Sharesies Planting Action Day
Sharesies Planting Action Day
About 30 people from the team showed up at Catchpool Valley, ready to get their hands dirty and maybe - just maybe - break some records.
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The backstory here is pretty cool. Sharesies approached CarbonInvoice earlier in 2025 because they were tired of the old way of measuring their carbon footprint. Since 2019, they'd been doing it the hard way - manually gathering information, weighing rubbish, counting reams of paper. Sam Piggott, who looks after Sharesies' B Corp certification, was over it. With 800,000+ investors across New Zealand and Australia, the team had better things to focus on than counting paper. They wanted something easy, quick, efficient, and accurate.
So Sam reached out to CarbonInvoice about measuring and mitigating their footprint, and also about planting days. Getting the Sharesies team out to plant some of those trees they're funding? That sounded like exactly what they needed.
10:30 AM start at Catchpool, usual format. People arriving with happy, energetic chats and quite a lot of banter about the Wellington planting record. Sam had sent out an email beforehand noting that Lowe & Co held the record with 708 native seedlings planted just three weeks earlier. There was heaps of discussion from the Sharesies crew about taking out that record. From early on, it was clear Sharesies was going to be quite competitive.
Carlos was wearing a Sharesies hat and T-shirt, even a Sharesies brooch - swag that's normally reserved for team members and board. But Sam had armed him with the gear so he really fitted in as one of the crew.
The weather was really on side. Cold, maybe 8 or 9 degrees with a southeasterly wind blowing. Sort of chilly, but once people got moving, actually perfect planting conditions. The ground was quite wet after significant rain in the week prior, which made digging easier. Not too rocky either. There was heaps of commentary about how many worms there were in the beautiful dark soil - worms are a great sign that the trees are going to grow really nicely.
Unfortunately, there was a bit of rain that looked like it might send everyone packing. People started getting wet and the energy became a bit subdued. Everyone was worried we might get rained off. But people kept on planting - it was inspiring to see them working through the adversity. They didn't seem to mind the rain too much. Sure enough, the powers that be were on our side, and the sun came out, dried everything off including the wet speaker and laptop, and gave people renewed energy to crack on.
Sharesies planted 856 native seedlings - exceeding the Lowe & Co record significantly by over 145 seedlings. Fantastic achievement that smashed the previous Wellington record by 21%.
Today was about increasing density, doing infilling work. The team from CVNZ had laid out plants in areas that hadn't been planted as densely. This was actually really cool - the Sharesies crew were planting seedlings among places where trees had already been planted, which gave a real visual record of what had been just grass turning into a forest of seedlings with plant guards around them.
These seedlings are part of Sharesies' FY25 carbon footprint mitigation of 1,900 trees, giving the team direct participation in their company's environmental action. The healthy, worm-rich soil provided ideal conditions for the native species that will strengthen local ecosystems for years to come.
As usual, energy levels dwindled a little. Snacks were handed round, people took a short break while more plants were collected and laid out. Then the last third got underway, and there was real focus and intensity on cracking that record. Sharesies did not want to take any chances. There was also a timing crunch with the bus coming at 2:15 and needing to get people fed before then. But the Sharesies team did it.
The prize for most seedlings planted was very close. Basically 3 individuals had planted above 60 seedlings, so it was quite a nail-biting moment as we counted up - 61 seedlings, 62 seedlings, 63. Robbie and Ash both knew they'd done well, but neither knew who'd won. It was quite exciting when Robbie learned he'd planted the most.
He took out the most seedlings planted in Wellington record, smashing the previous record of 40. Ash planted 54, which was also huge. Robbie took home the Golden Spade, Ash got the Yellow Spade.
Scott for his innovative counting method - for each tree he planted, he'd put a rock in a plant pot to keep an accurate count.
Helen, Kiralee, Claire, Victoria and Asher created a box production line to make all the protective boxes that were needed.
There was heaps of energy from the Sharesies crew. Some people planted alone, others broke off into teams and divided up responsibilities - some digging, some planting, others gathering boxes and doing the protective work. You could really see the Sharesies values shining through: chasing remarkable, better together, and making a positive difference.
Andrew, who's been at Sharesies for a year and a half and worked in various tech startups, described the culture perfectly. When he first arrived and everyone was talking about the values, it felt a bit like a cult. But he soon realized everyone actually believes in them - working at Sharesies is about living those values every day, not just having them on the wall.
With over 200 people employed and 140+ in the Wellington office, you get people who haven't necessarily met yet. It was really joyful seeing people connect while planting trees together. People were already talking about bringing their kids back to see these trees growing. One team member regularly visits Catchpool when traveling to see her mother-in-law and was very excited about seeing the native trees they'd planted.
We retreated undercover for a barbecue of vegetarian and meat sausages. The Sharesies day was the only day where all the sausages were eaten - partly because people had expended so much energy, and the cold weather takes it out of hungry planters who need to replenish with a good old sausage, bread and onions.
Meredith from Sharesies, head of legal, called it the best team event she's ever had. For her, it was awesome because it was a day out of the office using her body to plant native trees, doing something physical and doing something good.
856 trees planted, records smashed, and the Sharesies team got out there and did some tangible real-world offsetting while having a memorable team event in a place lots of them travel to and are now looking forward to coming back to see their impact grow over time.
Sharesis
08/2025
Lowe & Co
07/2025
Talent Army
07/2025
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