An Interview with 1 Tree Cards Founder Becky Kijima

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An Interview with 1 Tree Cards Founder Becky Kijima

I am very excited to bring you this interview with the Founder of 1 Tree Cards, Becky Kijima! I first met Becky at a Plant Based Business boot camp that was run by Vevolution back in 2018 and we have been bumping into each other round the vegan circuit ever since. In spring/summer 2019 when we decided to start offering a card writing service to our free gift wrap service I knew straight away that the amazing 1 Tree Cards would be the brand that I wanted to retail.

Becky is one of those really rare beautiful souls. When I meet her I quickly realised that her passion and determination to make the world a better place shines through softly in everything she does. As a result I know 1 Tree Cards are going to change the greeting card industry and I am so excited to watch this happen!

Vic x

TELL US ABOUT HOW YOU STARTED 1 TREE CARDS

My wife, Michiko and I had started a business in Canada, where we were living at the time and wanted to do something good for the planet. We found Eden Reforestation Projects and absolutely fell in love with their methodology. I had come from a Non-Profit background and done a lot of work in the environmental sector so when I saw Eden’s holistic approach to tackling deforestation and poverty, we knew we wanted to support them. After moving back to the UK, we were hooked and knew the next project we worked on would have to plant trees, but this time we wanted to up the ante!

We met Sylvain while visiting Michiko’s family in Japan, a budding artist who had quit his corporate job to search for a way to create some positivity in the world. We met through veganism, realised we are all queer and passionate about working for social justice and 1 Tree Cards was born!

WHAT DOES AN AVERAGE DAY RUNNING 1 TREE CARDS LOOK LIKE?

It may sound strange, but it honestly feels like there is no “average” day. Being a relatively new business (we just had our 2 year anniversary!) and with none of us ever having worked in the art, greeting card, publishing or printing world, everything is new for us. It is a constant journey of learning and discovery, making mistakes and finding solutions. We tend to spend a lot of time checking the ethics behind each new step of the business which we know you at Greener Beauty totally understand! It is unbelievably time consuming and often quite disappointing when you realise you are one of the few people asking questions about eco principles and fair labour. There are also wonderful very uplifting parts, like finding businesses you can work with who share your passion for equality – and often those people become friends, which is great because we don’t get out much anymore!

TELL US ABOUT YOUR SKINCARE ROUTINE

Are you sure?! I am not great with things like this, I generally wash my face with shower gel in the shower and slap on oil or leftover moisturiser from the wife when it gets dry. Michiko is much better with a skincare routine, but has incredibly sensitive skin- your website is fantastic for this, by being able to search for keywords. It saves so much time!

WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME?

With running a new business, there isn’t heaps of spare time but we have 2 dogs, plus an extra evacuee from the lockdown who is practically a horse, so we spend a lot of time walking with them in the countryside where we live in Norfolk. We also love to visit animal sanctuaries and try out new vegan food. All 3 of us enjoy growing veg, learning about sustainability, deconstructing our societal beliefs so we can be better activists and allys and talking about how we can change the world for the better. You also can’t beat a good dance at a wedding with cheesy music!

IF YOU COULD VISIT ONE PLACE ON EARTH WHERE WOULD YOU GO?

We would love to visit any one of the planting sites where we have contributed to reforestation efforts. We’d love to go as a team and see first hand the huge effects tree planting has on the environment and local communities. Madagascar would be top of the list because Eden also have a wildlife conservation centre there and Madagascar has some amazing wildlife that can’t be seen anywhere else on the planet – such as lemurs!

FAVOURITE FOOD?

We all LOVE Japanese food and the vegan movement and plant based eating options have soared in Japan in the last few years. We all love having different dishes in one meal and Japanese food is perfect for this- Bento box style eating is the best!

IF YOU COULD CHOOSE THREE DREAM DINNER DATES WHO WOULD THEY BE?

Maya Angelou (Civil and Women’s Rights Activits and Author), Marsha P (Pay it no mind) Johnson (LGBTQ+ Liberation activist and one of the activists at Stonewall, which afforded us many of the rights we have today) and Lauren Ornealas (founder of the Food Empowerment Project, a vegan and workers rights organisation who amongst many other wonderful things have created a database of chocolate companies who do and don’t use child slave labour).

WHAT ALWAYS BRINGS A SMILE TO YOUR FACE?

Watching animal rescue videos! Cliche but true…The Dodo has saved many a dark moment.

IF YOU WERE A SUPERHERO WHAT POWERS WOULD YOU HAVE?

The ability to make people feel their emotions and connect to the emotions of others around them. We wouldn’t do such awful things if we knew the pain it caused. And instant transportation, because I love travelling but am always concious of the carbon footprint.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR PROUDEST ACHIEVEMENT

For me personally, I think it’s finding my wife! I didn’t grow up seeing healthy relationships and always thought I’d be one of those people who was just alone with loads of animals and bitter about the world! Finding her and loving someone more than I thought possible has been a huge achievement, especially because we have such an equal, deep and loving relationship which has taken work on both sides. Both being vegan when we met 11 years ago pretty much sealed the deal though!

WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS FOR 1 TREE CARDS?

We’d like to plant a million trees! We would love to see a revolution in the greeting card industry – things like only using recycled materials- there is no need to be cutting down trees for what are, 99.9% of the time, single use items. We’d also love to see all animal by-products removed from day to day materials such as glues and inks and more people asking for this. Changes like this are industry led and we as businesses have to demand better, let consumers know they are paying for these things and show producers that these items are no longer wanted.

You can find our full range of 1 Tree Card products by clicking here.

Don’t forget we also plant one tree for every order so when you buy a card by 1 Tree cards one tree is planted by them and one by us!