At Treedom we grow trees, but also people

Oct 12, 2020 | written by:

At Treedom, we plant trees that contribute to the well-being of the environment, but also that of the communities involved in the agroforestry projects we've initiated in 17 countries around the world. Today, we'll tell you how we also take care of the people closest to us: the Treedom Team!

Federico, how would you define Treedom's corporate culture?

Treedom is a B Corp, a company that uses business to do good for people and the planet. The people who come to work with us do so because they want to put their talents at the service of a cause. 

We're a team, we're horizontal and also a little crazy. 

Although our way of working today is evolving, the office remains a place of life, where people should like to go and feel good. This is why our headquarters looks more like a home than an office: we're set up in an old Florentine villa surrounded by a garden of olive and fruit trees, complete with a vegetable garden and beehives.

It's a place that reflects Treedom's values of sharing and cooperation by encouraging daily team-building.

What does corporate welfare at Treedom consist of?

I think it can take many different forms, from the more institutional ones like the platform we recently launched with Eudaimon, where each employee received an annual budget to use according to their needs, to the simpler ones like fresh fruit always available in the kitchen, ping-pong and table football, outdoor tables for eating together and pouffes to rest on.

I strongly believe in transparency and accountability. To this end, each week, a bulletin is shared with everyone, containing financial data, objectives and company results. Everyone is rewarded through a quarterly incentive plan based on clear objectives that can be consulted by the whole team. We also decided to adopt a practice from the English-speaking world, the stock option, by assigning some Treedom shares to employees, who are thus personally involved in achieving the company objectives. 

Training is another fundamental aspect: I've done over 70 jobs in my lifetime, and every time what pushed me to change was the feeling that I had nothing more to learn. We invest in customised training programmes for all employees because we want to be a place where our people can grow, evolve and – why not – be happy.

This is why we were one of the very first companies in Italy to include a Happiness Manager in its team.

Serena, you're the Happiness Manager at Treedom: tell us what your role consists of.

My job is to make people feel good. To help them be themselves, believe in what they do and try to do it better and better.

Since it began in 2010, Treedom has been a company that's based its business around cooperation and sharing: in the agroforestry projects we finance around the world, we collaborate with NGOs and associations, while when planting trees we try to encourage the communities that take care of them. 

We didn't want to lose this spirit with the growth of the company, which in the last year has come to employ more than 50 people.

This is why Treedom is a house surrounded by greenery, and why caring for people is a value we interpret in many different ways: from short Fridays to menstrual leave, from promoting kindness up to the Welfare platform launched with Eudaimon.

On a daily basis, we try to encourage everyone to speak frankly, to consider mistakes as opportunities to learn more, and above all, to listen to each other. 

And it works!

Since I've been working at Treedom, I don't think I've ever received an email that didn't end with a thank you. 

Tell us about the Welfare platform: how does it work?

It helps the well-being of those who work at Treedom in many other ways. Each employee has been assigned an annual budget of €3,000, which can be spent on a broad range of goods and services. They can pay their children's nursery fees, dental bills, their subscription to the gym or favourite magazine, their mortgage payments and much more. 

Allowing everyone to choose their own benefit is a way of demonstrating that Treedom considers its colleagues as people first, and is therefore also interested in what happens to them once they close their computer.

Happiness at a positive company like Treedom doesn't consist in always being happy, which is obviously impossible, but in cultivating happiness as an individual and group competence. 

Another way to engage your employees with an enhancing initiative that makes them proud?

Planting trees!

Many companies have already chosen to plant trees with Treedom, thereby demonstrating that they're attentive to social and environmental issues and taking concrete and easily communicable action.

Find out more about how to collaborate with Treedom


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