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With Ecologi, you can support a wide range of forest restoration projects across the globe, which are operated by our wonderful forest restoration partners.
We thought we’d take some time to celebrate our supported reforestation projects and partners, and the incredible milestones we are achieving together through collective action.
To stay up to date with all of our supported projects, why not follow us on <a href="https://twitter.com/Ecologi_hq" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://instagram.com/ecologi_hq" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EcologiHQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/ecologihq/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn</a>.

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We’ve been working with <a href="https://www.edenprojects.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eden Reforestation Projects</a> (Eden) since the very early days of Ecologi. We’re proud to be an Ecosystem Partner of Eden, and we’ve supported several of their reforestation projects over the last couple of years. To date, they have planted over 830 million trees across 249 project sites!
Eden use an <a href="https://www.edenprojects.org/stories/employ-to-plant" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Employ to Plant&#8221; methodology</a>, which has had great success in their projects <a href="https://www.edenprojects.org/our-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener">all over the world</a>. Using this methodology, Eden are able to help alleviate extreme poverty by paying local people a fair wage to plant trees and manage the nurseries. This consistent income is vital for families, helping them to afford nutritious food, send children to school, and even start their own businesses to become more economically independent.
Eden has project sites in many different countries, and so far Ecologi has supported projects in Madagascar, Mozambique, Nicaragua, and Kenya. Across these sites, almost 600 people have been employed by Eden, giving them and their families a much-needed consistent source of income with which to improve their lives. Across all their sites, Eden has employed over 11,500 people!
A great benefit of Eden’s projects being community-led is that the local people are interested and involved in the projects, and therefore want to look after the trees they plant. This is a key element of Eden’s projects’ success &#8211; the trees are valued by the local communities, and are therefore safe from threats of deforestation that occurs in other parts of the world.

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By planting a mix of native tree species on a huge scale, Eden’s reforestation projects are able to rapidly transform landscapes as well as communities. In Madagascar we’ve already seen some amazing progress as the mangrove trees begin to grow, restoring the mangrove forests that were once there.
The trees that are planted are also often by Forest Guards, who are employed by Eden, to ensure they grow safely. Creating healthy habitats helps to support local biodiversity. The trees can be a source of shelter and food for a wide range of animals, and native plant species have a chance to recolonise areas where they used to be found, further enriching the biodiversity of the area.

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<a href="https://thefutureforestcompany.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Future Forest Company</a> (FFC) restores degraded land through reforestation, natural regeneration, and regenerative agriculture practices. A key component of this approach is planting lots of native trees on land where trees were once removed to make way for farming.
Ecologi currently supports a handful of the sites managed by FFC: Brodoclea, Brisbane Mains, and Glenaros on the Isle of Mull.
As well as forest restoration, FFC are conducting research on carbon removal, including biochar and enhanced weathering. Staff working on the Glenaros estate are accelerating their work on the biochar project after receiving an Innovate UK grant. Biochar, a substance similar to charcoal, is created by burning plant matter in the absence of oxygen in a process called pyrolysis. This process removes carbon from the atmosphere, storing it in the biochar where it can be locked away for hundreds of years. Together with enhanced weathering, another carbon removal method, FFC are able to remove ten times the amount of carbon from the atmosphere, per hectare of land, than just tree-planting on its own.

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In Brodoclea, the saplings that were planted in 2020 are all healthy and growing well! These survived the harsh winter, throughout which planting of new trees continued. Wildlife is also happy and healthy on all the sites, with wildflowers in full bloom throughout the summer and 200 woolly pigs warm in their shelters during the winter. Along with the grazing of the sheep and Highland cows on the Glenaros site, these animals <a href="https://www.drawdown.org/solutions/managed-grazing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are helping to trap more carbon in the soils</a> and encourage greater levels of biodiversity.

