Impact Reporting
Ensuring quality and enabling trust
An impact-driven approach is essential to delivering effective, high-quality solutions that address the interrelated challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, poverty and inequality. We exclusively select project partners and projects that deliver a set of core benefits beyond carbon – such as for biodiversity, communities and local economies – which are certified to leading international standards, such as the Verified Carbon Standard and Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standard. Our standards and impact reporting framework mandates quality, integrity, transparency and accountability across our portfolio of projects.
Our standards and impact reporting framework ensures quality, integrity, transparency and accountability across our portfolio of projects.
STANDARDS
We have developed a robust approach to assessing projects that goes beyond the market’s carbon standards. Part of our framework also involves screening potential buyers before they can procure carbon credits through Ecosphere+. Our standards framework covers:
Buyer
screening
screening
We have screened our buyers for more than five years as a core part of our standards framework, looking for key indicators such as science-aligned climate targets and disclosure. We also screen for clear approaches to high-risk forest and land-use related commodities, such as palm oil, as well as for people-related policies and performance.
Project
screening
screening
We use tried and tested project screening assessments to ensure we only represent the market’s highest quality projects. This ensures integrity and impact across our portfolio and delivers broad, positive outcomes for climate, nature and people.
Project
verification
verification
Each project we represent is verified by third-party auditors and certified under leading international standards endorsed by ICROA, which represents quality assurance in carbon offsetting.
ESG
Our team has developed a leading ESG policy and principles framework that is applied across our portfolio and exceeds the market’s recognised standards, such as the International Labour Standard and IFC performance standards. In this way, we deliver a best-practice approach to project ESG.
Due
diligence
diligence
We conduct our own due diligence on projects in our portfolio to verify claims and project impact. Our robust due diligence process is backed by years of experience and is regularly updated to align with the latest science and policy.
As a member of the Natural Climate Solutions Alliance, we also incorporate the principles established within the ‘Buyer’s Guide to Natural Climate Solutions Carbon Credits’, which helps to identify quality markers for carbon credits.
ESG in focus
impact Reporting
We measure and report impact on the projects we represent across key impact criteria. This impact framework is ever growing and changing to encompass the unique attributes of our expanding portfolio. Our impact criteria includes:
Climate
Projects reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance climate change mitigation and increase the resilence and adaptability of their immediate vicinity.
Species
Projects have a positive impact on biodiversity and act to improve the conservation status of threatened species.
Inclusivity
Projects empower marginalised groups and protect rights to participate in decision-making and economic opportunities.
Fair economic return
Projects achieve balanced returns for project stakeholders.
Ecosystems
Projects protect and strive to enhance ecosystem functions, ecological processes and ecosystem services.
Livelihoods
Projects enhance local employment opportunities in sustainable and resilient businesses and revenue streams.
Sustainable enterprise
Projects enable enterprises to grow in a way that is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable.
Annual reports are accessible to all our clients which capture and share impact.
Sustainable Development Goals
Our impact criteria is aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Working towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is essential to achieving sustainability at a global level and the projects we represent are measurably contributing towards this. For example, protecting threatened forests is a powerful way of strategically addressing all of the SDGs.
Our clients share in the success of these projects, allowing them to demonstrate and report measurable progress against and alignment with the SDGs.
Communicating impact
Through impact reporting, we bring our clients face-to-face with the projects they support. We understand the importance of sharing impact and we support our clients to communicate the unique outcome of their contribution with their stakeholders.
