Blackmores ISO Consultancy Service: The creators of isology®

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There has been a global shift towards the sustainability effort in recent years, highlighted by various regulations and schemes aimed at businesses to help encourage a more sustainable way of operating.

This has led to more focus on the voluntary use of carbon markets, in which companies help to fund decarbonisation projects by buying carbon credits.

In this episode Mel is joined by Tiffany Cheung, the Corporate Engagement Lead at carbon markets data company AlliedOffsets, as they discuss the landscape of the market, including current trends, decarbonisation challenges in different sectors, and top tips for navigating the space.

You’ll learn

• What impact will corporate disclosures have on the carbon markets?
• What are the rates of decarbonisation across different sectors?
• What are the emerging buyer trends within the voluntary carbon market?
• What is an internal carbon price?
• How can companies use a carbon price to ensure that their sustainability goals are financially viable?
• How can AlliedOffsets’ data help companies when entering the carbon market?
• What are the critical steps businesses should take to mitigate price volatility and ensure that they’re investing in high quality, impactful carbon offsetting projects?

Resources

• AlliedOffsets
• AlliedOffsets LinkedIn
• AlliedOffsets Corporate Emissions Data and Findings
• Carbonology

In this episode, we talk about:

[00:30] Episode Summary – Tiffany Cheung joins Mel to discuss buyer trends in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), including insights on the use of internal carbon prices and top tips for businesses looking to enter the market.

Don’t forget to catch-up on the previous episode where Tiffany explains what the voluntary carbon market is and gives an insight into the lifecycle of carbon credits.

[01:30] What impact will increased corporate disclosures have on the carbon markets? There are 2 main points:

1. Already on the Agenda: Increased corporate sustainability disclosure may already fit into the changes that are taking place within the thinking of a company.  If a company is spending time on creating and publishing reports on their sustainability initiatives, it is likely that they will  be exploring their options for how they can take action more broadly.This is likely to be associated with increased engagement with the voluntary carbon markets, both through offsetting of carbon footprints and investing in carbon credits or project developers.
2. Project Developer benefits: Project developers will likely benefit from increased insight to the kinds of projects that buyers are purchasing credits from. As a by-product, there may be more focused projects created based off what certain sectors are willing to offset or invest in.

[02:55] What are the rates of decarbonisation across different sectors? To give a macro view from the public data available in corporate sustainability reports over the last few years, the biggest total polluters by sector continue to be energy, maritime, transportation and materials and mining.

Looking at the positives, the energy sector, which has historically been the biggest polluter, has decreased its emissions in both scopes 1 and 2 since 2019. However, there’s still a very long way to go, and with major emitters recently rolling back their climate commitments, one shouldn’t assume that that trend will continue linearly.

Another sector facing an interesting decarbonization journey is aviation, whose emissions have been increasing in recent years, although not quite to pre-COVID pandemic levels. This sector will have to grapple with its emissions whilst contending with forecasted growth in both consumer and business travel over the next decade. Many aviation companies are both committed to Science Based Targets initiatives (SBTi) and fall under CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation), applying pressure on the sector to decarbonize as a whole.

On a positive note, 18 sectors assessed by AlliedOffsets have decreased their average carbon emissions in scope 2 over the past few years, due in large part to increased renewable energy sourcing and improved energy efficiency.

[07:10] What are the emerging buyer trends within the VCM?: AlliedOffsets are in a particularly good position to provide insight to this due to their comprehensive view of both historic buyer activity and new market entrants across the world.

Chinese and German manufacturers have become a steady presence in the market, distinguished by their especially detailed credit retirement information. They’ll go as far as to specify the products and operating periods that are being offset, showing really high levels of engagement with their environmental impact and giving clear insight on their targeted offsetting approach.

Another buyer trend to highlight is occurring within the Australian market, where AlliedOffsets is seeing lots of credit retirement associated with the carbon neutrality certification scheme Climate Active. This is driving most voluntary retirements from the region, particularly from real estate and pension funds.

[09:15] What is an internal carbon price? An internal carbon price is a specific cost or budget set by a company for the carbon or other greenhouse gas emissions that are associated with their specific business activities.

This is typically based off of something like the World Bank calculations on the cost of climate change to society, or it could be based on the price of carbon set by an compliance emissions trading scheme (ETS) that is local to that business.