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<a href="https://www.globalforestgeneration.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Forest Generation</a> (GFG) was founded in 2018 by seasoned conservationists and is a non-profit organisation that’s dedicated to protecting and restoring forest ecosystems across South America. It achieves this aim by building large-scale, multi-country forest ecosystem initiatives with grassroots leaders and communities, and equips them with the resources, capacities and partnerships needed to sustain and scale their impact over time. 
GFG regards the lack of ecosystem restoration capacity and leadership on the ground as the most significant obstacle to achieving global climate, conservation and sustainable development targets through nature-based solutions (see their 2022 report <a href="https://assets.speakcdn.com/assets/2645/2022-05-_gfg_final_report_to_all_supporters.pdf">here</a>). As a result, GFG prioritises the importance of long-term, high-quality projects through holistic initiatives such as Acción Andina.
Acción Andina, is a GFG-led initiative involving multi-stakeholder engagement to restore critically important native ecosystems in South America. To date, 3.7 million native trees have been planted across five countries (Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina, and Chile) through this initiative. Dozens of local communities have been involved, helping to ensure the restoration and protection of native ecosystems for generations to come.

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The reforestation projects we support through GFG are part of a project currently spanning 5 countries in South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru) called Acción Andina, which is restoring the high-Andean forest ecosystem of Polylepis forests. Ecologi will be funding the planting of 300,000 trees in four South American countries in the Andes mountains over the next 2 years. These trees will be planted across 16 different project sites, three in <a href="https://x.ecologi.com/projects/restoring-andean-forests-argentina">Argentina</a>, two in <a href="https://x.ecologi.com/projects/restoring-andean-forests-in-bolivia">Bolivia</a>, five in <a href="https://x.ecologi.com/projects/restoring-andean-forests-in-ecuador">Ecuador</a>, and six in <a href="https://x.ecologi.com/projects/restoring-andean-forests-in-peru">Peru</a>.
Acción Andina delivers on a range of national and international climate, conservation, restoration and sustainable development priorities. Through this initiative, GFG  engages with and supports developing partnerships with local, provincial and national government institutions, universities, private sector organisations, regional and international donors, and strategic partners to scale impact and results.

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<a href="https://highatlasfoundation.org/">High Atlas Foundation</a> (HAF) is a Moroccan association and a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation founded in 2000 by former Peace Corps Volunteers committed to furthering sustainable development. HAF supports Moroccan communities to take action in implementing human development initiatives. HAF promotes organic agriculture, women’s empowerment, youth development, education, and health. 
It’s imperative to us that we partner with organisations that promote inclusion and gender equality, which are at the core of HAF’s business model. Their participatory approach to projects begins with dialogue including all community members from a range of age, gender, education, income, land ownership, religious, and ethnic groups representative of the project location.

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We’re currently supporting one of HAF’s projects in Ouezzane, Morocco. In rural Morocco, traditional gendered divisions of production also extend to natural resource management. Women are often the main food and water collectors while men often control land access. However, HAF has had important success at building the abilities of women’s and girls’ cooperatives in maintaining nurseries, value-adding activities, and exporting products. A foundation for success is the HAF rights-based Imagine Empowerment Workshops, which build vision and confidence and provide the platform for increasing self-reliance. Women (18+) and girls (14-18) participate in four-day, 32-hour, rights-based workshops (with structured activities following an established curriculum) which trained HAF staff facilitate.

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<a href="https://www.hommesetterre.com/">Hommes et Terre</a> (H&amp;T) is a private social profit company whose mission is to develop and execute large-scale reforestation and land management programs, to guarantee local people long-term access to sufficient fertile land. 
H&amp;T’s strategy is based on a win-win business partnership with local communities, which helps improve the long-term protection of the forest by instilling a sense of pride in, and fostering a deep understanding of the value of, the trees among local people. By signing a 30-year partnership agreement with the partner village, which is validated and co-signed by the local authorities in accordance with local land registry laws, H&amp;T ensures that the land and the project is protected from damage from external parties who may wish to exploit the site for commercial purposes, but the local community remains the owner of the land. The people in the partner village involved in the project are paid by H&amp;T for a variety of services, including seed collection, monitoring activities, and surveillance.

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The supported project will be located in the Tambacounda region of Senegal, in the commune of Goudiry. This location is close to 20 existing partner villages of H&amp;T in the Bakel and Goudiry regions &#8211; the team know the area very well and are experienced in working with local people in this location. In total, 250 hectares of degraded land will be restored by this project through 375,000 trees being planted, consisting of at least 10 different species chosen by the community.

