Show Your Work: Reforestation’s New Standard
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May 20, 2026
From Web Summit Vancouver 2026
When Antoine Moses stepped into a mangrove restoration site in Kenya and spent 24 hours planting trees, he wasn't just chasing a world record*. He planted 47,460 mangrove trees in a single day but the more important story isn't the number. It's how it was done.
At Web Summit Vancouver, veritree co-founder David Luba sat down with Antoine and moderator Jonathan Fowlie for a masterclass on what accountability in reforestation actually looks like and why it matters more than ever for companies building corporate sustainability programs today.
Antoine has planted over 2 million trees in the last decade. His forestry videos have reached hundreds of millions of people online. And yet, he's the first to say that going viral isn't the point.
"I wanted to prove that climate action can be tangible and that it has results and proof," Antoine said. "I'm leveraging the attention to create something bigger."
That instinct is what brought him to veritree. When Antoine first approached David about partnering on the Kenya mangrove restoration project, he wasn't looking for a photo op. He was looking for a verification system. He wanted the work to be done right: right species, right site preparation, right community involvement and the evidence to show for it.
It's a question that resonates far beyond social media. For companies building out their corporate sustainability strategies and ESG programs, it's exactly the right question to be asking.
veritree didn't start as a standalone platform. It grew out of tentree, a clothing company that plants 10 trees for every item sold. In 2017, when investors asked how they could prove those trees were actually in the ground, co-founders realized the answer was uncomfortably thin.
"We had donation receipts, we visited all our projects. But when we asked which trees are ours versus other donors, people kind of looked at us," he said. "We saw this as a risk but also an opportunity."
That moment sparked veritree: a platform built to collect real data from the ground as planting happens, track tree survival over time, and connect the people funding restoration to the communities doing it.
Today, over 100 million trees have been planted, verified, and allocated through the platform, with more than 300,000 pieces of evidence uploaded across reforestation projects, agroforestry projects, mangrove restoration, seaforestation, post-wildfire restoration, and urban restoration sites around the world.
For Antoine's world record attempt, veritree's verification process was in full effect. A field team followed him throughout the 24-hour record, documenting planting sessions with photos, metre sticks to show tree density, and GPS-mapped polygons of the restoration area. All mangrove trees are allocated with the evidence uploaded.
But David is clear that verification isn't a single moment in time. It's a long-term commitment.
"When trees are planted, you can see them in your impact dashboard. You can see when they're in the nursery, when we're scouting the right land, when they're planted and then those trees get allocated to you," he explained. "After six months, 12, 24, and 36 months, we randomize survivability checks. After three years, we shift to geospatial data, because we're less concerned about the survival number of individual trees and more focused on overall ecosystem health."
That shift matters. The goal isn't to count sticks in the ground. It's to rebuild functioning ecosystems, which means tracking biodiversity, monitoring wildlife corridors, measuring soil health, and making sure the forest continues to thrive long after the initial planting.
For companies investing in nature-based solutions to climate change, this is the standard to hold their partners to.
One of the most striking moments of the masterclass was Antoine describing what he witnessed in Kenya: fishermen casting their nets in the mangrove planting sites because the restored habitat had already started attracting fish. Local families who had been part of the project from day one, cheered him on as he planted because it was their restoration effort as much as his.
"They put their effort into it like it was their own record," he said. "And I think it will impact them greatly in the future."
This isn't incidental to the work. It's central to it. David explained that every veritree reforestation project starts with a fundamental question: who on the ground is passionate about restoring this place? Local community leadership, proper land rights, and a protection plan aren't nice-to-haves, they're requirements.
"If trees aren't worth more living than dead, they'll get cut down," David said. "You have to address the drivers of degradation first. You have to make sure local communities can benefit, whether that's through beehives, mushroom farming, or bamboo workshops, so that once the forest is mature, people have livelihoods that depend on it staying intact."
It's a systems-level approach to forest restoration that goes well beyond the act of planting a tree and it's exactly what separates credible, impactful corporate tree planting projects from checkbox exercises.
According to a review by the European Commission, over half of all green claims are vague or unfounded and 40% lack any supporting evidence whatsoever.1 That's not just a reputational risk. As David noted, the next generation of employees, customers, and investors has the tools to look into the claims companies make, and increasingly, they do.
"$30 trillion is being passed down from baby boomers to the next generation in Canada, the US, and UK alone," he said. "And that generation cares about sustainability. They want to work for purpose-driven organizations. They want to buy from brands they can trust."
For companies building out their ESG programs, corporate sustainability initiatives, or nature-based climate solutions, transparency isn't the cost of doing this work. It's what makes the work worth doing.
If there's a through-line in Antoine and David's conversation, it's this: the era of sustainability by ambition is over. The companies that win, and the reforestation projects that actually succeed, are the ones that show their work.
"Progress over perfection," David said. "Have the evidence. Do good. Be honest. Be authentic. That's what carries us toward a restorative economy."
Antoine put it even more simply:
"I just make sure my trees are going to survive, that I'm going to do it right. A small action is definitely better than none but make sure it's a real one."
For any company thinking about corporate tree planting, sustainability partnerships, or how to build an ESG program with real environmental credibility: that's the standard. Verifiable, transparent, community-rooted, and built for the long term.
That's what we're here for.
Want to see how veritree can power your corporate sustainability program? Reach out today.
* Antoine Moses' world record mangrove restoration was funded by The Ordinary and verified by veritree, in partnership with EarthLungs. The project took place in Kenya.
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