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Over the past 5 weeks, millions of us have been captivated by Sir David Attenborough’s latest series. We’ve been treated to an insight into the fascinating world of plants and fungi by the Green Planet team, who have put the spotlight on organisms that are often consigned to the background of nature documentaries.
There have been so many incredible stories squeezed into just five 1 hour-long episodes. In this blog, we’ll focus on some of the most captivating organisms Attenborough and his team introduced us to, and look more closely at the biological mechanisms behind their fascinating survival strategies.

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The brutal world of plants and fungi is often overlooked in the search for dramatic nature stories. However, there are hundreds of case studies of deception, stealing, and murder to be found in our “green planet”.
Deep in the South American rainforests, one fungus is responsible for <a href="https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/leaf-cutter-ants-fungi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">destroying 50,000 healthy leaves every day</a>. But this fungus is sneaky, and enlists another species to do its dirty work &#8211; leafcutter ants. These ants slice up leaves and bring them back to their “fungus gardens”, where the fungus breaks down the leaves into a substance that the ants can digest more easily. The benefit for the ants of this symbiotic relationship is clear &#8211; without the fungus they would find it much more difficult to obtain the nutrients they need to survive. 
But what about the plants whose leaves are destroyed by the ants to feed the fungus? It would seem that, as far as the plants are concerned, the fungus is simply an evil, damage-inducing agent in the rainforest. However, this isn’t the case. The truth is that the plants damaged by the fungus’ leafcutter friends may not survive without the fungus. 
If you analyse the air within the rainforest you’ll see microscopic particles: fungal spores. These spores play a vital role in the ecosystem &#8211; <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0140407" target="_blank" rel="noopener">they form the nucleus of raindrops in the rainforest</a>. Without these spores, the climate of the forest would be much drier, putting many plants’ survival at risk. Consequently, the fungus is a lynch-pin holding together the whole ecosystem, so it’s leaf-destroying activity seems a small price to pay!

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While many plants share some basic characteristics, like the ability to photosynthesise and the presence of a cell wall that surrounds each of their cells, the variety of plant life in our world is huge. Over millions of years, plant species have evolved to survive in their specific environments, leading to plants looking very different from one another. The changing outward appearance of a species over time is known as phenotypic adaptation. 
The evolution of the appearance of a species is a very long process, taking place over many generations. Each generation, the individuals with genes that make their appearance best suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce, passing their beneficial genes (and the physical traits they produce) onto their offspring. After many iterations of this process, which can be thought of as genetic fine-tuning, a species consists almost exclusively of individuals that are better suited to their environment than their ancestors.
These slow changes have resulted in some fantastic adaptations, such as Lithops’ “living stone” appearance that prevents animals from eating them when in search of nutritious, edible plants in the deserts of southern Africa. 

Another deceptive plant is Ceratocaryum argenteum. Living in the desert, it needs to ensure its seeds get buried in the cool sand before they get too hot. This grass has evolved an ingenious way of doing this, enlisting their friendly neighbourhood dung beetles! Dung beetles bury antelope droppings in the sand, away from the hot sunlight, to lay their eggs on. Distinguishing between C. argenteum seeds and antelope droppings is very difficult for the dung beetles given the seeds’ incredible adaptations. 
Just as genes influence the visual appearance of an organism, in this case they also dictate the scent of the seeds, causing them to emit chemicals that make the seeds smell like antelope droppings too! It’s mind-blowing to think that just small iterative changes, driven by random mutations in the plant’s DNA over many generations, have resulted in the seeds becoming convincing replicas of antelope dung, precisely imitating the sensory cues well enough to fool the dung beetles into going to the trouble of burying the seeds.

