Counselor Top 40 distributor BAMKO (asi/131431) is cultivating its commitment to sustainability, thanks to a partnership with green tech platform veritree.

The Los Angeles-based company said it has committed to planting 12,000 mangroves in East Africa annually as a baseline. “That’s just the floor,” Laura Adams, content marketer at BAMKO, told Counselor. “As more clients integrate tree planting into their merchandise campaigns, we add extra tree orders on top of that.”

Local workers in Tanzania plant mangrove trees as part of a reforestation project facilitated by veritree.

Started by apparel brand Tentree, veritree is a tech platform that facilitates, tracks and verifies reforestation projects using advanced technology and on-the-ground monitoring, according to its website. The trees are tracked at every stage of the process, from initial planting to long-term growth to help avoid greenwashing and ensure environmental claims can be backed up.

Local planting teams use specialized collector apps to log exact GPS coordinates and time-stamped photos during every session. The data is cross-referenced with supervisor audits and remote satellite sensing to track canopy development over time, according to the company.

Veritree can then provide clear year-over-year data on a dashboard, giving clients “real visual proof of their impact that they can easily share with their teams and customers, rather than just donating to an opaque fund,” Adams said.

She added: “Enterprise clients and consumers demand real proof now, so having GPS data and photo evidence ensures our programs offer genuinely ethical and defensible restoration outcomes.”

BAMKO said it chose coastal mangroves because they store significantly more carbon per acre than terrestrial forests, while also acting as natural buffers against coastal erosion and storm surges. The distributor is focusing on a targeted coastal footprint in East Africa, focusing on high-impact mangrove ecosystems in Tanzania. In addition to environmental impact, the tree-planting initiative creates real human impact, providing fair-wage jobs in Tanzania, with women making up 64% of the full-time restoration staff on the ground, according to BAMKO.

This isn’t the first time a promotional products company has partnered with veritree. Other firms that have created tree- and kelp-planting initiatives through the platform include Fairware (asi/191452), ETS Express (asi/51197) and Social Imprints (asi/164607).

BAMKO ranks 11th on Counselor’s most recent list of the largest distributors, with 2025 North American promotional products revenue of $350 million.

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