Meters for Trees wins SEAL Award

PayByPhone planting scheme recognised by green organisation

Jonny Combe

Jonny Combe

Mobile parking provider PayByPhone has been awarded a SEAL Business Sustainability Award for its Meters for Trees environmental initiative. The scheme scooped the SEAL Environmental Initiative Award, which recognises specific environmental and sustainability programmes.

The SEAL Awards celebrate the most sustainable companies globally, commending an organisation’s leadership, transparency and commitment to sustainable business practices.

Jonny Combe, chief executive of PayByPhone UK, said: “We realise the need for our business to make a difference and to be part of a positive change for the environment. Meters for Trees provides a simple and cost-effective solution to help UK councils combat pollution at a time when many are declaring an environmental emergency and facing huge challenges in reducing their carbon footprint.”

Councils that sign up to Meters for Trees commit to remove their parking meters over a period of time and go cashless with PayByPhone. “Cashless parking payment technology helps to improve air quality by removing the need for enforcement and maintenance vehicles, which would otherwise be on the roads collecting cash from parking meters and maintaining them, clocking up miles and releasing harmful carbon dioxide emissions,” said Coombe.

For councils that sign up to Meters for Trees, PayByPhone commits to offset roughly one tonne of carbon dioxide for every ten parking machines that exist in a borough through the Portel-Pará REDD project, a Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) audited project in the Amazon rainforest that combats deforestation.
Adidas, Disneyland Resort and Coca Cola are brands that have won SEAL Awards.

Matt Harney, SEAL Awards’ founder, said: “Our mission is to rigorously assess and celebrate extraordinary sustainability leadership. Companies, chief executives and corporate boards have a simple but not easy choice before them: whether or not to exhibit real leadership by investing in sustainable business practices. The sustainability leaders – like our SEAL Award recipients – can secure lasting legacies for their grandchildren and corporate stakeholders alike.”

The SEAL Award is the sixth sustainability award PayByPhone has won for its groundbreaking Meters for Trees programme, including three Green World awards (one as overall Green Champion for Carbon Reduction in the Transportation category) and two Green Apple awards.