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Iniciativa Verde is a non-profit organisation based in São Paulo, Brazil and has been operating since 2005. The NGO operates as a multidisciplinary project developer, promoting sustainable rural development, mitigation to climate change and improvement of environmental services. 
Iniciativa Verde’s projects are all developed in partnership with other local third-sector institutions, teaching and research institutions, and local governments and organisations in an effort to strengthen the longevity of their sustainability initiatives.

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Ecologi has partnered with Iniciativa Verde to restore a 12-hectare area within the campus of the Federal University of Itajubá, in Minas Gerais. The project actively contributes to the recovery of the Atlantic Forest, which has undergone massive human-induced degradation due to urbanisation and agricultural expansion.

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<a href="https://www.internationaltreefoundation.org/">International Tree Foundation</a> (ITF) is an environmental organisation, founded in Kenya in 1922, that is dedicated to planting and growing trees, restoring and conserving forests, and strengthening community and ecosystem resilience. 
What makes ITF unique is their commitment to forest stewardship. Key to ITF’s operation is their commitment to capacity-building within local communities to optimise forest planting and conservation efforts, and to improve livelihoods within the local community. Gender empowerment and education are also core elements of their community engagement.
ITF works in partnership with the <a href="http://www.kenyaforestservice.org/">Kenya Forest Service</a>, <a href="http://kefri/">Kenya Forest &amp; Research Institute </a>and with Community Forest Associations to ensure that all planting is appropriate for local ecology, as well as working with their long-standing partner <a href="https://www.bgci.org/">Botanic Gardens Conservation International</a>.

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We’re currently supporting a project site in Dundori, in Nakuru County. The aim of the Dundori project is to restore 200 hectares of highly degraded forests through sustainable, community-led reforestation. Additionally, the project will involve planting of trees in schools, engaging young environmental stewards in forest and school-based tree growing in 15 learning institutions. 
The project will also integrate and mainstream the conservation of four threatened tree species (Ocotea kenyensis, Polyscias kikuyuensis, Prunus africana and Vangueria gillettii (<a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/">IUCN Red list of 2020</a>)) in Nakuru County.

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<a href="https://onetreeplanted.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">One Tree Planted</a> (OTP) began their amazing work in 2014 and have now planted over 40 million trees in over 43 countries. Currently, Ecologi’s community supports projects in two of these countries: the USA and Australia. Ecologi subscribers in those countries can choose to add the planting of a local tree to their monthly subscription. Soon, all members of the Ecologi community will be able to fund tree planting in these projects too, through the new Impact Shop!

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OTP’s projects are grounded in <a href="https://onetreeplanted.org/pages/why-trees" target="_blank" rel="noopener">six key benefits of planting trees</a> &#8211; cleaner air, better access to clean water, increased biodiversity, providing job opportunities and supporting livelihoods, improving health, and helping to fight climate change.
Working with more than 260 local reforestation partners, OTP engages local communities in the projects. Local people volunteer to help plant the trees &#8211; below are photos from a volunteer planting day in one of the projects in Australia that the Ecologi community supports.

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Another reforestation partner we work with in the UK are <a href="https://www.protect.earth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Protect Earth</a>, a charity planting trees on private land in England and Wales. Protect Earth works with landowners who understand the benefits of having more trees on their land, and carry out the reforestation work. Through reforestation, landowners are able to boost biodiversity (including insect populations that help pollinate crops), create windbreaks to protect crops and buildings from strong winds, and reduce flooding to maximise the productivity of the land.
Protect Earth works with volunteers to plant trees, and often the Ecologi team joins the team to get our hands dirty too! Volunteers are always appreciated, so all members of the Ecologi community are encouraged to take a look at <a href="https://www.protect.earth/events" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Protect Earth’s website</a> to find out about volunteering opportunities.

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The Ecologi community has supported tree planting at lots of sites across England and Wales, including <a href="https://www.protect.earth/projects/pantpurlais" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pantpurlais Farm</a> in Wales, <a href="https://www.protect.earth/projects/donkeywell-farm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donkeywell</a> and <a href="https://www.protect.earth/projects/lower-hampen-farm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lower Hampen</a> farms in Gloucestershire, <a href="https://www.protect.earth/projects/dyrham" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dyrham</a> in South Gloucestershire, and <a href="https://www.protect.earth/projects/howard-court" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Howard Court</a> in North Yorkshire.

