Offset the emissions you cannot reduce

Offsetting is about investing in projects that save or remove carbon elsewhere to balance the emissions that you have generated. When you offset with us, we will use certified carbon credits to ensure your offsetting is accounted for correctly and we will ask you to contribute towards our tree planting programme.

Why do we use both carbon credits and tree planting?

Tree planting is a highly beneficial way to offset greenhouse gas emissions as it physically removes carbon from the atmosphere and helps to promote biodiversity. This is why we ask everyone who is offsetting with us to contribute towards our tree-planting programme. The downside is that the carbon is removed as the tree grows so it takes years for the full effect to be realised. This makes tree-planting unsuitable to offset emissions that have already happened. Also, although we take every care to ensure that our trees are nurtured for at least 50 years, the future is uncertain and there is no way to guarantee that every tree will remove the same amount of carbon and that they will never be cut down.

For this reason, we also purchase and retire carbon credits, which are independently certified to have saved a tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent for each credit purchased. This means that, once we have calculated your carbon footprint accurately, you can be confident that you have offset the right amount to support your claim to be carbon neutral.

Our tree planting programme

We have partnered with 9Trees Carbon Offsetting CIC to create a new woodland in the UK. 9Trees is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, set up by a group of people determined to make a positive impact on the environment. With years of experience in nature conservation, promoting native wildlife and sustainable woodlands whilst creating much needed countryside jobs throughout the UK is at the core of 9Tree's mission.

We chose 9 Trees as our partner for a number of reasons:

• We are not in this just to plant trees and to walk away. We are creating woodlands that will be nurtured, with our partners, for a minimum of 50 years. Our conservation expertise means that we are planting the right trees in the right places.
• We don’t plant monocultures that have no benefit for local wildlife; we do plant a mixture of native tree species that are selected for each location to match the needs of wildlife.
• We don’t plant trees on valuable habitats that would be destroyed by trees; we do check that the tree-planting will enhance the local environment before we start.
• We don’t take your money and just send pictures of generic trees; we show you precisely where the trees are and what they are, and offer opportunities for you and your team to visit the woodland and to carry out some of the work.
• We don’t use contractors without checking them out first; we do vet all our contractors before we use them, and we try to use people that have been recommended by the landowner when we can. We work hard to create local jobs for each woodland.
• We don’t double-count our trees; we do account for each individual tree, and its capacity to capture carbon is counted only once and is attributed to a specific subscriber or business partner. We maximise its ability to capture carbon for at least 50 years by nurturing and managing our woodlands to check that the potential of our trees and their benefits to the local environment is met.

Benefits of tree planting

Tree planting has a wide number of environmental benefits, beyond tackling climate change:

• Each tree that is planted and nurtured for 50 years removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locks it up in its biomass.
• When done correctly, trees create and restore habitat for wildlife and increase biodiversity.
• Trees stabilise the soil and help prevent further soil degradation.
• Trees add to the beauty and diversity of the countryside helping inspire the next generation of conservationists
• Our programme helps to create much needed jobs in the countryside.

 also offer a personal carbon offsetting subscription. Please visit their website for more details.

Our carbon credit portfolio

We have carefully put together a portfolio of carbon credits that are all independently certified by the Gold Standard, so you can be confident that the carbon savings are real. Our projects also have additional social and environmental benefits beyond carbon savings.

Once you have purchased your credits, we will retire them in the Gold Standard public registry to prevent double counting and to put your offset on the public record.

In this way, we ensure that you meet the best practice principles of offsetting; verifiability; additionality; permanence; and avoidance of negative consequences.