[10:20] How can companies use a carbon price to ensure that their sustainability goals are financially viable?: For example, EasyJet has an internal carbon price that’s based off of the UK emissions trading scheme. That internal carbon price is factored into the airline’s master financial models and that drives their 5 – 10 year long financial plans. That helps to determine things like the geographical routes that EasyJet operates, which can affect profitability. An internal carbon price makes emissions tangible and material, playing a role in the wider business decisions. An airline operator is considered a big emitter and is likely to already be exposed to some kind of compliance carbon scheme which has a financial impact on the company.

Nonetheless, having an internal carbon price can be useful regardless of how big your business is, as it can be used to budget certain activities and see where emissions might be centralised in a particular department.

An example of this in practice may be that you have an internal carbon price of £50 per tonne, you can take that to an emissions calculator or advisor to work out a budget based on the carbon footprint of different activities or departments in the business. The idea being that if you can identify the cost associated with the emissions created, you know how much to spend to decarbonize. This process may also highlight where you can make further reductions, i.e. reducing air travel and supporting staff on switching to less polluting forms of transport.

[12:55] How can AlliedOffsets data help companies interested in an internal carbon price?: AlliedOffsets has data on the carbon pricing programmes used by companies to set their internal carbon price, as well as the specific price itself for hundreds of different companies.

This dataset also includes companies that haven’t chosen to use a particular pricing scheme but have set an internal carbon price based just off of their unique activities. 

This helps to contextualize the current range of internal carbon prices and the logic behind them.

[13:50] The need for regular review: Internal carbon pricing is something that needs to be reviewed on a regular basis as the costs associated with emitting in some business locations is not going to remain the same. This can also be affected by national legislation, which can increase the financial risk of emitting.

Tiffany recommends reviewing your internal carbon pricing at least annually. They’re seeing an emerging trend within the environmental space where sustainability related impacts within a company are being sequestered into their wider financial operations.

The impacts of climate change are going to become more material to businesses in the very near future. As a result of this, it makes sense for businesses to assess their internal carbon price as part of their annual financial reviews. 

[16:30] What are the critical steps businesses should take to mitigate price volatility and ensure that they’re investing in high quality, impactful projects? Tiffany recommends the following steps:

1. Focus on decarbonising your business operations first and engaging with your suppliers to tackle scope 3 emissions as well. It’s more beneficial to both the business and environment for you to reduce emissions as much as possible, so you have a smaller residual footprint to offset.
2. Decide what kind of projects / carbon credits you want to spend money on, whether it’s offsetting or investing. Besides the climatic impact, there are many co-benefits of carbon projects to choose from, such as improved biodiversity, water supply, or workplace gender equality. Knowing what is valuable to you and your business will help in the selection of these projects.
3. Build strong relationships with developers directly where possible and buy credits directly, in advance. This also has the benefit of ensuring a supply of carbon credits into the future without the worry about how the market might change or become more volatile within the next couple of years.
4. If your business is operating at quite a significant scale, it would be wise to work with another company that’s focused on the voluntary carbon market, like AlliedOffsets. They can provide guidance and forecasting for the specific projects or sectors you’d like to buy from, reducing uncertainty on the future of the market.

[20:00] Have faith in the impact of the voluntary carbon market  – The voluntary carbon market has been through a turbulent period of time, and it’s alright to feel cautious about entering a space which has been unstable in the past.

The concerns about reputational risk associated with offsetting have greatly reduced in the last few years, and it’s set to reduce further as the voluntary and compliance markets merge and integrity improves.

However, if you decide that offsetting isn’t right for your business, there are still other tools that you can take from the voluntary carbon markets to help drive decarbonisation, such as internal carbon pricing.

If you’d like to learn more about AlliedOffsets, visit their website!

If you’d like any assistance with carbon standards, get in touch with Carbonology, they’d be happy to help!

We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how:

• Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin
• Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one.

Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes:

Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

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No business can operate with zero emissions, there’s only so much you can reduce before you need to look at offsetting the remainder to truly achieve Net Zero.

Carbon offsetting comes in many forms, but the ones people will be most familiar with include purchasing carbon credits for nature restoration projects and tree planting efforts.

