INTERVIEW
COFFEE BREAK WITH NICK AND TAMAR OF COREKEES
Greening the world and making a profit in the process – it sounds too good to be true. To Nick van Heesewijk it seemed like a perfect concept, so he invited his cousin Tamar van Heesewijk to come on board and help bring a greener world within closer reach. This was the beginning of Corekees, a family firm whose mission and vision is to create a more sustainable world by making sustainability financially viable on retail level.
36
WHAT WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR COREKEES?
WHAT MAKES THIS METHOD OF ‘GIVING BACK’ TO
Nick: “In 2017 I was in Paraguay, next to Brazil, where our
THE PLANET SO REWARDING?
fathers are from. My dad had to go back for business and to
Tamar: “Other initiatives are based mainly on donations.
visit family, and he asked me along as a graduation gift. We
People tend to see giving as something finite; you have a lim-
went to our uncle’s tree factory, which became our first proj-
ited budget for that kind of thing. We’re offering an invest-
ect. We got a tour of the place and I learned about the work
ment in which CO2 is compensated and you get something
and the philosophy behind the enterprise. I fell in love with
in return: a financial return. You don’t need to put a limit on
the idea then and there, and with the impact it could make
that. There are also companies which pay returns on timber,
on the world as an alternative to fossil fuels. I wanted to
but we don’t do that because we keep the trees for the nuts,
make this tangible act of planting a tree available to people
so you get an annual return. We firmly believe that life is too
back home. I shared my enthusiasm with my uncle, and in no
short for dull investments.”
time, we had this concept for Corekees – a form of private in-
N: “This concept hardly exists yet at the retail level. It costs
vestment where you can plant a tree for yourself or someone
only 20 euros to buy one of our trees, and that’s fairly new.
else and at the same time compensate your CO2.”
In time, we want to be a platform that enables people to
TEXT Céline Boute
PHOTOGRAPHY Ruben Stam
profit from contributing to a sustainable world. At the mo-
COULD YOU EXPLAIN HOW INVESTING THROUGH
ment, we are considering a tree with nuts that can be used
COREKEES WORKS?
to make oil for the cosmetics industry. Or something for the
N: “Corekees is a sustainable investment platform where
food industry.”
people can invest in sustainable projects around the globe, making the world a little greener whilst also creating econom-
WHAT POSITIVE RESULTS HAVE YOU SEEN SO FAR?
ic value. The first project, which we’ve been doing for several
T: “We are working very hard on creating a new project, most
years now, is with Pongamia trees. These are trees that pro-
likely with trees as well. The Pongamia project launched in
duce small nuts which are harvested annually and pressed to
2018 and those trees are three or four years old now. We
extract raw oil, similar to peanuts. Big oil companies buy the
have closed a full circle of the harvest, distributed the first
oil and refine it into biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels.
proceeds of the oil and shared out the first financial returns
Corekees then pays out the profits to the tree investors or let
to our investors. This was a real milestone moment for us,
them reinvest to plant new trees. So, every year, your tree is
and it feels great. At this stage more than 800 investors have
both producing an oil for fuel and compensating CO2.”
put money into almost 25,000 trees.”
