Mast Reforestation is a climate tech company on an ambitious mission: to make reforestation scalable. Bringing together technology and traditional forestry methods, they are quickly restoring land affected by wildfires, while offering unique carbon removal credits to reduce costs to landowners. Mast Reforestation’s vertically-integrated approach accelerates projects, getting them up and running in weeks instead of years. This includes the largest seed and seedling stocks in the West, massive nursery operations, and expert seeding and planting execution.
Mast Reforestation needed a 401(k) plan that aligned with this incredible mission, and that they could use to attract the right talent as it continues to grow.
Mast Reforestation was founded in 2015 to mitigate the worst effects of climate change through scaling reforestation and carbon removal. By coupling tech with traditional forestry methods such as hand planting, they've created a platform that efficiently reduces CO2 levels while also taking action against climate change.
Mast Reforestation is able to rapidly restore land affected by wildfires, which allows for ecosystem co-benefits and reduced CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Mast acquired Silvaseed, one of the largest tree seed providers in the U.S, and Cal Forest, a nursery responsible for growing the majority of trees used for California’s reforestation. Together both nurseries produce up to 30% of all annual reforestation seedling production for landowners and managers across 11 western states.
These acquisitions have helped Mast Reforestation scale up its supply chain and serve more landowners impacted by devastating fires across the west with its one-stop-shop reforestation services.
Mast Reforestation’s goal is to use forward-looking carbon removal credits, which lock in CO2 removal for at least 200 years, and provide reforestation services at no upfront cost to landowners. This financing model unlocks new revenue streams for landowners while accelerating project timelines.
With its innovative approach, Mast Reforestation is pioneering sustainable climate technology solutions that are helping improve our environment.
With so many 401(k) plan options, companies may find themselves struggling to make the right choice for their employees and for the company. It is even more of a challenge to find a 401(k) plan that truly aligns with your company’s mission.
Companies like Mast Reforestation that are tackling climate change do not want to force their employees to invest their 401(k)s in fossil fuel companies. But your typical 401(k) plan provider oftentimes only offers one or two basic “ESG” (Environmental, Social, and Governance) funds. These tend to have higher fees, and many frustratingly still hold fossil fuel companies. Mast Reforestation saw an opportunity to offer additional climate-friendly portfolio options in their 401(k) plans.
The Founder and CEO of Mast Reforestation, Grant Canary, wanted to offer a 401(k) benefit to his employees that doubled down on Mast Reforestation’s mission on climate. As Grant explains, “It made no sense to work all day on a mission to mitigate the worst effects of climate change, then offer a 401(k) to employees where a significant portion is put into fossil fuel companies. I especially wanted something better to highlight in the recruiting process.”
When Grant first heard of Carbon Collective on the My Climate Journey podcast, he reached out to learn more about Carbon Collective’s sustainable 401(k) plans and portfolios. He was personally part of the 401(k) selection process, as he wanted to ensure that Mast Reforestation employees got a great product.
“I was so impressed with the product and then the onboarding that I invested personally in the company, and that's also where my 401(k) funds are today.”
Grant describes how the mix of portfolio options especially stood out to him when choosing Carbon Collective for Mast Reforestation’s 401(k): “What I love is that they offer all three goldilocks options to Mast Reforestation's 100+ employees: Vanguard regular, Vanguard ESG, and Carbon Collective's option with zero fossil fuels and much more stringent requirements. My 401(k) invests in the latter, and is administered through Vestwell. I believe the choice of three options is a phenomenal product decision speeding up adoption by companies to the service as a whole.”
To summarize key factors that helped Mast Reforestation work with Carbon Collective on their 401(k) benefit:
Mast Reforestation’s climate-centered mission required a 401(k) plan that offered employees climate-friendly portfolio options. Carbon Collective was the clear fit.
The Results
All of Mast Reforestation’s employees now have access to a competitive 401(k) benefit, and Mast Reforestation has sustainable 401(k) options that they can use as part of their benefits package in talent acquisition.
“I'm really bullish on what can be accomplished by this team to build a company as well as what this can do for the climate.” —Grant Canary, Founder & CEO at Mast Reforestation
To learn more about Mast Reforestation and join them in accelerating their mission, visit their website.
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