Climate-conscious owners of Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) shares might be thrilled to learn the company has a new partnership with carbon offsetting technology outfit, Patch.
The buy now, pay later (BNPL) giant announced the partnership yesterday. It will see the company's United States-based users offered the option to offset the carbon footprint of their shopping.
At the time of writing, the Afterpay share price is $119.36, 0.4% lower than its previous close.
While the Afterpay share price is struggling today, the broader market is in the green. Right now, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up 0.22% while the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) has gained 0.21%.
Let's take a look at Afterpay's new push to reduce emissions.
Afterpay to offer carbon offsetting
Those invested in Afterpay shares have a slice of the best platform to support the offsetting of retail-related emissions, according to Patch CEO and co-founder, Brennan Spellacy.
This month, Afterpay users in the United States will notice the app has a new feature. There will be an added section where they can view the estimated carbon footprint of their previous purchases on the platform.
With that knowledge in mind, consumers can choose to pay for Patch to offset those carbon emissions. Additionally, Afterpay users will be able to choose what kind of offsetting activity they engage in.
Afterpay general manager of North America, Zahir Khoja, commented on the partnership, saying:
[W]e know our customers have an invested interest in taking sustainable actions towards their purchases. Through this partnership, we're able to deliver on our brand promise of providing more ways for customers to contribute to sustainability initiatives or goals.
Spellacy added:
We're thrilled to equip millions of customers with the information and access needed to build climate-conscious spending habits and to further move the needle on giga-tonne scale carbon sequestration…
As e-commerce demand steadily climbs, retailers are faced with mounting pressures to adopt sustainable practices — and to help their customers do the same. With integrations across 23,200 of US merchants, there's no better platform to support this industry wide effort than Afterpay.
Afterpay share price snapshot
Despite today's slide, the Afterpay share price is still 2.6% higher than it was at the end of last week.
It's also currently 0.3% higher than it was at the start of 2021.
