From today, we’re diversifying the climate impact of every Treepoints member. Subscriptions now include planting trees and preventing plastic pollution to help protect our environment.  

At Treepoints, we’re on a mission to make climate action effective and achievable for everyone. The climate crisis is a complicated issue, made up of many parts. And we have no single solution. That’s why from today we’re adding tree planting and ocean-bound plastic collection to our individual member subscription plans.

This means that each and every Treepoints member is not only fully offsetting their carbon footprint and reducing CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. But they’re also contributing positively to the preservation of our environment. 

What does a Treepoints membership include?

• Offsetting at least half of your carbon footprint for as little as £3.25 per month
• Planting at least 10 trees each month*
• Preventing the equivalent of at least 10 plastic bottles from entering the ocean every month*

*Subscribing to one of our higher plans increases the number of trees planted and plastic collected. 

Let’s take a look at how planting trees and collecting plastic waste promotes a more sustainable future for our planet. 

Planting trees around the world

Tree planting is one of the single most important ways of fighting climate change available to us. Not only do trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere, they also halt desertification, protect wildlife and replenish soils. 

Despite the clear benefits of trees, humans are chopping them down at an alarming rate. In the last 50 years, we’ve destroyed over 50% of the Amazon rainforest. We urgently need to plant more trees and start to reversing the damage to protect our planet. 

For a while now we’ve been working with businesses to plant trees on their behalf. So it seemed only natural to us that the next step would be to get our individual members involved. 

How does planting trees help the environment?

As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the air, balancing the emissions produced by human activities, including burning fossil fuels. But they do a lot more than just this…

• Protecting flora and fauna (over 80% of the world’s plants and animals live in forests)
• Regulating the water cycle
• Restoring landscapes and stabilising shorelines
• Improving soil quality, leading to better crops 

Planting trees has a direct impact on human livelihoods, as many communities around the world depend on forests for food, work, and income. 

Where will our trees be planted?

We partner with Eden Reforestation Projects to plant trees across Haiti, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nepal, and Central America. Local communities plant trees with Eden’s guidance, supporting fair wage employment for communities around the world. This involvement from locals means the trees are monitored in the long-term to ensure they are not cut down or damaged. 

Collecting plastic waste from our coastlines

As plastic has become ubiquitous, plastic waste in the environment has become one of our world’s biggest challenges. Treepoints is proud to support Plastic Bank in the fight against ocean plastic and poverty.

With every subscription, each member will prevent at least 10 plastic bottles per month from entering the ocean. 

Plastic Bank is building ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities around the world. Haiti, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippine, and Egypt all suffer from high rates of pollution and poverty. Plastic Bank sets up collection locations and employs locals in these countries to manage recycling ecosystems, tackling poverty and waste. 

How does Plastic Bank work?

Local residents collect plastic from their environment, often the beaches and coastlines, and bring it to their local Plastic Bank branch. In exchange, they receive premiums for money, fresh food, clean water, cellular service, cooking oil, or even school tuition for their children. 

1. Local communities gather plastic from the environment, reducing waste pollution and risk to wildlife
2. Collected plastic is brought to a local branch where it is sorted by type and colour
3. The plastic is weighed, and the value is exchanged for digital tokens that are immediately deposited into the member’s account
4. The digital tokens can be redeemed for necessities including groceries, cooking fuel, school tuition, health insurance, and more 

Plastic Bank then recycles the plastic that they receive, reintegrating it into products and packaging as part of a closed-loop supply chain. 

Why have we added plastic collection and tree planting?

Offsetting your carbon footprint is a great way of taking responsibility for your impact on the planet. When you offset your emissions, it means that your overall impact is zero. Plus, the projects that Treepoints support promote sustainable development around the world. 

But from speaking to our community, we understood that people are keen not only to minimise their impact, but to positively contribute in other ways to protecting our planet. Deforestation and plastic pollution are two of the biggest threats to our natural world. Real solutions for them already exist, they just need our support. This is why we’ve incorporated tree planting and plastic collection into our climate action plan. So now everyone can be a part of the solution. 

Is my carbon footprint offset by tree planting and preventing plastic pollution?

In a word, no. We keep carbon offsetting completely separate from our tree planting and collecting ocean-bound plastic. 

The trees we plant are years away from sequestering carbon in meaningful quantities. And it is impossible to trace the source of the plastic litter around the world. This means we cannot easily quantify its carbon footprint.

In contrast, the carbon offset projects our members fund to offset their footprint are verified to the highest level by internationally recognised independent third-parties. So this means we know exactly how much CO2 we prevent from entering the atmosphere. We use this information to accurately offset carbon footprints, to make sure all emissions are accounted for. 

The benefits of planting trees and collecting ocean-bound plastic waste are numerous, and play an important part in fighting climate change. But we won’t be counting them towards offsetting your footprint. 

Ready to take climate action?

If you want to be a part of the fight against climate change, we’re here to help you. Check out the different climate action plans available and take a quick quiz to calculate the size of your carbon footprint. And for just £3.25 you can offset 50% of your entire footprint, plus plant 10 trees and prevent 10 plastic bottles from entering the ocean every month. Let’s go save the planet!