Would You Change Your Business Model If It Meant Losing Millions in Revenue?

B Corp Leaf and Limb Did Just That, and They’ll Tell You It Was Worth It

How often do you meet business owners who are more focused on their impact than their revenue stream?

Basil Camu — CEO, Founder, and Wizard of Things at Leaf and Limb — focuses on exactly that, and his approach has actually helped improve both his business and his mission of using trees to better the world.

“One of the reasons I originally became an entrepreneur is because I wanted to make a lot of money, wanted to grow a big business. And then, over time, I just realized those things are just not meaningful to me. We need money, obviously, but there are more meaningful KPIs for me.“ — Basil Camu

Unity Web Agency and Leaf and Limb are part of the community of Certified B Corporations. Learn more about this growing movement of Certified B Corporations using business as a force for good, and sign up to receive the B The Change Weekly newsletter for more stories like this one, delivered straight to your inbox once a week.

That doesn’t mean it didn’t come with certain challenges. In an Inside Impact podcast with Alisa Herr of fellow B Corp Unity Web Agency, Camu goes in-depth about Leaf and Limb’s beginnings, how to balance impact and revenue, and struggles with becoming a B Corp.

Camu also discusses Project Pando, a completely volunteer-driven tree nursery that provides the public with trees for free, and the importance of planting native trees and how that can impact major issues within our environment and atmosphere.

Listen to the full episode to hear Camu and Herr discuss:

• Leaf and Limb’s approach to employee compensation and wanting to move away from “under the table” cash payouts and 1099 contracts.
• The beginnings of Leaf and Limb and Camu’s commitment to prioritizing impact over revenue … and the challenges that came with that.
• The commitment to Leaf and Limb becoming a B Corp, and the challenges faced along the way (the company failed certification four times).
• Project Pando, the importance of reforestation and planting native trees, and the approach to this initiative through education and convenience in both time and money.

Listen to more episodes of the Inside Impact podcast from Unity Web Agency.

B The Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.