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Our B Corp journey

Ecologi is a <a href="https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">B Corp</a> through and through. Our DNA is based on a commitment to people and planet, not just profit, and the desire to run an ethical business is in our bones. Our whole ethos of <a href="https://ecologi.com/collective-action" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collective action</a> to reverse climate change just wouldn’t work any other way. But becoming a recognised B Corp is no stroll in the park. It’s been a long, sometimes tough, but totally worth it journey. Here’s our story:

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From the day we were first founded in 2018 we knew we just had to become a B Corp. The B Corp movement exists to make business a force for good in the world by prioritising people and planet. Ecologi was set up to give individuals and businesses the power to take on the Earth’s climate crisis. The overlap was huge, and we knew we had the heart, soul and spirit of a B Corp from the word go.

Being a B Corp is a real badge of honour, which isn’t an automatic given just because you believe you run a moral business. You have to <a href="https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/certification" target="_blank" rel="noopener">really prove</a> that the business you run stands for everything that B Corp entails, a requirement that rightly ensures the integrity of the certification. So, in 2019, we set off on our B Corp journey to prove we had what it takes. 
More than two years and 200 fairly detailed questions on how Ecologi is run later, we finally made it official! In December 2021 we announced to the world that we were an accredited B Corp. It was a long process, it was stressful at times, but it was a great learning opportunity that helped us to reassess our performance and plan even better things for the future.

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What was even better than tying the B Corp knot was to have completed the assessment process with a B Impact score of 123.7. To put that into context, most businesses achieve a score of around 80. We told you we were meant to be a B Corp 😉 
Andy Hawkins, Chief Purpose Officer, Business On Purpose (B Leader), had this to say: 
“Supporting Ecologi through their impact assessment has been an inspiration – their commitment to transparency and improving impact was brilliant.”

When we became a B Corp we joined 4,000 (now almost 5,000) <a href="https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">other businesses</a> committed to the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance. B Corps promote full public transparency and legal accountability to strike the right ethical balance between profit and purpose. It’s an illustrious list that includes the likes of <a href="https://www.toms.com/uk/impact-emea/planet-emea.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TOM’s</a>, <a href="https://uk.keepcup.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KeepCup</a>, <a href="https://eu.patagonia.com/gb/en/home/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patagonia</a>, and <a href="https://www.benjerry.com/about-us/b-corp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ben &amp; Jerry’s</a>, to name but a few.

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Once certified, B Corp signs a legally binding agreement to always consider the impact of their decisions on their stakeholders. And in the eyes of B Corp, those stakeholders include everyone; from the company’s employees, to their suppliers, to the community around them, and even to the environment they exist in. We were proud to make this very commitment and to be among the ethical leaders of the business world.

After becoming certified, things really ramped up in the best way possible! Just this month we’ve been recognised as a <a href="https://bcorporation.uk/best-for-the-world-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Best for the World™ 2022</a> B Corp in two categories! Every year, B Lab recognises <a href="http://bcorporation.net/best-for-the-world" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the top-performing B Corps</a> in the five impact areas they assess when awarding B Corp accreditation (Community, Customers, Environment, Governance, and Workers). The global top 5% in each size group and impact area are named as ‘Best For The World’. Our scores were in the top 5% for both Environment and Governance impact areas. And we’re just getting started.

By taking on the mantle of a ‘<a href="https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/news/press/b-lab-announces-2022-best-world-b-corps" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Best For The World</a>’ B Corp, we are aware of our responsibility to model the kind of business we all need to see in the world. We want to prove that competing to not just be the best in the world, but the best for the world, is possible and is a winning business strategy. 
So we’ll continue to work hard and do even better as an equitable, inclusive and progressive business, while encouraging others to <a href="https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/movement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">join the movement</a> and do the same. By working hand in hand with both our own community and the global B Corp community, we aim to improve and make an even bigger impact on the world next year.
Here’s to the next chapter of our B Corp journey…

Ready to make a difference for our planet? Get in touch, and let’s chat about how we can help you on your climate journey. 

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UK Voluntary Carbon Market Guide: Best Practices for Climate Action

The voluntary carbon market plays an important role in corporate climate strategies – but its effectiveness relies on buyers doing due diligence and rigorous quality assessment on each project, as well as placing the purchase of credits in the right place in the climate journey.
To ensure meaningful climate impact, businesses must develop a comprehensive carbon strategy and find ways to fund only high-quality credits in the voluntary carbon market – and this guide shows you how to do so with Ecologi.

<h2>Table of contents</h2>
<ul>
<li>When to buy carbon credits</li>
<li>Our new carbon projects assessment framework</li>
<li>Ecologi&#8217;s core due diligence principles</li>
<li>How Ecologi scores and ranks carbon credit projects</li>
<li>Questions to ask your carbon credit supplier</li>
<li>Take action in the voluntary carbon market</li>
</ul>

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<h2>When should businesses buy carbon credits in the voluntary market?</h2>
Businesses must not use credits in place of making direct, measurable reductions in their emissions. Instead, follow these steps to ensure you buy your carbon credits on the right step of your corporate climate action journey, and in the right way:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Measure your emissions first – to allow you to understand where your business’s emissions are coming from. 
</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Set science-based targets and work towards them – set ambitious targets aligned with the SBTi and compatible with the global 1.5ºC warming target.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM) – design your BVCM portfolio to work alongside your decarbonisation plan and address your unabated emissions in each reporting year. Align it with SBTi guidance and the Oxford Principles. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Buy high-quality carbon credits – use this guide to ensure the carbon credits you buy meet rigorous quality standards. Remember, under the SBTi framework you’ll also need permanent carbon removal credits for neutralising your residual emissions when you reach your net-zero date.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Disclose and report transparently – publicly disclose information about your carbon credit purchases, and clearly communicate the limited role of carbon credits in your broader sustainability strategy.</li>
</ol>

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<h2>Ecologi&#8217;s carbon project assessment framework</h2>
In April 2025, we published a report summarising how we assess carbon credit projects against our rigorous proprietary rubric. A snapshot of what goes into our carbon credit project assessment is below, or you <a href="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20250428124112/Ecologi_Whitepaper_A4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">download the full whitepaper here</a>.

