A History Of Change Making
Canopy was born from the idea that to save the world’s climate- and biodiversity-critical forests, the supply chains leading to their destruction needed to be transformed.
We started with in 1999 with that good idea, and the name Markets Initiative.
Within a year, Canopy launched the Green Book Campaign to transform how paper was sourced. At the time, no major book publishers were consistently printing on recycled papers. That changed in 2001, when Random House Canada and 20 other book publishers have signed forest protection policies with Canopy.
In 2004 and 2005, the work to print on Ancient and Endangered Forest-free paper extended to magazine and newspaper companies, with Rogers Publishing (home to Maclean’s and Canadian Geographic) starting to use recycled content in their publications.
By 2007, the final installment of the Harry Potter series was printed on eco-papers in 24 countries, including the massive U.S. print run by Scholastic -- the greenest book in history!
In the early 2010’s our research revealed that hundreds of millions of trees were being logged every year to make textiles like viscose and rayon. From that knowledge, the Canopy got into the fashion business and the CanopyStyle initiative was started. Using the same collaborative model as with printing and publishing, the initiative launched in 2013 with EILEEN FISHER, Patagonia, and Quiksilver being among the earliest signatories.
In 2014, CanopyStyle grew to include some enormous, or enormously influential fashion brands when giants H&M, Inditex/Zara, and sustainability leader Stella McCartney committed to transform their viscose supply chains to protect global forests. By 2017, CanopyStyle had hit 100 partners.
In 2019, Canopy got some serious media lift from Stella McCartney’s #thereshegrows social media campaign, which reached over 100 million people with a message that forest conservation could be at the top of mind of celebrities and fashionistas globally. That same year, with CanopyStyle firmly established as the fastest growing initiative in the fashion sector, Canopy launched the Pack4Good initiative to tackle the impact of paper packaging on forests globally.
By 2022, Pack4Good had 360 partners (and signed ice cream legends, Ben & Jerry’s) and CanopyStyle hit 500 brand partners!
The Next Gen campaign went luxe when Veuve Cliquot worked with Canopy to create and launch its new Ecoyellow giftbox, as a low-carbon, virgin tree-free, champagne box made from 50% recycled paper and 50% hemp. And the world's first commercial-scale Next Gen pulp mill for fabrics, opened in Sweden.
In 2023, the wild momentum continued. Canopy received an Audacious Project investment of $60 million USD to scale up NextGen Solutions globally over the next six years.
Nicole took to the TED stage to deliver Canopy’s mission and message to people around the world.
Canopy is currently scaling up for the road ahead, to meet our audacious goal of galvanizing 60 million tonnes of NextGen pulp, and finish our mission to completely eliminate the use of climate and biodiversity critical forests in the viscose, paper, and paper packaging supply chains.
It’s been a wild ride with an amazing cadre of collaborators, and to think, it all started at a kitchen table, surrounded by ancient forests.
What will Canopy be able to accomplish in the next 25 years?
Join us and find out.
