EarthToday is a for-purpose company that was founded to accelerate nature protection and increase awareness of the state of the planet. A tech startup with a revolutionary approach to gather a global community and exponentially accelerate Earth’s protection. On our digital media platform, EarthToday.com, everyone can protect nature for €1.20* per m². You can virtually visit your m² and learn more about how it’s protected. As a brand, you can connect protected m² of nature to your products and services. 83% of all revenue always goes directly to the nature protection organizations. These partners, united in the Union of Nature Foundation, protect the actual m² in nature reserves across the globe. EarthToday.com also informs, inspires, educates and entertains community members with daily content about what’s happening on Earth today. Together we can share perspectives and protect 50% of the planet by 2050. Meter x meter.
* The €1.20 consists of €0.20 for a uon, including any applicable taxes, and a €1.00 donation to designated charities on top.
A for-purpose company is a completely new type of organization that combines the purpose of a non-profit organization with a sustainable business model and the growth incentives of a for-profit company. A non-profit is dependent on donations, whereas a for-purpose company can raise capital from private investors to finance its initial development, for which it will give a return on investment. A for-purpose company is community-owned; currently every member that protects m² of nature on EarthToday also gets a stake in the company, as a gift from us. The stakeholders commit upfront to giving ⅔ of their returns back to the purpose. As a for-purpose company, we use 100% of all revenue for-purpose, from day one. And all future profits will be reinvested in our purpose.
A non-profit is dependent on grants and donations. These income streams are unpredictable and often don’t offer security for the future and the ability for these organizations to plan far ahead. Innovation in business models to create positive impact is desperately needed. After a century of nature protection, based on the donation model, currently only 10% of the planet is protected. Yet, scientists and conservationists are increasingly stressing that we need to protect 50% of the planet by 2050. As a for-purpose company with a digital media platform, EarthToday.com, we’re building a sustainable business model for protecting the planet. We can grow quickly as we raise capital from investors and over the long-term our for-purpose company will be able to sustain itself, generating a stable revenue stream. So that nature protection organizations can plan ahead, scale up their activities and protect nature faster.
Our purpose is to increase awareness on the state of the planet and accelerate its protection, at scale. Our mission is to gather a global community on our digital media platform EarthToday.com, with a business model for protecting the planet. Our community aims to substantially contribute to protecting 50% of the planet by 2050 whilst sharing news, knowledge and wisdom on a conscious lifestyle and steps toward 24 global goals.
David Attenborough says it all in “A Life on Our Planet” and he’s not the only one. According to the Protected Planet Report 2018, after 30 years of conservation efforts only 10% of the Earth’s surface is currently protected. Meaning only 10% is kept in a natural state with no irreversible damage done. A growing group of scientists and conservationists worldwide stress that we need to protect 30% by 2030 and 50% by 2050 to survive the ecological and climate emergencies. This is reflected in Edward Wilson’s Half-Earth project, the #NatureNeedsHalf movement and the 30x30 policies of the UN and the EU. This means we need to accelerate.
We defined 24 global goals, inspired by the 16 Principles of the Earth Charter and the partly overlapping 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as defined by the UN for 2030. By adding goals for self-expression and self-realization, we’ve defined a set of 24 global goals in six categories - People, Creation, World, Nature, Keys and Spirit. All content on EarthToday.com is categorized within these themes.
Our 24 global goals:
| PEOPLE | CREATION | WORLD |
|
Good health and wellbeing Zero hunger Inclusion and equality Human rights and no poverty |
Freedom of expression Ecological design Open source and collaboration Vibrant communities |
Decent work and fair play Transparency and democracy Responsible production Non-violence and justice |
| NATURE | KEYS | SPIRIT |
|
Clean Air Pure water Biodiversity and nature Abundant energy |
Quality education Mindful innovation Unified science Youth empowerment |
Knowledge and meaning Love, peace and joy Spiritual awakening World unity |
We’re building a global media platform, EarthToday.com, with content to inform, inspire, educate, and entertain our community members. Here, everyone can contribute to nature protection for €1.20 per m². Of every €1.20 that comes in, €1.00 goes directly to nature protection. We bring nature protection organizations from around the world together, to protect m² of nature and scale up nature protection. For every m² protected through EarthToday, the participating organizations commit to bringing a new m² under protection, on a 1-for-1 basis.
We unite nature protection organizations, entrepreneurs, investors, consumers and brands on one platform, which can serve innumerable members. With this collaboration and this set-up we make it easy and accessible for everyone to protect nature for €1.20 per m². And for every m² protected through EarthToday the nature protection organizations commit to bringing a new m² under protection, on a 1-for-1 basis. This is how we scale. With more and more members, we’re creating a snowball effect for nature protection.
We’re creating a snowball effect for nature protection with our digital media platform, EarthToday.com. One where everyone that contributes becomes a co-owner of the company, EarthToday. Platforms can grow exponentially, as they can serve innumerable members with only one product made. To start this snowball effect we need serious funding so that we can direct 83% of all revenue directly to our nature protection partners, from day one. Once it’s rolling, with more and more members protecting m² of nature, this platform will provide an indefinite income stream for nature protection organizations, and other charities contributing to the global goals.
We have two separate models; a business model to sustain ourselves in the long run, and a funding model for the short term, to finance our initial development and global roll-out.
No, EarthToday is a for-profit tech company that directs 83% of all revenue to its nature protection partners. We call ourselves a for-purpose company. We understand the confusion, as 83% of our revenue goes directly to the nature protection organizations. This is comparable with best-in-class charities (Category D according to the Dutch charity overseer CBF), yet we are a company.
Our leading principles are inclusivity, equality, and transparency.
Inclusivity, since nature does not discriminate. Everybody is invited to contribute.
Equality, since nature does not negotiate. Every individual, charity, organization, government, company, or brand will get the same tools, services, and data under the same terms and conditions.
Transparency, since nature does not mediate. Everyone gets insight into our community, impact, and financials.
Uon.earth is an app developed by EarthToday in collaboration with Union of Nature Foundation to make nature protection available for everybody. Download the app. Collect uon. Protect Earth.
During the pilot phase of our initiative, we have been challenged on our narrative. We learned that we need to be very clear about our intentions.
In the article, published by Quote magazine, the journalists unfortunately confuses the mechanics of our business model and our funding model. Consequently, it’s written that the founders and investors of EarthToday will become billionairs tomorrow. The main editor refuses to make important corrections from our side, and the article is published. Uncorrected.
It was obvious that we needed to give more transparency than we already did, so we decided to write and design #TheBlueprints. A manifesto about our initiative. To explain why we do what we do the way we do.
We are not a charity. Instead, we are a for-purpose company with a businessmodel to collectively protect 30% of the planet. The profit we make is not for shareholders, but 100% for purpose, to accelerate nature protection.
There is a separate funding model where all founders and investors provide capital and potentially receive an equal and limited financial return. On top of that, the first 100 million members get a free stake. That is all new and it needs to be explained.
The Founders group consists of the following 10 people, with their role in the founding and establishment of EarthToday:
Kees Zegers, Founder
Clemens Oestreich, Co-founder
Bas Verhart, Co-founder
Winston Gerschtanowitz, Founding stakeholder
Taco Ketelaar, Founding stakeholder
Chiel Liezenberg, Founding board member
Constance Scholten, Founding board member
Remy Kurpershoek, Founding contributor
Tali Bielski, Founding contributor
Maria Reyes, Founding contributor
The statutory directors of EarthToday are Kees Zegers as Chair Architect and Chiel Liezenberg as Chair Governance.
#AboutEarthToday