Over the past few months at Treepoints HQ we’ve been consulting with sustainability experts and doing a deep dive into the voluntary carbon market. The reason? To make sure that our carbon offsetting stays in line with best practices. The climate crisis is one of the complex issues facing our planet, and there is constantly new research being conducted into ways of fighting it. We’re committed to making our members’ donations always have the maximum climate impact at the best price. 

So we’ve spent a lot of time researching and discussing, and working out how we can do what we do best. And the next natural step of course is to share our findings with the Treepoints community. With this in mind, we’ve drawn up a Mission Statement explaining how we pick the projects that we support. And now we’re ready to share our Mission Statement with you, our community. 

Below is a brief summary of our Mission Statement.

Background

The climate crisis is the biggest threat facing our planet today. Science tells us that reducing our emissions will not be enough to limit global temperature change to within 2°C. We will also need to balance remaining greenhouse gas emissions through offsetting. But this can be daunting for individuals and businesses new to climate action. This is where Treepoints comes in. 

Our Mission

Treepoints is on a mission to help individuals and businesses understand their impact on the environment and then do something about it. 

We make it easy and affordable for everyone to have a planet positive impact by offsetting their carbon footprint and supporting the highest quality climate projects around the world. 

Our Method

We have devised a set of essential criteria and a qualitative risk matrix to assess the potential quality and effectiveness of every climate project that we consider working with. Our aim? To try and ensure that we offer a broad portfolio of carbon offsetting projects that have the maximum climate impact, are cost effective, and have a low level of risk attached.

Essential Criteria 

Our essential criteria for a project are that its impact is accurately measurable and independently verified. Projects must be accurately measurable so that we know the exact quantity of greenhouse gas being removed from the atmosphere. 

And we only work with projects that have been certified by an internationally recognised third party standard such as the Gold Standard and the Verified Carbon Standard. The rigorous requirements of these standards involves assessment of the project’s additionality, efficacy and co-benefits. THis ensures that the emissions removal or reduction actually takes place.

Qualitative risk assessment

Our risk matrix takes into account the likely additionality and sustainable development benefits of a project. 

Additionality means that the project’s greenhouse gas emissions removal would not have taken place without the additional income from the sale of carbon credits. 

In addition to removing or preventing greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere, the projects we support bring sustainable development co-benefits for communities and ecosystems around the world. 

Some projects deliver more sustainable development benefits than others, whilst their additionality might be lower, and vice versa. We endeavour to balance additionality and sustainable development benefits across our climate project portfolio.

You can view the full qualitative matrix here.

Our portfolio

Based on these essential criteria and qualitative risk assessment we curate and maintain a broad and balanced portfolio of carbon offsetting projects. 

You can see our full portfolio to date on our public ledger, along with evidence of carbon credit retirement, and details about each project on our website here.

Our stance on…

Within our Mission Statement, we wanted to take the opportunity to address a few climate project questions that come up time and time again. 

Where do we stand on renewable energy projects, which often come under fire in the news? 

How do we feel about emissions removal compared to emissions reduction? 

And why do we also support tree planting projects and ocean-bound plastic collection, without counting these towards carbon offsetting? 

If you’ve been asking yourself any of these questions, check out our Mission Statement to find the answers. 

Our commitments

1. Revising our strategy and project selection as best practice evolves.
2. Encouraging our members to reduce their emissions before offsetting.
3. Maintaining full transparency about the projects we support and how we select them. 
4. Purchasing a portfolio of carbon credits from projects that have been evaluated according to our risk matrix and meet all of our essential criteria. 
5. Balancing maximum climate impact with cost effectiveness.

Let’s do this! 

You can read the full Mission Statement here.