<h2>Carbon project due diligence: Ecologi’s core principles</h2>
At Ecologi, we maintain general due diligence principles which we apply universally across the voluntary carbon market, to support our efforts to supply only high-quality carbon credits.
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">ICROA-endorsed standards only – we supply credits exclusively from carbon standards which are ICROA-endorsed.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Responsive to ICVCM decisions – we support the ICVCM’s two-tick approach to providing CCP-Approval to project methodologies, and we go further still, to assess individual projects on their merits and limitations as well.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Keep the carbon credit life cycle as short as possible – 75% of our credits in 2024 came directly from project developers and their nominated dispensaries (as opposed to intermediaries on the secondary market), maximising the proportion of purchase price which goes to the developer.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Locally-appropriate projects only – we take care to ensure that supported projects are being applied in appropriate geographies, where they can have the greatest impact.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Deep project-level scrutiny – our extensive assessment criteria are specific to each type of project, and we assess every project against these criteria, ensuring the project’s specifics have been taken into account.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Methodological consensus – we synthesise data we receive from our partners Sylvera, BeZero Carbon, Calyx Global and Renoster) with our own in-house analysis to uncover where there is consensus about project quality, and improve confidence.</li>
</ul>

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<h2>How to evaluate carbon credits: Ecologi&#8217;s scoring methodology</h2>
We designed a three-layer assessment process which takes into account the merits and limitations of the carbon standard used, the carbon credit methodology used, and of the individual project design.
The tables below summarise some of the data inputs we use at each stage.

<h3>Assessment level: Carbon Standard</h3>
Examples: Gold Standard, Verra, Puro Earth, Isometric, Plan Vivo.

<h3>Assessment level: Methodology (or ‘Protocol’)</h3>
Examples: GS TPDDTEC, VM0048, ACM0002.

<h3>Assessment level: Project</h3>
Examples: GS 10790, VCS 1571.

Criteria in the assessment are categorised as either quality criteria or risk criteria, and are segmented by our three pillars of impact: Climate, Nature and People. Based on how it meets each criterion, the project gains points for quality criteria, and loses points for excess risk – ultimately giving a risk-adjusted value out of 100 for each of these pillars.
Having gathered our risk-adjusted pillar scores, we use our own unique scoring formula which weights the risk-adjusted Climate score of the project equally with the combined risk-adjusted Nature and People scores. The formula then produces an ‘overall’ score (also out of 100) for the project. In order to be supplied by Ecologi, projects must meet a minimum overall score of 80, and must achieve no lower than 65 in any given risk-adjusted pillar score.

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<h2>Key questions to ask carbon credit suppliers</h2>
Selecting the right carbon credit provider is important to help guide you to make informed choices as part of your corporate sustainability strategy. Before purchasing carbon credits, businesses should ask:
<h3>Project quality </h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you assess/validate/underwrite project quality? If so, how?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do your projects get good ratings from the ratings agencies? If so, what ratings are they?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you source credits directly from project developers, or from the secondary market?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you monitor projects over time to ensure continued success, and how do you remedy it, if a project&#8217;s quality drops?</li>
</ul>
<h3>Due diligence</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you ensure you are supporting the right projects in the right locations?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you account for project permanence and mitigate risks?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What makes your projects additional?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you assess the project&#8217;s impacts on climate, nature and people?</li>
</ul>
<h3>Positioning</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you contribute to the development of a high integrity voluntary carbon market?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you align your portfolios with the Oxford Principles? If so, how?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you reflect ICVCM guidance on carbon credit methodologies and technologies?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Do you build multi-year portfolios that align to mid- &amp; long-term SBTs?</li>
</ul>
As the voluntary carbon market evolves, corporate buyers have the power and the responsibility to demand high-impact credits to drive real climate progress. This means buyers have a responsibility to do due diligence before placing an order for carbon credits.

<h2>Take action in the voluntary carbon market</h2>
As a business committed to corporate climate action, understanding the voluntary carbon market is essential for making informed decisions about carbon credits. Our comprehensive whitepaper provides deeper insights into creating an effective sustainability strategy.
<a href="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20250428124112/Ecologi_Whitepaper_A4.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Download our full whitepaper</a> to learn how your business can navigate the voluntary carbon market with confidence.

<h2>Connect with one of our climate experts</h2>
Please complete our form to arrange a 30-minute discovery call to discuss your goals and get a tailored solution for your business.

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The Good News timeline

It’s not all bad. While there’s a lot of negative news about the climate, let’s not forget the good stuff. Find climate wins, reasons to be hopeful and plenty of positivity in our good news timeline.

Our B Corp journey

We were born to be a B Corp

But we had to make it official

We did it - and aced our scores!

We’re now in (really) good company

We take the B Corp pledge to heart

Celebrating all the wins along the way

We’re not resting on our laurels…

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