Historically, the voluntary carbon market has been troubled by project developers who haven’t operated their carbon offsetting projects to the environmental and social standards expected by buyers. With the use of offsets on the rise, it’s clear that there is a need for transparency and standardisation within these voluntary markets.

In this episode Mel is joined by Tiffany Cheung, the Corporate Engagement Lead at AlliedOffsets, to explain what the voluntary carbon market is, how carbon credits work from purchase to retirement and what quality controls are in place to ensure they are reliable.

You’ll learn

• Who are AlliedOffsets?
• What is the voluntary carbon market?
• What are carbon credits, and how do they work?
• What quality controls are in place for carbon credits?
• How will the voluntary carbon market affect future regulatory requirements?
• What does it mean to retire a carbon credit?
• What services do AlliedOffsets offer?

Resources

• AlliedOffsets website
• AlliedOffsets LinkedIn
• Carbonology

In this episode, we talk about:

[00:30] Episode Summary – Tiffany Cheung joins Mel to discuss the voluntary carbon market, explaining the carbon credit lifecycle and what quality controls are in place to ensure they are reliable.

[01:40] Who are AlliedOffsets?: AlliedOffsets aggregates data from over 30 carbon registries and compliance schemes as well as off-registry transactions to present the most comprehensive dataset on carbon offsetting activity globally.

Their data has been featured in publications such as the Financial Times, Forbes, The Guardian and many more.

[03:20] How did Tiffany get involved in carbon markets?: Tiffany has been working with AlliedOffsets for over a year, and a lot of their role as Corporate Engagement Lead includes talking to a variety of stakeholders on the buying side of the carbon market, understanding what their motivations for being in the space are, what their strategies are going into the future and their wider decarbonisation process. Tiffany also looks at their transactional activity and how that has changed over time.

Prior to their position at Allied Offsets, Tiffany worked in a major environmental advisory and brokerage firm based in London. There they gained a knowledge of both voluntary carbon markets as well as renewable energy markets in that space, this in addition to learning more about the accompanying compliance trading and risk side of things.

[06:00] What is the carbon market?: Carbon markets describe markets where carbon is translated from a greenhouse gas into an asset, or a commodity that can be traded. These tend to represent actual tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide that have been sequestered somewhere else in the world through various projects.

Compliance carbon markets work differently from voluntary carbon markets. Compliance carbon markets provide regulated ways of pricing carbon, both in terms of reducing emissions and generally making polluters aware of the environmental impact of their emissions in a financial way. They may be associated with the voluntary carbon market, also known as the VCM, or they may be referred to as a kind of carbon tax.

[07:05] What’s the difference between a voluntary carbon market and a non-voluntary carbon market? If you are engaging in the voluntary carbon market, there is no legislative impetus for you to be involved in it. It’s mostly driven by a business’ own desire to offset emissions.

The offsetting of residual emissions is done through the purchase of carbon credits, which are representative of 1 tonne of CO2 equivalent removed from the atmosphere.

If you offset all of your remaining emissions, then you may be able to claim carbon neutrality for the year that the credits apply to.

The benefits of carbon credit-issuing projects aren’t always related to solely greenhouse gas removal, and depending on a businesses motivations, you can help to fund a wide range of beneficial projects such as clean water provision or improved cook stoves which improve air quality in domestic settings.

[09:25] What type of organisations are leading the way with carbon credit purchasing? – AlliedOffsets has unique access to the transaction history across 30 different global registries, enabling them to provide an up to date and wide ranging view on the voluntary carbon market.

There is a very strong relationship between how polluting a sector is and how well engaged it is with the voluntary carbon markets. So major players include energy producers, aviation, maritime, ground transportation and mining and materials.

There is also an increase in financial services, technology and telecommunications services entering the carbon market. Tiffany expects this trend to continue with increased data centre usage and artificial intelligence driving up energy consumption across these sectors.

[11:10] How does the voluntary carbon market operate?: When a company first decides they want to buy carbon credits, ideally they would engage with a well-established broker or intermediary who can source a variety of carbon credits.

It’s helpful for the broker to know what sort of carbon credits or projects a company is looking to invest in. There’s a lot of different options, including:

• Forestry
• Alternative land use
• Blue Carbon
• Engineered carbon dioxide removal

The company will let the broker know how many tonnes of carbon credits they’d like to buy, attributed to a certain period of time or activity based on their quantification and existing carbon reporting.

