High-quality carbon offsets
Not all offsets are created equal. In many cases, low-quality offsets caused harm to the projects and damaged their buyers’ reputations. We need to ensure that our offsets are high-quality and benefit both nature and people.
We take the guidance of the Stockholm Environmental Institute and the Oxford Principles to ensure offsetting actually helps to achieve a net-zero society.
Quality carbon offset credits must be associated with greenhouse gas reductions or removals and should be:
Additional: Net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions savings or sequestration benefits of any project are over and above those that would have arisen anyway in the absence of a given activity or project, under the “business as usual” scenario.
Not overestimated: Sequestered carbon must be accurately estimated and accounted for. In all forest restoration projects we work with, there are always provisions to supplement the planting if a project performs below the estimate.
Permanent: If trees are planted to be cut and burned, the carbon they have sequestered will return to the atmosphere. By creating living and circular ecosystems, we ensure that the carbon generated by any project will stay in the system and benefit the local people in perpetuity.
Not claimed by another entity: Double-counting is a big issue in the world of forest carbon. Using blockchain technology and tokenizing each carbon tonne, we can show full and transparent history for each token’s journey, solving one of the biggest challenges in carbon trade.
Not associated with significant social or environmental harms: This should be a no-brainer, but there have been many reports and instances when carbon development projects harmed local environments and communities. By conducting thorough due diligence, we only choose projects that deliver multiple and long-lasting benefits to people and nature.
To ensure that these criteria are fulfilled, Vlinder only works with projects that have been verified by Verra or the Gold Standard. They are independent international verification bodies that issue credits based on projects’ robust methodologies and performance.
For Vlinder reforestation projects we have the following additional impact criteria:
Real-time tracking: We carefully check how much CO₂ each project offsets. We are working on our remote sensing and machine learning methodologies to track our mangrove forests from space. We also provide regular project updates from our partners on the ground.
Community engagement: We partner with eco heroes, who have decades of experience working with local communities to enable them to be environmental stewards. Every project we consider puts local people and their prosperity in the center of ecosystem restoration, as this ensures good governance and long-term sustainability of the project.
Impact on achieving the SDGs: We apply sophisticated impact evaluation criteria to all our projects, and we carefully select those that address more than one of the Sustainable Development Goals. By hitting multiple targets, we ensure that we help prevent climate change and empower local communities for generations to come.
