Launched in 2020, Treepoints is taking a revolutionary new approach in the fight against climate change. The funding for the UK-based startup was led by Charlotte Street Capital and has participation from decorated Olympians Alistair and Jonny Brownleee. Until now, the company has been bootstrapped.
Treepoints is on a mission to simplify climate action, helping people and businesses to understand their impact on the environment and then actively do something about it by reducing their carbon footprint. The whole aim is to take the headache out of offsetting and reward people for doing good for the planet. With seamless API integration, the startup provides a simple and easy-to-use way for businesses to automate the purchase of trees, carbon offsets or plastic collection directly from their application or service in their checkout flow. The API can also be used to directly access impact statistics and gain real-time insights and data on their total impact, total tonnes of CO2e removed, and the total number of trees planted.
Founded by Anthony Collias and Jacob Wedderburn-Day, the idea for Treepoints came about during the pandemic, when their previous traveltech startup, Stasher, came into difficulty giving the duo time to reflect.
Anthony Collias said: “Looking back, one of the few real positives of lockdowns was the effect on the climate. We all remember scenes of wildlife returning to cities! We realised a lot of people are worried about climate change and want to do good for the planet. But knowing where to start can be daunting.”
Treepoints was born with the goal of making climate action more meaningful and more accessible.
Jacob Wedderburn-Day explained: “We help people understand their carbon footprint and then do something about it through offsetting their emissions. It is vital to us that climate action is affordable and accessible to everyone – a subscription to offset your entire carbon footprint costs less than the price of a coffee per month.”
Powered by data from the World Bank and World Wildlife Federation, Treepoints calculates businesses and individuals carbon footprint through a carbon calculator. Once this is estimated, users or businesses will be able to select a comprehensive Treepoints planet positive subscription comprising a varied portfolio of tree planting, offsetting and recycling ocean-bound plastic vetted by some of the world’s leading UN-certified sustainable projects.
But that’s not all: Treepoints offers an API for business partners which enables a customisable and easy way to automate the purchase of trees, carbon offers or plastic recycling directly from their application or service. Giving real-time insights, data and statistics on total impact. Think 1 product sold = 1 tree planted.
Brands like Big Yellow; Hotel Chocolat; and Allies Of Skin are already onboard and decorated Olympian brothers Alistair Brownlee and Johnny Brownlee are keen supporters.
“We have spent our lives training outside, surrounded and inspired by the natural world around us. This has led us to be passionate about the importance of protecting local habitats and the wider environment. At the same time, we are aware of the negative environmental consequences of our lifestyles as professional athletes”.
“That is why we believe in Treepoints as an important part of the solution to a lower carbon existence. It is also important to us that Treepoints is easy for anyone to use and that the utmost care is taken in selecting the offsetting projects. We believe in the business (and its vision) to such an extent that we are both investors and look forward to working with them to make our existence carbon positive” said the Brownlee brothers.
The latest funding round led by Charlotte Street Capital will help Treepoints continue to scale its carbon offsetting services for businesses and individuals alike whilst maintaining an altruistic approach, with Treepoints recent social enterprise and B-Corp pending status. Collias and Jacob Wedderburn-Day have their eyes on planting a tree for every UK resident and believe their latest funding round will help them achieve that target of 67 million trees within five years.