Market prices will range quite significantly based off of what technology type or methodology you’re going with, but most carbon credits are currently sub $15.

Once agreed, your intermediary will secure and retire the credits for you, from the registry and project developer.

Retiring a carbon credit means they are taken entirely off the market and they’re considered to be “spent” or used. Nobody else can use those as an investment or offset at that point, and the purchasing company can consider their carbon footprint to have been neutralised for the specified period.

[12:00] What quality controls are in place for the voluntary carbon market? Whilethere isn’t a master registry, there are several registries across the world that generally dominate the market. They vary in terms of the methodologies that they may or may not specialise in, as well as with geographies. The biggest ones that you’re most likely to see in the market are known as VCS, GS, ACR, and CAR. These account for about 80% of the total market volume by retirement and issuance.

The way that these registries work is that they perform a bookkeeping function within the space. Projects will register their sequestered tonnes of CO2 removed with these registries, who will then check to see if these projects have complied with their methodology, which would have been set by a Standards Body.

Once approved, those project developers can sell their credits as a commodity. When a business wants to buy credits, the type of projects they want to engage with will dictate the sort of registries they’ll be engaging with.

There are also checks in place set by the registries to ensure that project developers use third parties to further validate their project activities.

[16:45] What are the methodologies used in the voluntary carbon market? A methodology refers to the way in which a specific project should be undertaken in order to ensure that the pace of carbon sequestration and storage is consistent throughout the project’s life.

Registries are ultimately responsible for issuing the appropriate methodology, and the project developers need to be able to evidence compliance to that methodology.

The process for a project to be registered is quite complicated, and it generally takes 2 – 3 years from concept to being in a position to issue credits.

There is also a requirement to have their work validated by a Verification and Validation Body (VVB). These are third party auditors who check the evidence provided by project developers to ensure they comply with the necessary methodology. This may include the VVBs undertaking a site visit.

[19:30] Will regulatory requirements be introduced within the voluntary carbon market?  – Tiffany states that there is definitely a demand for regulatory requirements in the space. There a two key drivers for this:

The need for integrity among buyers – There are many sectors where engaging in a more unregulated space can be risky. Sectors such as the legal and financial sectors need a certain level of oversight to ensure they are making sound investments.

Convergence of compliance and voluntary markets – This is a change that’s been happening over the past few years. This is being driven by governments taking part in the voluntary carbon market space and realising that they can yield returns for the country. Additionally, when they’re spending public funds, there needs to be a certain level of assurance in the projects they’re engaging with.

There is also a growing appetite for businesses engaging in this market to ensure that they are doing the best thing possible ahead of the curve. There’s been a lot of negative press around greenwashing projects, leading to potentially tarnished reputations, to the need for proper checks and regulation is becoming a necessity. 

[22:45] What does it mean for a carbon credit to be retired? – The point at which a carbon credit is retired is when it has been taken totally out of circulation for the market. That means that no other broker, intermediary or end buyer would be able to use that credit in any kind of capacity.

It’s like having the receipt to say this person has purchased this product, it belongs to them now and nobody else can use it.

[24:30] How are stakeholders using the data provided by AlliedOffsets? – AlliedOffsets has a very wide data set, with an equally wide range of stakeholders.

Some particularly interesting use cases include:

Benchmarking against the competition – Corporate buyers use their data to compare how their activity measures up to competitors or peers within their sector due to AlliedOffsets long view of historic activity. It highlights what projects are being favoured by their competitors and what kind of price points they should be looking at as well.

Project developer research – Another common use case is that project developers will want to see who is active in the market and who they should be targeting for funding. AlliedOffsets can see specific buyer activity broken down by region as well as methodology, which means project developers have a really good chance of being able to engage with buyers who are entering the space and might not have established those direct procurement relationships.

Government consultation – Markets can be a huge source of income from the private sector into the public purse. For example, you might have a voluntary carbon market scheme that’s associated with a compliance scheme, which can mean tax benefits for complying businesses alongside socio-environmental benefits for the country.

If you’d like to learn more about AlliedOffsets, visit their website or reach out to Tiffany for more about buyer activity in the VCM!

If you’d like any assistance with carbon standards, get in touch with Carbonology, they’d be happy to help!

We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how:

• Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin
• Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one.

Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes:

Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

The UK is the first major economy to achieve it’s 50% reduction target for Greenhouse Gas Emissions (between 1990 and 2022). However, we’ve still got a lot of work to do to reach our 2023 target of a 68% reduction.

Many businesses are already making great strides to reduce their Impact, and while you can reduce, achieving true carbon neutrality will involve offsetting a certain amount of emissions.

One of the biggest challenges for businesses in terms of completing their offsetting is finding a credible carbon offsetting scheme.

Mel is joined by Luke Baldwin, Co-founder and CEO of Nature Broking, to discuss credible nature-based solutions for carbon offsetting.

You’ll learn

• Who are Nature Broking?
• What is Natural Capital?
• How can we restore nature at scale?
• Financing transition regenerative agriculture through the sale of natural capital
• How have Nature Broking worked with clients to complete their carbon offsetting?
• How can you demonstrate a credible carbon offsetting scheme?
• What projects are Nature Broking currently working on?

Resources

• Nature Broking
• Isologyhub

In this episode, we talk about:

[00:30] Join the isologyhub – To get access to a suite of ISO related tools, training and templates. Simply head on over to isologyhub.com to either sign-up or book a demo.

[02:05] Episode summary: Today Mel is joined by guest Luke Baldwin, Co-founder and CEO of Nature Broking, to discuss credible nature based solutions for carbon offsetting and explore some of the wonderful projects Nature Broking have been involved with.

[04:10] What is natural capital?  – Natural capital is the idea of creating value from nature. What natural capital does is, it encompasses all the things that we get from nature that we rely on. That could be the shelter in your house all the way through to carbon offsets.

[04:55] Who are Nature Broking? – Nature Broking’s story starts off on a somber note. Sadly, Luke lost one of his friends in a mountaineering accident, and in his memory, Luke and another friend rewilded one acre of Scottish Borders Woodlands. This is something they make a point to visit every year, to pay tribute and to keep their living, breathing monument of his friends memory alive and well.

The experience was an eye opening one. For as lovely as the process was, it was incredibly expensive, and not very easy to do. Luke then realised that philanthropy alone wasn’t going to be able to cover the costs of what we required to restore nature.

Looking into the matter further he found that 50% of the world’s GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature and that the UK, whilst green and beautiful, sits in the bottom 10%.

And so, an idea was sparked. Together his friend and Co-founder Andy started down the nature restoration path and created Nature Broking.

[06:20] What is Nature Broking’s mission?: Nature Broking have 2 major missions:

#1: Help restore nature at scale

#2: Help finance a transition to regenerative agriculture

[06:34] How can we restore nature at scale?  – The UK Government has set targets of halting nature decline by 2030, with a view to increase nature by 2045.

The Green Finance Institute has calculated that there is a funding gap of about 56 billion in order for us to achieve our legally binding environmental targets. That’s a hefty sum to put on public money and philanthropy, which is where private markets and business can make a big impact.

Frameworks like PAS 2060 (ISO 14068) help businesses invest in nature, and with the creation of carbon credits, carbon has been commodified to make it more accessible for businesses to contribute to carbon offsetting.

[08:20] How can we help finance transition regenerative agriculture through the sale of natural capital? – Regenerative agriculture is about restoring the soils, restoring nature back to its original level.

Modern farming techniques, while fruitful, use tools such as fertilisers and mechanised farming that have damaged the soils biome. That’s going to take time and a concerted effort to fix.

Now obviously, we can’t just stop farming, we need food, so not all land can go back to nature. Currently, 70% of the UK is farmed, so the agricultural sector will play a big part in being more regenerative.

However, the current incentives aren’t great, so there’s a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of financing the mechanisms behind it, i.e. funding and subsidies ect. One way we could do this is by ulitilising the carbon markets, as regenerative agriculture can lead to significant carbon sequestration.

[12:20] How do Nature Broking work with clients? – They make sure to work within the bounds of the business itself, as every business is different..

They don’t do off the shelf solutions, preferring to work closely with their clients and help them to really spend time in nature at the place where their carbon credits are being implemented. It’s ultimately about education on the different solutions available, including asking important questions like:

• What impact do you want to have?
• What are the challenges with each solution?
• What do you need to watch out for?

Each solution is tailored to your business. So, if you’d prefer to work in woodland restoration over regenerative agriculture, then Nature Broking would be happy to work with you to achieve that.

