Better Place Forests Case Study

About Better Place Forests: Better Place Forests is creating North America’s first conservation memorial forests for families who choose cremation. Their mission is to inspire everyone to leave a meaningful legacy for the planet and the people they love.

ACV Support - Interim SVP Real Estate, Design, and Development

Christopher Peak provided retail development leadership as VP of Real Estate. He developed a wrap-around visual merchandising program to simplify, strengthen, and enlarge the product pipeline, amplifying sales growth through improved visual merchandising. ACV Studio crafted emotional tree, section, and forest personas to bring the serenity of BPF forests to customers within an omnichannel strategy.

People gathering and greeting one another at a Better Place Forests memorial forest.

Better Place Forests Real Estate Development

For Better Place Forests, ACV oversaw forest-as-store infrastructure, development, and operations across nine locations during a 24-month startup phase.

  • Forest Customer Welcome Center—Goals, Strategy, and Oversight
  • Real Estate Development Modeling and Site Delivery
  • Design Concepting, Management, and Permitting
  • Construction Management, Master Schedule, Budgets, Vendors, Procurement, and Delivery
  • Handoff to Operations, Warranty, and Facilities
  • Sustainability Profile Management
Better Place Forests visual strategy concepts for forest sections, tree personas, and species imagery.

Product Personas

Produced and evolved product mapping and personas.

  • Product Mapping
  • Forest Personas
  • Section Personas
  • Species Content & Visuals
Visual merchandising concepts illustrating product presentation, customer criteria, and forest experiences.

Visual Merchandising

Defined the in-store customer journey and created a product visual merchandising plan. 

  • Customer Journey Mapping
  • Forest (Store) Design
  • Product Presentation
  • In-Forest Operational Expression
Better Place Forests omnichannel journey concepts connecting forest visits, digital retargeting, and customer touchpoints.

Omni-Channel Integration

Applied product and visual merchandising work to an omnichannel tactical proposal.

  • Cross-Channel Integration
  • Market Research, Customer Experience, and Brand Integration
  • Concept Development, Design Package, and Renderings
Towering redwood trees viewed from the forest floor beneath a sunlit canopy.

Field + Project Management

  • Ongoing project management and logistics—helping to facilitate in-forest customer experiences.
  • Procurement support, sourcing, purchase, scheduling, and delivery of all materials for in-forest use & pop-up consumer experiences.

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