Think Airmiles — except Treepoints rewards users for offsetting their carbon footprint, not adding to it
When Anthony Collias and Jacob Wedderburn-Day looked ahead to 2021, one silver lining they could draw from the year was the favourable effect of the pandemic on the climate.
The duo, who met at Oxford University, were already co-founders of a successful startup, but like many businesses faced severe difficulty and uncertainty of what the future would bring.
“From talking to our friends and family, we realised most people are worried about climate change and want to do good for the planet. But it’s knowing where to start that can be daunting”, said Wedderburn-Day.
The solution to this became Treepoints; a subscription service that makes it easy for the individual to live more sustainably. Not only does the startup offset an individual’s footprint, but it’s the world’s first platform to reward users for doing so.
When a customer signs up they can visualise and track their carbon footprint, see the UN-certified projects they’ll be helping to support and join a team plus earn rewards. These rewards take the form of tangible credit that can be spent on the Treepoints green marketplace on eco-friendly brands such as Chillys, Lush, Patagonia and Toms.
Treepoints is not limited to just individual users – businesses can visualise how they are performing in leaderboards across the world, earning rewards together as a company, as well as keeping track of emissions they have offset together.
Treepoint’s aim is to help businesses around the world work towards a greener future, with the ambitious goal of reaching £1 billion by 2030 in support of carbon offsetting projects.
The company partners with certification programs such as Gold Standard to donate to a diverse range of UN certified projects around the world. From renewable energy initiatives to clean water projects and reforestation, every Treepoints member supports a broad portfolio of carbon reduction schemes.
They publish all donations on their Public Impact Ledger, and Treepoints members receive regular updates on the projects they’re supporting through newsletters, emails, gifs and social media.
The company’s mission is to put as much money as possible into fighting climate change – sending 85% of total revenue directly to Gold Standard projects and 10% back in rewards, which is on a par with the best charities worldwide and a higher % than competitors.
Just one month after launch, the company has already been certified as a social enterprise and offset 150 tonnes of carbon. They will track this metric, and others, as they chart the platform’s progress, to gather more data and feedback. With this, they hope to add more features to help users visualise and better understand how they are helping to make an impact in the fight against climate change.