Are you in for unwrapping a different kind of gift? If yes, UnWrapIt is glad to help!

In the last decade, Forbes statistics have shown that corporate gift-giving is a $125 billion industry in constant growth, and the COVID-19 pandemic has already doubled these numbers in the last two years.

For more than 25 years, eco-activists have advocated in favor of the circular economy as a more eco-friendly concept than the currently common linear economy. It’s time to start encouraging the reuse of materials rather than raw materials being made into products and leaving waste.

Peter Deitz and Linsay Moran’s personal environmentalist mission with UnWrapIt focused on reinventing corporate gift-giving into the circular concept.

The purpose of UnWrapIt is to provide appealing alternatives to physical corporate gifts and support a new, eco-friendly form of corporate gifts.

Peter and Linsay are actively changing the status quo one gift at a time, so continue reading to unwrap the whole story behind this innovative company.

The Young Creative Minds

Long before their powerful team-up, Peter Deitz and Linsay Moran both stood out in their environments for their entrepreneurial spirit and ambition.

Peter graduated in History with honors from McGill University. After that, he continued his academic journey at University of Toronto and obtained an M.A. degree in History & Interdisciplinary Certificate in Ethnic, Immigration, and Pluralism Studies in 2003.

As a bright and assertive young woman, Linsay Moran graduated in political science with honors from Western University in 2004. During her graduate studies, Linsay was elected President of the Social Science Student’s Council. She actively participated in Orientation Week along with all other activities of the Council and worked on several committees with the Dean of Social Science.

Entrepreneurs in the Making

After completing their academic education, Peter and Linsay started their respective career paths that eventually were to meet in the creation of UnWrapIt.

This platform isn’t the first of Peter’s innovations - he started his career as a founder and co-director at Social Actions in 2007 and he co-founded Grantbook in 2012. Peter also served as managing editor at SocialFinance.ca and partnership consultant at Project Neutral.

Peter enjoys a reputation of a hard-working entrepreneur with a knack for launching trustworthy brands with firm social and environmental values. He actively uses his LinkedIn platform for raising awareness on topics linked to philanthropy and climate activism.

Before co-founding UnWrapIt, Linsay Moran was already an acclaimed entrepreneur with an invaluable amount of experience under her belt. As a part of Pliteq and the Women’s Executive Network, Linsay channeled her enthusiasm for problem-solving, adventure, and getting things done.

She has worked as project manager, relationship manager, CSR champion, and lead for business operations (covering sales, finance, marketing, legal, and people lead). In all these job positions, Linsay became meticulously familiar with planning and executing crucial events, fundraising, handling vendor relations, and participating in the creative design process.

Linsay is known for her impeccable communication skills, appreciation towards business partners, and ability to build steady relationships with external and internal stakeholders.

The Rise of an Innovation

In 2020, Peter Deitz and Linsay Moran met through LinkedIn as a networking tool and came up with the idea of starting UnWrapIt.

The aim of this brand is to offer environment-friendly alternatives for the multibillion-dollar and questionable worldwide corporate gifting industry. UnWrapIt provides businesses with charitable and experimental digital solutions for corporate gifting. This way, businesses can contribute to a healthier environment while giving their employees a piece of personalized and memorable attention.

Scientists have warned that the current state of climate change requires the complete decarbonization of business activity by 2030. According to the UnWrapIt team, replacing physical gifts with digital alternatives is the least companies can do to contribute to this process.

Businesses still cling to the traditional belief that physical gifts meant for repeated use are the best way to establish a closer relationship with employees and instill a notion of belonging in the workplace. However, no matter how sustainably produced the item is - there’s always the manufacturing process behind it, the packaging and shipping. In a worst-case scenario, the physical gift may not achieve the desired appeal and convey the right message to the recipient, so they may decide to throw it away.

With digital gifts, management teams can forget about these setbacks. For instance, UnWrapIt has Covatar as one of its main product suppliers. Covatar has a team of artists that will create hand-illustrated digital portraits for companies to gift to their employees, who can use them in their online profiles. In a time when online presence takes up most of our professional lives, this gesture can contribute to building a nice rapport in the workplace.

UnWrapIt is in coordination with some of the most popular apps like Spotify, GoSkills, ArtistWorks, and Masterclass to ensure the appreciation moments that some brands aim for. The platform offers the digital equivalent of magazine or newspaper subscriptions some companies give as gifts.

Charity Work and Certification Ambitions

As of today, UnWrapIt offers 100 experiential, charitable digital offerings from valuable suppliers such as Airbnb and One Tree Planted. Companies that use the brand’s services send employees their gifts via a virtual gift portal.

Although there’s no other company doing what UnWrapIt does exactly, there are still some similar ones that Peter and Linsay’s company had to surpass, like Saul Good Gift Co., Batch, and Conference Care Package, among a few others.

The company has a reputation for engaging in charity work, such as allowing clients to donate to over 1.8M charities around North America. UnWrapIt is also a member of 1% for the Planet, which means the company donates 1% of its capital to nonprofit organizations dedicated to environmental causes.

In addition to that, UnWrapIt is currently in the process of obtaining a B Corporation certification. This process is essential in the path the company is taking towards its main goal - as environmentally sustainable business operations as possible. The B Corporation certification is a guarantee that a brand has a positive social and environmental impact - in terms of the products and services it creates, as well as the treatment of employees, overall awareness of environmental issues, and communities affected by its functioning.

This way, UnWrapIt strives to attract and keep customers that care for environmental values and talent required for creating the products and services offered. All in all, the company considers this certification crucial because it puts the creators’ main values into practice.

The Future of Gift Revealing

Almost a year after its launch, UnWrapIt is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, employs 25 people, and has revenue estimated at $5 million. The company uses top-notch technology, including Typeform, G Suite, Lua, and Webflow.

The main goal of the company is to make corporate gifting a more eco-friendly and less expensive process than it is with the traditional approach, which includes branded promotional products with built-in shipping taxes. This way, the platform makes their partnering employers choose circular and sustainable solutions rather than the classic, linear ones.

What makes UnWrapIt special is that the company’s digital gifts are delivered to the recipient virtually and this process excludes the possibility of any shipping delays, the hassle of physical packaging, and the harm of increasing your carbon footprint. Some examples of gifts offered by UnWrapIt include e-gift cards, streaming subscriptions, appointments with a professional photographer, and 10 trees planted.

The UnWrapIt team harbors a notion of optimism for the future and plans to recruit more corporate gift-givers and recipients in the climate change awakening by providing modern, sustainable digital alternatives.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has took over the media attention during these two years, it also switched the alarm for the preservation of our planet. As the brainchild of two highly ethical and passionate entrepreneurial minds, UnWrapIt is a leading name in the forward movement that calls for change and produces practical solutions for it.

Thanks to the innovative brainstorming of two young people, the planet is moving one step closer towards ensuring a greener tomorrow, one unwrapped gift at a time.