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Over the last 30 years, <a href="https://trees.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trees for the Future</a> have worked with farmers across 9 countries, proving that agroforestry can be a great solution to some of the challenges faced by countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. We currently support their work in the Mount Elgon region of Eastern Uganda.
Trees for the Future have been able to end hunger and poverty in their focus areas by restoring land through tree planting. They use their tried-and-tested &#8216;Forest Garden&#8217; programme to identify farmers working in areas with severely degraded land, and help them to plant and care for their own ‘Forest Gardens’. As a result, farming families gain a stable income, help restore biodiversity and the ecosystem by stabilising the soil, increasing the nutrient content of the soil, and increasing the water content of the soil too. The land becomes much more productive, enabling families to not only feed themselves, but also make bigger profits on their crops, helping them to support themselves financially.
A key component of the success of Forest Gardens is teaching farmers how to farm their land more productively. Many farmers rely on one or two crops for their income before they start working with Trees for the Future. Not only does this benefit the farmers, enabling them to provide their families and communities with a more varied and nutritious diet, but it also benefits local biodiversity.

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Trees for the Future have planted over 225 million trees so far, positively impacting the lives of over 300,000 people. This amazing feat has resulted in a 706% increase in access to nutrition for participants in the Forest Garden programs and their families after three years in the four-year program.
As of 1st November 2021, 391 farmers were involved in the project the Ecologi community is supporting, with 2,898 people indirectly benefiting from the project. Our community will be funding the planting of about 1.6 million trees at this site in Eastern Uganda.

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Established in 2010, <a href="https://www.weforest.org/">WeForest</a> develops holistic and multi-stakeholder reforestation projects through a Forest and Landscape Restoration approach. Their vision is of a world where communities and nature sustainably thrive together to stop global warming ‘in our lifetime’. 
Their mission is focused on conserving and restoring the ecological integrity of forest landscapes with local communities to deliver lasting solutions for climate, nature, and people. Today, they have nearly 50,000 hectares under restoration across 3 continents; and aim by 2025 to reach a total of 100,000 hectares restored and 100 million trees planted.

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The reforestation project we support is managed by the team at WeForest Ethiopia, and led by Dr. Aklilu Mekuria &#8211; one of WeForest’s longest serving team members, whose bioscience engineering and field experience sees him lead the landscape restoration and planting projects in Ethiopia. The project aims to restore 10,000 hectares of degraded land in the Amhara region of Ethiopia by supporting the introduction of 11.9 million trees, in collaboration with <a href="https://thp.org/">The Hunger Project</a>.

<a href="https://x.ecologi.com/plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sign up</a> to Ecologi today to help fund these amazing projects all around the world.

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Carbon Compensation vs. Contribution - What’s the difference?

Climate change is a topic that many of us are discussing at work each day. You may have heard terms such as ‘carbon compensation’ or ‘contribution’ being used in conversations about how to take meaningful action against climate change, but what do they actually mean, and how do they differ from one another? 
We regularly speak to businesses who have similar questions and in this guide, we’ll break it all down. Here’s a quick run-through of what we will cover:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What are the definitions of carbon compensation and contribution?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What is the purpose of each approach?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What mechanisms do both approaches utilise? </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What types of projects do they involve?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What types of certification are associated with each approach?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What kind of costs are associated with each approach?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What role do they play in achieving net zero?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What are examples of each?</li>
</ul>

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<h2>Definitions of carbon compensation and contribution</h2>
 
Carbon Compensation
Carbon compensation refers to the idea of balancing out a certain amount of carbon emissions by investing in projects that prevent or remove an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide elsewhere. This tonne-for-tonne ‘balancing’ or ‘offsetting’ is compensatory.
 
Contribution
This approach focuses on separating financial contributions from any compensatory claims. Instead, it involves directing funding to projects that will support global net-zero and nature restoration – but crucially without making compensatory claims. <a href="https://www.onepercentfortheplanet.org/join?utm_feeditemid=&amp;utm_device=c&amp;utm_term=one%20percent%20for%20the%20planet&amp;utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=ppc&amp;utm_campaign=&amp;hsa_cam=20766754741&amp;hsa_grp=155667469859&amp;hsa_mt=b&amp;hsa_src=g&amp;hsa_ad=680329727495&amp;hsa_acc=%7B8900384824%7D&amp;hsa_net=adwords&amp;hsa_kw=one%20percent%20for%20the%20planet&amp;hsa_tgt=kwd-299092657918&amp;hsa_ver=3&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwooq3BhB3EiwAYqYoEs0haU6oWnJZze5_b4QrYSQvdqPvXRSRdMCOrjloCv_URVN-RaIXIBoChu8QAvD_BwE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1% Percent For the Planet </a>is an example of this kind of scheme.

