Few fans would associate Formula 1 racing with sustainability, but perhaps incongruously for a sport that glorifies combustion, the league has a goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.
For F1 teams, it’s not as simple as burning sustainable fuels in their race cars’ engines. In fact, the cars are responsible for less than 1% of a team’s carbon footprint. The vast majority comes from everything else, including race-oriented logistics, business travel, office space, computers and so on.
To offset some of the more challenging sources, the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team is buying 5,500 metric tons worth of carbon credits from Chestnut Carbon, which plants forests on degraded farmland in the southeastern U.S.
The credits are slated to be delivered in 2027 through 2030. In total, they represent about 10% of the team’s emissions in 2023. Mercedes-AMG Petronas aims to reduce emissions by 75% by 2030 and hit net-zero carbon emissions in 2040.
Though Mercedes-AMG Petronas’ new carbon credit purchase is small, the team also has inked a deal with Frontier, the advanced market commitment organization backed by Stripe, Google, Meta, Shopify, and others.
Chestnut Carbon recently closed a deal with Microsoft for 7 million metric tons of carbon credits, and it raised $160 million in a Series B round to expand its operations. The startup is aiming to deliver 100 million carbon credits by 2030.
Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor. De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.