‘to create value for all stakeholders’, there has been a lot of talk on the role of corporations. Last year, Danone shareholders made this the first large listed French company to become an ‘enterprise à mission’ or a purpose-driven company, not only generating profits for shareholders but doing so in a manner that would benefit customers’ health and the planet.
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    A BINDING PROMISE: Trees prevent soil erosion, a climate change-linked challenge now heightened in hill states like Uttarakhand.


    Grow-Trees.com developed its own revenue model to make it viable while enabling individuals and companies to achieve a private purpose — greeting friends, welcoming customers, recognising employees, honouring associates — alongside doing social good. All the money earned after taxes is retained in the company. The founding shareholders take none and continue providing support. An important metric employed is repeat transactions by customers — after successfully planting one million trees for a European company, we signed a contract for planting five million trees for the same company.

    We innovate constantly; we’ve experimented with placing a shady plant along the western side of saplings to reduce heat and moisture stress. We are heartened by villager telling us that our Trees for Elephants endeavour helps avoid human-animal conflicts and reduces degradation of their farms. We are delighted when a forest ranger tells us they sighted a relocated tiger near our tree plantings, drawn by the improved green cover, provided through our Trees for Tigers project near Sariska.
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    A PRESENT FOREVER: Plants gifted as honours last over decades, benefitting ecosystems and communities.


    This has now become among the largest non-governmental tree planting organisations in the world. With over eight million trees, we have created more than 6,50,000 workdays of direct jobs, mainly benefitting tribal communities and women; these trees also absorb over 160 million kgs of carbon per year. They augment rural incomes, provide flowers, fruit, fodder and fuel to communities, offer shade and shelter to wildlife, prevent soil erosion and flooding, improve water catchment, generate oxygen, reduce pollutants and fight climate change.

    Our planet confronts immense challenges today. But perhaps, tree by tree, each one of us can repair some of the damage done — and delight someone with a gift that truly keeps giving.

    Views expressed are personal


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    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.

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