NEWS

New partnership with Pinwheel!

Beyond offsetting for better stories & real impact.

August 2024

We’re excited to join forces with Pinwheel to help businesses find a better way to take action on environmental issues - without offsetting.

Using what’s called the ‘contribution model’, Pinwheel allows organisations to make a real impact - without losing the marketing mileage that offsetting can bring. In fact, it's a better way to engage with customers and employees!

What's the problem with offsetting?

For years, many companies have relied on carbon offsetting to balance out their environmental impact and label themselves ‘carbon neutral’.

The idea is simple: if a company emits a certain amount of carbon dioxide (CO2), it can "remove" those emissions from the atmosphere by funding projects that reduce or capture the same amount of CO2 elsewhere. This often involves planting trees or investing in renewable energy.

But there are problems with this. The term ‘carbon neutral’ might sound great, but it gives the impression a company has solved its environmental impact when, in reality, they might still be emitting a lot of CO2.

There’s a growing concern companies are using offsets to ‘greenwash’, without making any real changes to reduce their own emissions.

The contribution model offers a smarter, higher impact way for businesses to tackle sustainability.

A better way forward

Instead of just paying for offsets, it encourages companies to:

Focus on real reductions: The first priority is to reduce emissions directly within the company’s own operations.
Support important environmental projects: Businesses can still invest in projects that help the planet, but without pretending that these investments ‘cancel out’ their own emissions.
Engage employees and customers: Pinwheel allows businesses to invite their clients, customers, and employees to help choose which projects to support, making sustainability a shared effort.
Tell great stories: With regular updates from the projects on their impact, this is a great way of keeping clients, customers, and employees engaged.

Have your say

As part of Hattrick’s commitment to this approach, we're giving our clients, course and webinar attendees the opportunity to have their say on where we invest our sustainability pot:

Free Webinars: Our webinars are always free to attend, but going forward we are encouraging participants to make a donation to one of the Pinwheel projects when they sign up. It’s a simple way to contribute to meaningful environmental action.
Net Zero Masterclasses: For every ticket sold, we’ll donate £2 to one of three impactful environmental initiatives (see below).

Choose your project

Plastic recovery and recycling: Supporting plastic collection and recycling projects across developing countries
Turtle hatchling protection: Protecting threatened or endangered sea turtles
Forest restoration - Andes: Developing large-scale forest restoration partnerships with local communities

You can learn more about the projects here.

Join us in making a real difference

We believe in helping businesses take genuine, effective steps toward sustainability. Our partnership with Pinwheel is all about moving beyond outdated practices like carbon offsetting and embracing a more credible and impactful approach.

We invite you to be part of this change. Whether you’re joining our Net Zero Masterclasses, attending our webinars, or just looking to learn more, your involvement can make a real difference.