Manulife Financial Corp. MFC-T has launched a reforestation program that will use Vancouver-based veritree’s technology to monitor and provide the insurer with real-time data on tree growth and biodiversity.
Under a licensing agreement, Manulife has deployed veritree Technology Inc.’s platform at tree-planting sites in Canada, the United States, Japan and the Philippines, the companies said on Tuesday.
Veritree is a private company that uses satellite imagery, drones, ground-level data and bioacoustic monitoring to map planting sites, guide the selection of tree species for reforestation and keep track of metrics.
Veritree’s goal is to increase the scale and number of projects it works on globally, said Derrick Emsley, veritree co-founder and chief executive officer. With Manulife, it aims to present data in ways that are useful and worth continued investment beyond the hundreds of thousands of dollars the multiyear contract is worth.
The initiative has clear business benefits for Manulife as an insurance company, along with climate and biodiversity gains in the regions where forests are being rejuvenated, said Ariel Kangasniemi, global chief sustainability officer for the Toronto-based life and health insurer. Employing the technology improves the process, she said in an interview.
“Something we’ve been talking a lot about as a business recently is this concept of longevity. So, not just living longer, but living more life in those years,” she said. “When we think about partnerships like a forest-restoration partnership, it’s not always a natural fit from the get-go, but as you think about the important role, the powerful role, that forests play as sort of partners on the health-care journey we really see it as a natural fit.”
The company has enlisted non-governmental organizations, including More Trees of Japan and Haribon Foundation of Philippines, to plant the trees and other vegetation to bolster biodiversity under the newly launched program, which it calls Manulife Impact Forests. In Canada, for instance, it has planted Douglas fir, lodgepole pine and Western larch.
The agreement with Manulife represents the first major licensing deal for veritree, a business that grew out of tentree, an eco-apparel company. The latter’s pledge was to plant 10 trees for each item it sold. The spin-off allows customers to verify the effectiveness of their reforestation programs, which may be in response to wildfires, loss of mangrove forests or in replanting in urban settings.
The company provides a digital dashboard to track progress in a range of areas, such as tonnes of carbon sequestered, hectares restored, biodiversity regained and jobs created. Customers can use the data in corporate social responsibility and other reporting.
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Veritree has worked with such companies as Telus Corp., Sleep Country, Bank of Montreal, Hopper, and partnered on projects with Manulife previously.
“Why it’s kind of unique and why we’re so excited about it is these are opportunities for us to step into projects we didn’t necessarily put together from day one,” Mr. Emsley said. “And an organization like Manulife has seen the value of the additional level of monitoring and transparency that can come from us deploying our technology.”
One benefit is using the verified data is to assuage concerns about greenwashing that have been a focus in various nature-based programs, Ms. Kangasniemi said.
“We’re a very large, institutional asset manager of forest and agriculture assets, and so to us the credibility and the actual work that goes into managing those assets is incredibly important,” she said.
Tracking nature-based solutions such as reforestation has become more sophisticated in recent years, with more verification and standardized reporting, she said.