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<h2>What is the purpose of carbon compensation and contribution</h2>
 
Carbon Compensation
Compensation is aimed at achieving a ‘carbon-neutral’ status by offsetting specific emissions through equivalent carbon reduction elsewhere.
 
Contribution
Contribution focuses on supporting and financing sustainability projects and initiatives to encourage environmental stewardship, without associating this with compensation for emissions.

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<h2>What mechanisms do carbon compensation and contribution utilise?</h2>
Carbon Compensation
Compensation is carbon-centric and relies on detailed measurement and verification processes to ensure that the projects avoid or remove the claimed amount of CO2. Whilst projects may have ‘co-benefits’, project quality and credit utility is predicated on whether the carbon dioxide benefit is being delivered.
 
Contribution
Contribution is not predicated on carbon dioxide. It involves making donations to strategic funds which are designed to produce a range of benefits for net-zero and nature restoration – but may not require rigorous CO2 measurement or verification, but other kinds of monitoring and reporting are essential to ensure benefits are being realised.

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<h2>What types of projects do carbon compensation and contribution involve?</h2>
 
Carbon Compensation
Compensation is limited to projects which generate carbon credits,  typically those that are issued to an ICROA-endorsed carbon standard like Verra, Gold Standard or Puro. It includes projects such as afforestation, blue carbon removal, landfill gas, cleaner water systems and enhanced rock weathering.
 
Contribution
Contribution can include carbon credit-issuing projects but is not limited to them. Other projects that can be financed include funding for environmental research, habitat restoration, conservation programs, reforestation projects, educational initiatives, and donations to NGOs working on climate action.

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<h2>What type of certification is associated with carbon compensation and contribution?</h2>
 
Carbon Compensation: 
Carbon compensation requires third-party verification and certification by bodies such as the Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Puro to ensure the credibility of carbon credits. 
 
Contribution:
Contribution typically does not require certification as it is focused on voluntary financial support for environmental causes. However, reputable organisations receiving contributions may provide transparency reports or impact statements.

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<h2>What kind of costs are associated with carbon compensation and contribution?</h2>
 
Carbon Compensation: 
Costs for carbon compensation vary depending on the project type and verification costs. The price per tonne of CO2 offset can differ significantly with some being much more expensive than others.
 
Contribution: 
Contribution is usually more flexible when it comes to costs. This is because the focus is on voluntary contributions towards environmental outcomes,  rather than compensating for a specific amount of emissions.

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<h2>What role do carbon compensation and contribution play in achieving net zero?</h2>
 
Carbon Compensation:
The <a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/net-zero" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SBTi’s Net-Zero Standard</a> specifies that businesses must achieve a minimum 90% reduction in emissions on their path to net-zero &#8211; at which point a compensatory approach can be applied for the remaining &lt;10% of emissions which cannot be reduced directly. In this case, compensation is limited to carbon removals only, not carbon avoidance credits. To understand the difference between carbon avoidance and removal credits, <a href="https://x.ecologi.com/articles/blog/carbon-removals-vs-carbon-avoidance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">read our blog post here.</a>
 
Contribution:
The SBTi also promotes ‘beyond value chain mitigation’ known as BVCM. This involves a company funding climate action to support global net-zero efforts. BVCM does not count towards the organisation’s own corporate net-zero goals, however, the SBTi considers it “urgent and essential” that businesses contribute to global climate action outside of their value chain.

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<h2>Examples of carbon compensation and contribution</h2>
 
Carbon Compensation:
A company offsets its annual carbon emissions by investing in carbon credits from a landfill methane capture project that prevents an equivalent volume of emissions.
Contribution: 
A company contributes to an environmental project that works on biodiversity conservation, without claiming an offset of its own emissions. Instead, the company reports on how much it contributed, and the outcomes intended, and monitors the project’s progress over time.