Carbon credits include their own set of challenges, one of the main ones being that science changes, so the solutions offered through carbon credits will also change. It may be a case of purchasing credits that tackle different solutions over a large area rather than pooling them all into planting trees for example. Nature Broking are here to help advise and facilitate this.

[15:30] Join the isologyhub – Don’t miss out on a suite of over 200+ ISO tools, templates and training, sign-up to become a member of the isologyhub

[17:45] How can Nature Broking demonstrate credible carbon offsetting? – Nature Broking are at their heart transparent with how they operate. By taking clients to see the actual physical results of their carbon credits, they can educate and help others form a genuine connection to nature. They want clients to truly understand the full impact of their efforts.

 The second element is due diligence, which can be displayed by utilising one of the many carbon related frameworks now available, such as B Corp and Sylvera. Though these don’t always work within a UK setting, so Nature Broking are working towards creating frameworks that do fit within the overall market view.

Lastly, they ensure that the standard they’re using is of high integrity, using frameworks such as the Integrity Council for the voluntary market, which analyses different standards. The 2nd is understanding the quality of the project developer, so looking at their technical expertise, looking at their financial ratings, and then evaluating the individual project itself in terms of potential risks.

[21:50] What are some of the projects that Nature Broking are currently working on? – A broad view of what’s available in terms of schemes include:

• The Woodland Carbon Code
• The Peatland Carbon Code – This is run by the IUCN, which is the International Council for the Conservation of Nature.

They are both defined and funded by DEFRA. These are some of the first carbon codes to move into the UK, however there is a lack of available carbon credits, which should change in future.

Other’s include:

• Wilder Carbon – A carbon code focused on rewilding, run by The Wildlife Trust.
• Carbon Code of Conduct – A regenerative agriculture code, so it focuses on analysing the full sequestration and full emissions potential of a whole landholding.

[25:00] Carbon Credits in practice – There’s a current project called Bank Farm in Kent, which is being used as a test site for regenerative agriculture. This includes the likes of agroforestry, which is where you integrate trees into fields which provide shade for animals and store carbon. So, you’re not removing those fields from production, simply adapting them to be more sustainable.

They’re also practicing mob grazing, which is all about using herbivores to maxmise the amount of carbon stored in the soil. You can do this by moving, say cows for example, around a field to graze quickly on small areas before moving them on.

[27:05] Mel’s conclusion – There’s a huge opportunity in the management of agriculture that can be utilised within carbon credit schemes. In addition to helping our economy by creating new jobs within this new approach to tackling emissions and storing carbon. Hopefully we’ll see larger corporations investing in these sorts of schemes both here in the UK and abroad.

If You’d like to learn more about Nature Broking and their solutions, check out their website.

If you’d like to book a demo for the isologyhub, simply contact us and we’d be happy to give you a tour.

We’d love to hear your views and comments about the ISO Show, here’s how:

• Share the ISO Show on Twitter or Linkedin
• Leave an honest review on iTunes or Soundcloud. Your ratings and reviews really help and we read each one.

Subscribe to keep up-to-date with our latest episodes:

Stitcher | Spotify | YouTube |iTunes | Soundcloud | Mailing List

To keep global warming to no more than 1.5°C, as called for in the Paris Agreement – emissions need to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.

Many businesses are already making great strides to reduce their Impact, and while you can reduce, achieving true carbon neutrality will involve offsetting a certain amount of emissions.

Treeconomy are one of the few companies in the UK that offer credible carbon credits. Backed by principles of PAS 2060 (Carbon Neutrality), they seek to break the greenwashing cycle.

Mel is joined by Harry Grocott, CEO and Co-founder of Treeconomy, to discuss their credible carbon offsetting schemes and the innovative technology they use to help quantify the value of nature.

You’ll learn

• Who are Treeconomy?
• What is the difference between services offered for landowners and Offset buyers?
• Can you quantify the value of nature?
• How can people be sure that they don’t fall prey to Greenwashing?
• How can someone go about buying and monitoring offsetting credits?
• Are Treeconomy’s carbon offsetting schemes verified?

Resources

• Treeconomy
• Sherwood
• ISO 14064
• PAS 2060

In this episode, we talk about:

[00:30] Catch up our episodes covering the Sustainable Development Goals (Part 1 / Part 2), ISO 14064 and PAS 2060.