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Lots of us will be familiar with the concept of parts of plants moving. In The Green Planet, Attenborough shows us the Ivy-Leaved Toadflax, often found clinging onto walls in the UK, whose flowers move towards the light, while the seed heads move away from light. This movement towards or away from light is known as phototropism. Famously, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4701145/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sunflower heads exhibit a specific type of positive phototropism &#8211; heliotropism</a>, turning throughout the day to follow the Sun as it moves across the sky. 
Attenborough also introduced us to another common British plant, with two very rare traits in the plant world &#8211; most of its cells do not contain chlorophyll and therefore most of the plant isn’t green, and it doesn’t have roots through which to obtain nutrients. Instead, Dodder plants, of which there are around 150 species in the genus Cuscuta, get their nutrients by parasitising other plants.
Once the Dodder plant seeds germinate, the seedlings grow quickly, trying to find a suitable host plant from which to steal nutrients. Until recently, very little was known about how the seedlings find suitable hosts. <a href="https://serendipstudio.org/exchange/cn/dodder-%E2%80%93-thinking-plant-challenges-classifications" target="_blank" rel="noopener">It had been hypothesised</a> that perhaps the light reflection off potential host plants’ leaves could influence the direction of growth of the seedlings, but no one had been able to prove this. 
Researchers from Pennsylvania State University <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_other/rmrs_2006_runyon_j001.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">carried out some fascinating experiments</a> to try to determine what exactly was influencing the direction of growth of dodder plant seedlings, and discovered something fascinating! They found that it was likely that the plants were detecting volatiles (chemical signals) given off by other plants and using them to decide which direction to move in. In one of their experiments, the researchers placed a number of fake plants sprayed with volatiles from various species of plants equidistant from a dodder plant. They found that the plant appeared to be choosing one set of volatiles (replicating one type of potential host plant) more often than others.
The concept of plants making choices is new, so this discovery revolutionised the way we think about plants. It showed that, even without a brain, some plants must have a mechanism for making choices &#8211; a trait very rarely associated with non-animal organisms.
Another type of plant movement, which caused a headache for farmers long ago, is walking seeds. Yes, seeds that can walk! Before oat was selectively bred to remove this trait, its seeds had two long, bristle-like appendages called awns that twisted as they dried in the Sun, then untwisted when they got wet. This twisting and untwisting mechanism made the seed move along the ground, which wasn’t ideal for the farmers trying to collect them! Once the seed was in a suitable crevice, these awns also helped to drive the seed down into the crack so that it ended up in a suitable position for germination. Selective breeding, whereby only plants with smaller awns that were not able to make the seeds move were selected to produce the next generation of crops, has allowed modern farmers to grow oat crops whose seeds don’t run away!

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Of course, humans have done great damage to our “Green Planet” throughout history. However, encouragingly, in this series Attenborough highlights several case studies that show it is rarely too late to correct these mistakes.
One of the most harrowing sights we see that demonstrates the destructive power of humanity is the land-use change associated with deforestation of rainforest to create pastures for raising cattle. Satellite imagery showing acres of lush green landscapes turning brown and dry over just a few years can make it hard to believe that the life that once lived there could ever return.
But, as Attenborough shows us, it can indeed return! Attenborough tells us about the restoration of life to a former cattle ranch in the Atlantic rainforest in Brazil demonstrates the resilience of nature, and how, given a chance, it can return to even the most desolate environment. 
The owners of this former cattle ranch began the process of rewilding the site by clearing the grasses that had been introduced for the cattle to graze on. They then planted seeds collected from trees in the nearby remnants of the rainforest to ensure that the species they planted were appropriate for the area to maximise their ability to support local biodiversity.
The results surpassed the landowners expectations. Streams that had been dry for decades burst back into life thanks to the trees holding water in the land. Animals began to colonise the site too. First came the pollinators drawn in by the new plants that had taken root. Other animals followed close behind, including a Maned Wolf (which are only found in South America and are <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/4819/88135664" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Near Threatened according to the IUCN</a>), and a Puma and her cubs were spotted by a camera trap on site as well!

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Through the course of the series, countless stories of survival &#8211; seemingly against all odds &#8211; have captured our attention. It’s clear that we have a duty to preserve the amazing diversity of plants and fungi with whom we share our planet because our world would be a less magical place without them.
Beyond their intrinsic value, the direct benefit of healthy plant and fungi populations on human health and wellbeing means that we must protect and conserve them if we are to sustain humanity for generations to come. 
Something that is made obvious throughout this series is that humanity, over the course of human history, has tried to manipulate the green aspects of our planet to suit our interests. This has often backfired, and we have learnt time and again that failing to value nature often leads to unforeseen and negative outcomes for humans. Therefore, we must apply our knowledge and experience about the value of our plants and fungi, and support their health in order to preserve our own. As Attenborough says, “We must now work with plants to make the world a little greener, a little wilder”.
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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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