<h2>Conclusion</h2>
In summary, Carbon Compensation focuses on the idea of ‘balancing’ or ‘offsetting’ emissions through purchasing carbon credits. The credits purchased are often used to offset emissions generated by businesses.  Contribution focuses on funding projects that support global net-zero goals without compensatory claims. Through supporting a contribution model, you can support a wide range of projects all offering crucial co-benefits, and in some cases, credit-issuing projects too. 
Both approaches play a critical role in supporting climate action. The Oxford Principles for Aligned Net Zero recommend a combination of carbon compensation (durable removals only)  and contribution to help maximise impact. At Ecologi, we believe that while both have their merits, prioritising high-quality, holistic climate action through a contribution-based approach is the best way to support global net-zero efforts and future-proof your sustainability strategy. This is why we created <a href="https://x.ecologi.com/business/ecologi-impact-funds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Impact Funds</a> &#8211; to allow our customers to support a wide range of projects that contribute to a particular climate goal.

<h2>Why did you create Impact Funds?</h2>
Our industry is moving and evolving all the time in an effort to reach global Net Zero goals and at Ecologi we witnessed the challenges firsthand through our Impact Partners, below is a quote from our Impact Partnerships Manager, Katie; 
<blockquote>At Ecologi, our partners were extracting tree-planting costs from a wider landscape restoration project because that’s what the market wanted. We need to change this &#8211; and educate the market on the solutions our planet needs.</blockquote>
Contribution models are increasingly focused on outcomes rather than inputs and go beyond metrics such as carbon credits purchased, or the number of trees planted. These projects produce a host of diverse impacts that aren’t being captured by single metrics. Supporting projects such as landscape restoration focused on the wider strategy &#8211; in addition to tree planting, landscape restoration captures co-benefits such as increased biodiversity, improved soil health, and reduced pollution.
Interested to learn more? <a href="https://info.ecologi.com/ecologi-impact-funds/get-started" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Get in touch to find out more about our Impact Funds</a>.

Speak to our team. We're here to help you find your perfect climate solution.

Case studies

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Case Study: BioPak UK

<h2>About BioPak UK</h2>
A world without waste. That’s the mission of BioPak, and they’re working hard to achieve it. By disrupting the current take, make, waste model, BioPak’s sustainable food packaging solutions are leading the way to a truly circular economy.
Founded in 2006, BioPak has become a globally recognised brand, loved by businesses and consumers across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Hong Kong and Singapore.
BioPak’s packaging solutions are designed to be better for our planet. They use renewable plant-based materials that are sourced responsibly. To promote responsible disposal of their packaging, BioPak encourages composting through their Compost Connect scheme—a not-for-profit initiative that connects customers to compost pick-up services.

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BioPak is better for people too. The company is B Corp certified and donates 5% of all profits to positive change via their Give Back Fund. BioPak is a business that’s truly committed to the principles of the Triple Bottom Line: People, Planet, and Profit.

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<h2>Issue</h2>
BioPak’s commitment to combating climate change is unwavering. Having been carbon neutral certified for over a decade, in 2022 the team took the strategic decision to shift away from carbon-neutrality, and instead focus on emissions reduction.
This decision wasn’t taken lightly, but they recognised the need to move beyond mere carbon offsetting. They view it as a leap forward rather than a step back, and a move to create a more substantial positive influence on the planet. 
The team believes that understanding their total carbon footprint is vital. They are dedicated to clarifying the sources of their emissions, which span the entire product lifecycle, encompassing offices, product transportation, packaging production, raw material extraction, and end-of-life emissions.
BioPak uses an independent third party to measure their carbon footprint, cost to the environment (including impact on biodiversity, human health, climate change and material scarcity) and lifecycle phases of their products. This is done to enhance transparency, accountability and demonstrate their commitment to combating greenwashing.
BioPak is serious about combating climate change, with reducing carbon emissions being crucial in achieving this goal. A key part of this goal is supporting industrial composting through the Compost Connect scheme. The team is committed to diverting food waste and compostable packaging from landfill and incineration by making compost facilities more accessible across Australia, New Zealand and the UK.
Working together with customers, BioPak truly believes it can pave the way for a more sustainable world for future generations.

