We are motorsport's first dedicated carbon offsetting provider

We help to make motorsport sustainable

Our company, which serves all motorsport disciplines, launched last year and provided offsetting for several competitors, including triple British Rally Champion Matt Edwards, and some leading teams and events across the UK and Europe.

Carbon Positive Motorsport founders Paul Glass and Steve Smith have both been involved in motorsport for over 30 years, Paul as a clubman competitor, and Steve working in the motorsport industry with many leading teams such as Prodrive.

Both have decided to combine their love of motorsport with their professional skills, to bring a valuable and easy to use service to all who are involved in motorsport – providing competitors, teams, events, and spectators with a way to help reduce the impact on the environment of their carbon footprint from motorsport.

Paul Glass commented, "The need to improve the environmental impact of the sport is well understood now, nobody can deny climate change these days - but providing a simple and low-cost solution for most of the people who are involved in motorsport and not just the elite level, has been a real need for a long time.

"Acting through offsetting and other environmental initiatives such as rewilding, not only helps the environment, but also brings benefits to those who support the sport, such as local communities and sponsors. Their support, as well as the public perception of motorsport, is critical to making motorsport sustainable for future generations to enjoy. "

Steve Smith added, "We have been overwhelmed by the level of interest and support for what we are doing. The challenge was to make this possible, in a way that is making a genuine difference. The regulations and requirements to verify actual offsetting benefits in the future, especially in the UK, is considerable.

"It’s fair to say that we are disrupting and challenging the perceptions of some environmental activists and regulatory bodies."

We believe that through motorsport, it is possible to make long lasting changes that will bring greater environmental benefits. For example, our carbon positive offer will offset 25% more carbon emissions in the long term than are generated through motorsport activity.

Paul Glass added: "We have a big job ahead of us! There is a great need to get everyone involved, firstly to educate all in motorsport about what proper carbon offsetting is, and how it differs from things like sponsored tree planting programmes. Both of course support the environment, but only offsetting provides true visibility of the benefit being achieved through stringent verification processes and transparency."

We offer a dedicated service designed for everyone in all motorsport disciplines, which means we do some things differently compared to typical offsetting providers. For example, we understand that every competition car and supporting vehicles create their own unique carbon footprint.

We recognise the peril of using low-cost, low-quality offsetting projects in developing countries, as these are often not properly verified, and do not offer significant carbon sequestration. Such projects do nothing for the credibility of motorsport, nor do they benefit the communities we compete in.

We need to provide the highest standards of carbon offsetting, so that we can justifiably avoid any claims of greenwashing and make a bigger difference in the longer term. Our aim is to source our offsetting from projects located in the country where the emissions are created, whether that is in the UK or overseas. Our UK based projects are verified by the Woodland Carbon Code and we aim to provide a diversity of projects to best meet regional needs within the UK.

All UK motorsport activities are offset by us only using the highest quality UK based and certified projects - wherever possible regionally and through rewilding activities - which bring a premium cost but greater value to the sport. To deliver this, we have recently announced an exclusive partnership with the award-winning Highland Carbon Ltd. The decision to work exclusively with an offsetting partner was made in order to ensure the highest quality of certified and verified carbon offsetting projects.

Electric powered vehicles are not the answer for a clubman sport, where cars are already manufactured, and have very low annual mileages compared to a road car. We take a balanced view that in the future traditional fuels will become increasingly sustainable, and that many clubman vehicles will continue to be fossil fuel powered. We need to provide a solution that bridges the gap between where we are now, and the point where fuel is 100% sustainable. In addition, we plan to cater even for electric vehicles, by providing offsetting for the non-renewable energy consumed in their charging.

As Ari Vatanen said: “Those people who are preaching at us that the sky is falling, like Greta Thunberg, say don’t build, don’t buy, don’t fly. Come on – that’s the end of humanity. We need progress. We need to go forward all the time. We cannot stop doing things. We just have to do things better.”

Progress can only be made by cooperation, and within motorsport we all have a responsibility to act and improve our sport.

With the highest level of adoption at all levels in our sport we can make this a reality. The future of motorsport is in our hands - join with us and create a positive future for motorsport.