[01:00] Treeconomy are a company that offer credible carbon offsetting schemes – they are one of the few companies who are recognised by PAS 2060 (the Standard for Carbon Neutrality)

[02:05] Harry Grocott (CEO) introduces Treeconomy –  A nature based, carbon removal and restoration company that operate in the UK and Internationally. They offer schemes that work towards afforestation, peatland restoration, rewilding ect. They are also keen to enable evidencing the impact, developing a software platform, remote sensing, and AI technology to do so.

[03:41] They are part of the Centre for climate change innovation which is an initiative of Imperial College London and the Royal Institution to catalyse innovation of all forms that address the causes and effects of climate change.

[04:22] What is the difference in services for Landowners and Offset Buyers? For landowners, Treeconomy can help you change land use from one to another. I.e changing land used for sheep grazing into something more carbon intensive. Treeconomy will ensure that any project started with them is a verified Carbon Scheme – in-line with the woodland carbon code. Once your project set up has been completed and verified, Treeconomy will assist in the sale of credible carbon credits.

[07:22] For offset buyers: Treeconomy offer a wide range of projects and varyingly priced carbon credits.  

[07:45] Can we quantify the value of nature? Short answer right now is no, but there is a lot of nuance. Nature offers ecosystem services i.e. farms offer a calorific benefit, we can put a price on the value that offers. The same principle applies to resources such as wood or oil. Now we are gaining the ability to quantify CO2 removal, which is undeniably valuable to humanity.

[09:18] Other more recent services such as biodiversity projects are a bit harder to quantify – as they vary so much depending on the country. However, we are starting to assign value to these.

[12:15] How can people be sure that they don’t fall prey to Greenwashing? There are 2 main issues to consider: 1) Are your carbon credits credible? 2) what claims are top management making?

[12:44] Tackling claims made by leadership: ISO standards are starting to solve this issue. There are clear requirements and certifications that need to be in place to back those claims.  

[13:00] Tackling carbon credits: The carbon offsetting market is heavily unregulated currently. Essentially it’s a lot of people trading in invisible gas. There are a number of carbon standards (Not quite at the same level as ISO Standards), such as the Woodland Carbon Code and the Peatland Code, and Internationally there are standards such as Verra VSC – unfortunately, a lot of these standards aren’t very robust and aren’t enforced.

[15:30] Many companies will often look to buy the cheapest offsets available, which are likely to be non-credible and will provide no evidence of actual offsetting occurring. But, there are a lot of new companies emerging that provide tangible evidence of offsetting (such as Treeconomy 😊)

[18:30] How can someone go about buying and monitoring offsetting credits? If you don’t want to use a company like Treeconomy, you would need to directly contact and purchase credits from a company who is developing a project.

[19:23] Treeconomy have created a platform called Sherwood – this displays all the projects they are helping to develop, which also tells you who the landowners are and the carbon inventory attached to each project. It can also help you evidence credits purchased, whether they are historic or future carbon removal.

[21:30] Not many companies offer comprehensive reporting and evidencing of carbon credits in practice. Treeconomy use a range of methods such as drones, satellites and AI programs to report back, and aim to make getting this information as easy as possible for credit purchasers.

[23:20] How did Harry get into this business? Starting off studying geography and Science – he later went onto work in finance for 3 years and qualified as a finance adviser. While working he realised that the amount of money available is rarely the issue, rather the use of it. He saw that there was a large gap in funding for climate change mitigation and adaptation – but not enough money was going towards it. He began wondering why more couldn’t be invested and so decided to study climate change management and finance (partly though Covid), where he met his co-founder. After getting some Government grant funding, investors and landowner partners, they have flourished over the last 3 years.

[27:00] Are Treeconomy’s offsetting schemes verified? Yes – they work under the UK woodland carbon code (and soon the peatland carbon code). They are also working to create a new protocol to tackle rewilding, including how the value and progress can be tracked. Internationally they will be working under Verra.

[29:05]  Treeconomy can help to provide detailed evidence of carbon offsetting thanks to their reporting capabilities, this can be passed onto 3^rd party auditors to verify in-line with any carbon Standard. 

[30:00]  You can find Treeconomy via their website, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram 😊 

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