<h2>Challenges</h2>
As a B Corp and leader in sustainable food packaging, the team at BioPak feels a keen obligation for environmental stewardship. They describe BioPak as a “profit for purpose business”, and as such are driven to preserve and protect the environment while giving back to the communities in which they operate. 
To honour this obligation, BioPak set up its Give Back Fund in 2012, and since then have dedicated their time and energy to partnering with leading environmental and social charities to bring about positive change. So far they have donated a total of £2,495,352.
In the last decade, BioPak’s commitment to Australian environmental conservation has flourished through a partnership with Rainforest Rescue, which has planted and safeguarded 95,720 trees and reclaimed eight hectares of endangered Daintree Rainforest.

<h2>Solution </h2>
BioPak donates 1% of all profits to community and environmental projects, and here in the UK we’re proud that Ecologi has been chosen to support that commitment through tree planting. The team firmly believes that tree planting is a powerful solution that produces oxygen, stores carbon, and helps tackle climate change.
BioPak’s reforestation work with Ecologi underpins a global commitment to ecological restoration. This ambitious initiative is a cornerstone of BioPak’s corporate responsibility ethos, aiming to not only mitigate the impacts of climate change but also foster local biodiversity, enhance soil health, and support local communities in achieving sustainable development goals.
Working with Ecologi proves BioPak’s cast iron commitment to the environment, and in turn boosts its credibility, enhances its brand reputation and helps its customers make a positive impact. The team regularly communicates their sustainability milestones with customers and colleagues alike, through impact certificate, emails and internal communications.

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<h2>Outcome</h2>
Since 2021 BioPak has planted 102,479 trees with Ecologi, and the team plans to continue to regularly donate to increase this figure as much as they can. 
As a profit-for-purpose business, BioPak’s commitment to protecting the environment is vital in retaining current customers and attracting new customers, who are looking to make a positive impact through their supply chain. The Give Back Fund, and the work with partners like Ecologi, remains a fundamental part of BioPak’s brand messaging and ethos.
Sam Walker, Technical Director at BioPak UK, said:
<blockquote>It&#8217;s great to partner with Ecologi and support both the large scale reforestation projects they do and the more grass roots initiatives which really make a difference locally&#8230; Reforestation and habitat restoration are the foundations of reversing biodiversity loss and critical in the fight against climate change. We&#8217;re proud to work with Ecologi and share the impact data with our customers.</blockquote>

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<h2>Is your business ready to take climate action?</h2>
If this article has inspired your business to start its climate journey, talk to our team today.

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At Ecologi we believe in transparency, which is why, when we make changes, we want to let you know.
As of Tuesday 1st October 2024, we will be making a few changes to the Ecologi Impact Shop, including discontinuing some projects, as well as adding new ones and changing our prices slightly. 
Keep reading to find out more, or jump to the section on <a href="#customers">What these changes mean for our customers</a>, or our <a href="#faqs">FAQs</a>.

<h2>Update to our ‘Carbon avoidance’ project</h2>
We will be removing our generic ‘<a href="https://x.ecologi.com/impact-shop/support-carbon-avoidance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Carbon avoidance</a>’ product from the Impact Shop, and replacing it with a new type of carbon avoidance project, which specifically supports landfill methane capture. This project is among the first in the world to receive the CCP-Approved quality label from the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM).
<h3>Why are we making this change?</h3>
In June of this year, the ICVCM, an independent governance body dedicated to establishing a global benchmark for high-quality carbon credits, <a href="https://icvcm.org/integrity-council-announces-first-high-integrity-ccp-labelled-carbon-credits-as-assessments-continue/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced the first carbon-crediting methodologies</a> that meet its high-integrity Core Carbon Principles (CCPs).
As part of this, the ICVCM have applied its ‘CCP-Approved’ label to a variety of projects that tackle potent greenhouse gases by capturing methane from landfill sites (like our supported <a href="https://x.ecologi.com/projects/avoiding-methane-emissions-from-landfill-in-brazil" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Macaubas LFG project</a>), and by destroying ozone-depleting foams and refrigerant gases from discarded equipment such as refrigerators and air conditioners.
We have been supporting landfill gas projects through our platform since our early days, including some of these first projects which have received this ICVCM stamp of approval. Effective on 1st October 2024, we are replacing the general ‘support carbon avoidance projects’ product on our Impact Shop, to specifically support these newly CCP-Approved landfill methane capture projects.

