Patrick Lavery: The Hatch Founder Incentivising Climate Action

Emily Hill
November 28, 2023

A climate tech startup partnering with small businesses to fight climate change.

Patrick Lavery is the founder of Attlas, a loyalty scheme devoted to positive climate action. Customers can collect points at affiliated businesses through their usual purchases, such as the daily coffee run, and then spend these points on planting trees.

The idea is to bring together individuals and small businesses who are passionate about tackling climate change and empowering them to make a positive difference, enabling small actions to have a massive ripple effect.

How it Works

Businesses that sign up to the scheme provide their customers with loyalty cards which can be redeemed to plant a tree after every ten stamps. Patrick is working with Ripple Africa to plant the trees, and then invoices the individual businesses for the trees their customers have planted.

There is also a QR code alternative for larger purchases that are the equivalent of ten stamps.

The participating businesses benefit from the loyalty of returning customers looking to plant more trees, and through actively demonstrating strong climate credentials are able to attract new customers passionate about making a positive difference.

“Once we’ve then got thousands of people using the platform, hopefully one day that can be a place to share climate information.”

Patrick has aspirations to grow the business and the Attlas community to the point that it becomes a hub of information sharing, so alongside planting trees customers can find information on cutting their carbon footprint, or get the latest update on new technology to tackle climate change.

With people becoming more and more aware of the impact of climate change on our planet, Patrick sees the potential of this business to be not only a place where small actions can make a difference, but also a galvanising force for wider positive change.

The Journey from Idea to Business

Patrick has a master’s degree in Climate Change: Environment, Science and Policy and is passionate about making a difference in this sector

“I’ve been aware of the problem of climate change for a long time and it’s just got worse and worse every year. I feel like every young person feels the same way. You go to school, you learn about it, you get to uni, you learn about it, and nothing changes.

“And it’s quite frustrating. So I guess it just forced me to really think, what can I do to try and make a difference?”

The original ideas for Attlas included a social media app dedicated to climate information, and a vegan restaurant where each purchase funded a tree being planted. These became the basis of what Attlas is today.

It was through doing a Hatch programme that Patrick was able to consolidate his ideas, and build the model for a successful, sustainable business with impact.

The Hatch Launchpad Programme

“The Hatch process was really good because it made me realise that just because it sounds like a nice idea and it might have a tangible benefit doesn’t mean it’s going to work as a business.”

Joining the Hatch Launchpad programme enabled Patrick to pivot his idea into one that had a rigorous business model as well as a compelling positive impact. The sessions that covered how to generate income and pitch for investment helped him to clearly see the steps he needed to take in order to make the business viable.

Alongside the expert advice sessions, Patrick really benefitted from being part of a cohort of like-minded founders: “The founders from Hatch are so inspiring and it was such a motivating factor to see them every other week and watch them make progress because it urges you to make progress as well.”

How to Get Involved

Join the Attlas Community

To limit global warming to 1.5C, the world needs to have reforested more than 300 million hectares of land by 2030. If you want to be part of that solution you can join the Attlas community here.

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