Flush with cash
Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban saves the planet one TP roll at a time
Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban's newest investment is toilet paper that saves trees. Cuban has invested an undisclosed sum of money in Cloud Paper Inc., a Seattle-based startup founded in 2019 that produces tree-free, three-ply toilet paper.
It's ordered online and shipped to your home in plastic-free packaging and via carbon-neutral delivery.
“I think it’s a great product on the right mission!” Cuban says by email.
Aside from Cuban, big-name Cloud Paper investors announced September 22 include Ashton Kutcher, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey Jr.’s FootPrint Coalition, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, and Wilson’s wife, singer-songwriter Ciara. These folks and others contributed to a $3 million funding round led by venture capital firm Greycroft.
Americans reportedly will use more than 100 trees' worth of disposable paper products, including toilet paper, throughout their lives.
“Cloud Paper can help save a billion trees in the years ahead, and it’s incredibly validating to have investors and advocates join us in that mission,” co-founder Austin Watkins says in a release.
For years, Cuban — often touted as a future presidential candidate — has been promoting the fight against climate change. Last year, for instance, Cuban’s Dallas Mavericks teamed up with the Carbonfund.org Foundation in an effort to offset the NBA squad’s carbon emissions from corporate travel. Two years earlier, Cuban declared that “any reasonable person” should want to combat threats to the climate.
But it appears Cuban hasn’t, until now, championed bamboo toilet paper as a solution to climate change.
“We know that deforestation is a leading cause of climate change. We’re giving every person an opportunity to be a part of the solution by preserving forests every single day,” Cloud Paper co-founder Ryan Fritsch says. “We are resetting the status quo by moving away from tree-based paper and using ultra-sustainable, renewable resources like bamboo instead.”
But, has Cuban's 16-bathroom mansion in Preston Hollow switched to Cloud Paper? He says he’s waiting for his order to arrive.
Cloud Paper isn't the only TP maker trying to help better the planet. Irving-based Kimberly-Clark Corp., one of the world’s biggest makers of toilet paper, rolled out a line of towel and tissue products that incorporate plant-based fibers like bamboo and wheat straw five years ago. In June, the Fortune 500 company committed to a 50 percent reduction of its carbon footprint for Cottonelle, Scott, and other brands by 2030 compared with 2015.
“Setting and achieving aggressive climate goals has been part of Kimberly-Clark’s sustainability journey for 25 years,” Lisa Morden, the company’s vice president of safety, sustainability, and occupational health, says in a release.