<h2>Discontinuation of our ‘Renewable energy carbon avoidance’ project</h2>
In addition, we will be removing the ‘<a href="https://x.ecologi.com/impact-shop/support-renewable-energy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Renewable energy carbon avoidance</a>’ product from our Impact Shop. The ICVCM recently decided it would not award the existing renewable energy credit methodologies its CCP-Approved label, so we’ve opted to preemptively stop offering these on our platform. For additional insight into this decision, we encourage you to read our <a href="#faqs">FAQs</a> further down on this page.
<h3>Why are we making this change?</h3>
One of the next decisions made by the ICVCM as part of its assessment of carbon credit methodologies was to acknowledge that existing renewable energy generation credit methodologies do not meet the standard to achieve CCP-Approval. 
One key reason these methodologies don’t meet the CCP-Approved criteria is that the methodologies themselves fail to meet the stringent requirements for additionality, a key factor in ensuring that carbon credits represent genuine emissions reductions that wouldn&#8217;t have occurred without the carbon finance. See this quote from Sylvera on what additionality refers to: 
<blockquote>Additionality refers to the causal relationship between the project&#8217;s activities and the climate benefits it claims including the risk of the project over-crediting. A project is considered additional if the project activities would not have occurred without the revenue from a voluntary carbon credit. The additionality score is a function of how likely it is that the project is additional, and how likely it is that the project is over-crediting on the carbon avoidance or removal it is delivering.</blockquote>
Ecologi has always had a regionalised approach to our impact, consistently applying additional scrutiny to the projects we elect to support through our platform. Only six renewable energy projects are currently eligible for receipt of funding from our platform – out of an estimated &gt;2,200 renewable energy projects on the voluntary carbon market. Our careful selection process has ensured that we consider not only the type of project but also its specific implementation location.
For example, we have deliberately chosen not to fund large hydroelectric dams due to their associated social and environmental risks and we have generally steered clear of offshore wind projects, favouring onshore wind solutions that are more appropriate for the regions we support. We have always prioritised those situated in areas where the energy grid is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, such as Morocco and Mexico, to maximise impact as much as possible.
This all said, following the ICVCM’s ruling on renewables, we have made the decision to stop offering renewable energy carbon credits via our Impact Shop.
We believe it is a good thing that the ICVCM is rejecting certain methodologies from receiving its high-quality label. This rigorous approach is necessary to maintain and improve the integrity of the carbon market – to raise the quality of projects across the board – and to ensure that all participants can trust that their investments are driving real, additional climate benefits.

<h2>Updates to pricing on the Impact Shop</h2>
Finally, on October 1st we will be updating pricing across our Impact Shop to reflect recent changes in market prices, and as a result some of our products will be cheaper to support.
<h3>Why are we making this change?</h3>
As part of our commitment to staying aligned with the evolving voluntary carbon market and providing the best prices we can to customers, we are also adjusting our pricing structure. To better reflect current market prices, we have reviewed and updated all the prices for carbon projects, some of which have reduced in price slightly. We are pleased to report that none of our existing projects have increased in price.
Pricing in the carbon market is dynamic, influenced by a variety of factors including regulatory updates, market demand, geographies, ratings, and broader project qualities. We aim to stay responsive to these changes and ensure that our offerings continue to provide value to all stakeholders involved, from project developers to buyers and the communities benefiting from these projects.
As an impact-driven organisation who put planet first, we want to ensure that we are responsive to the market and our customers are getting the best deal for the impact they want to support.

<h2>What do these changes mean for our customers?</h2>
There are no direct actions that our customers will need to take in light of these changes.
As of October 1st you will notice that our generic ‘<a href="https://x.ecologi.com/impact-shop/support-carbon-avoidance" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Carbon avoidance</a>’ project and our ‘<a href="https://x.ecologi.com/impact-shop/support-renewable-energy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Renewable energy carbon avoidance</a>’ project will no longer be available on the Impact Shop. You will also notice that our new CCP-Approved landfill gas capture project will be available to support, and that the price of some of our existing projects have decreased slightly.

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