The tree is the key

Brad and his two co-founders have come up with a whole new way of washing clothes – one that removes plastic waste entirely from the supply chain and has the potential to revolutionise a $100 billion industry.

The Canadian company’s pioneering product is the laundry sheet: a small strip made of cellulose (derived from wood) and permeated with PVA-free, eco-friendly detergent, which is released on contact with water inside the washing machine. From ultra-concentrated formulas to recyclable packaging, every element is designed to reduce environmental impact. Hence no plastic jugs or dispensers in landfill or the ocean. And no transportation of heavy liquids. 

“Everything we’ve created will disappear and become part of the Earth,” says Brad. “Just as oil and gas disrupted the cleaning industry when they introduced plastics, now it’s the pulp and paper industry’s turn to disrupt. We believe the tree is not only the best source for the packaging, but also the best source for cleaning of the future.”

Tru Earth’s story begins back in 2019, when Brad got a call from his friend Ryan McKenzie. Concerned about the amount of plastic packaging used in toys and other household products, Ryan wondered if Brad, a serial entrepreneur, wanted to help him find a sustainable alternative. By chance, Brad had just been talking to a relative who invested in a company with a patent for putting a laundry detergent into a sheet format, but was struggling to bring it to market. Brad and Ryan contacted their friend Kevin and the trio (all based in British Columbia) put their heads together to create Tru Earth and launch this pioneering new concept.

Their priority was to develop the best possible cellulose carrier for the detergent. In another piece of serendipity, Brad’s COO attended a conference where he bumped into someone from Sappi, whose fibrillated cellulose product, Valida, can hold ultra-concentrated active ingredients.

“Sappi had the theory, they just didn’t have any way to put it into practice and make sure it was viable,” explains Brad. “Our chemists had the desire and the will. Sappi’s entire executive was willing to work with a small CPG firm, unlike what we would expect from that size of organisation, which is usually quite rigid and policy driven. Sappi were very open, more like ‘Let’s talk, what can we do to help?’”

As with Sappi, Tru Earth’s social conscience extends beyond design and manufacture, and Brad is personally passionate about environmental conservation and challenging other corporates to prioritise making a difference. Tru Earth is a certified B Corp and member of 1% for the Planet; for every  $25 [or equivalent local currency] of product purchased anywhere in the world, it makes sure one person in need has clean clothes for a month – so far helping more than 12 million people.

For Brad, sponsoring collaborative action through shoreline clean-ups with Ocean Wise and other non-profits is core to Tru Earth’s broader purpose and mission. On Giving Tuesday (December 2025) the company partnered with Hunger Task Force and Daily Bread Food Bank to deliver 1 million eco-strips in 24 hours to individuals and families in need. And the Tru Earth crew were among the 2,082 volunteers who made history on April 26, 2026, when Tru Earth and Milwaukee Riverkeeper worked together to collect more than 100,000 pounds of trash from area rivers and green spaces, breaking a Guiness World Record (for most participants in a river clean-up – multiple locations) in the process.

In 2025, Tru Earth also launched the ‘Tower of Reality’, a series of installations in which structures are built entirely from plastic waste and displayed in public spaces, with the goal of educating consumers about the plastic crisis. To date, the Towers of Reality have appeared in the US and Canada, in Anaheim, Calif. (500 pounds of plastic) and at the Pacific National Exhibition in Vancouver, BC (1,000 pounds of plastic), respectively.

It was clear from the outset that Sappi and Tru Earth were in harmony, sharing values of stewardship and circularity. Four years of collaboration later, Tru Earth products are in 80 countries and the company is working with Sappi to build a global supply chain. “We’re going to be pretty much shoulder to shoulder for the next few years, making sure we can show the big CPG firms that there is a better way,” says Brad.

“This is beyond just disrupting a category,” he adds. “It’s also trying to show how an extractive industry like consumer-packaged goods can actually be regenerative.”