Splend founder Chris King on why his car hire startup has planted more than 10,500 trees

On-demand car hire startup Splend has planted more than 10,500 trees to offset the carbon emissions of its driver community, and founder Chris King says startups “can’t afford not to be passionate about sustainability”.

The trees were planted in partnership with not-for-profit climate action organisation Greenfleet to offset Splend’s fleet of more than 1000 vehicles, which are rented out to drivers for ride-sharing services like Uber through an online platform at prices between $169 – $269 per week.

Splend’s team worked with Greenfleet for 18 months to deliver this initiative, and King says the thousands of trees planted are “reflective of the significant growth we have experienced over the journey to date”.

“To put that into perspective, the number of trees planted by Splend to date would cover the surface of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. That image simply blew me away,” King tells StartupSmart.

Since launching in mid-2015 Splend has amassed over 1,300 vehicles in its fleet, and is currently working towards expanding this to 4000 cars in the future, which is why offsetting these carbon emissions was so important for King. Read more

Angela Castles - Smart Company -  6 Sep 2017