In Depth

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What we learned by offsetting world leaders' travel to COP26

<a href="https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/cop26">COP26</a>, the next UN climate conference, starts on 1st November. In the days before the conference gets underway, world leaders and their entourages from all corners of the globe will make their way to the UK, and over to the conference venue in Glasgow.
As one of our COP activities, at Ecologi we decided to offset the world leader’s flight emissions, as well as planting two trees &#8211; one tree at one of our reforestation sites in Scotland, and one tree in our overseas sites &#8211; for every world leader representing a Party to the UNFCCC at COP26 &#8211; even the ones who didn’t bother to show up.
That’s 197 world leaders’ travel in total, totalling around 331 tonnes of carbon to be offset, and also 394 trees to be planted.

We chose to do this because, whilst all of us should be taking steps to reduce our emissions (including limiting or abstaining from air travel) our team &#8211; guided as ever by our wonderful Climate Committee &#8211; agreed that attending a key UN climate conference in person is one of the more compelling reasons to fly across the world.
As we’ve discussed before, <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/in-depth/carbon-offset-faqs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">offsetting is not a substitute for making cuts in emissions</a>: not flying is always better than flying and then offsetting. However, given the importance of COP26 and the fact that we believe that, for this particular kind of event, attending in-person is better than being remote, we chose not to chastise world leaders for flying to Glasgow.
Instead, we chose to celebrate the idea of leaders coming together to negotiate and discuss climate change. We calculated what their emissions would be, assuming they travelled from the location of their country’s seat of government (a full breakdown of how we did our calculations is below), and we will be retiring carbon credits equivalent to that amount &#8211; in our usual mix of tonnes verified to a leading carbon standard (to see how we select our projects for offsetting, <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/in-depth/carbon-offset-faqs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">take a look on the blog</a>). We hope that this gesture will mitigate some of the negative impact associated with the flights these world leaders have taken to get there.
As well as the offset, we thought the act of planting two trees apiece for all 197 Parties, with each nation’s name on it, into <a href="https://ecologi.com/copse26" target="_blank" rel="noopener">our virtual &#8216;COPSE26&#8217; forest</a>, would represent our feeling of goodwill about the COP finally taking place after a year’s delay.
Our gesture comes with a very simple message to world leaders: make it count.

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The 331 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent produced by these world leaders’ travel to COP is, according to the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator">EPA&#8217;s calculation</a>, approximately the same as the emissions produced by burning 766 barrels of oil, or by consuming over 37,000 gallons of gasoline, or by <a href="https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator" target="_blank" rel="noopener">charging a smartphone 40 million times</a>.
According to <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aag2345" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this 2016 article in the journal Science</a>, the 331 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions produced by sending these world leaders to COP will result in the loss of 993 square metres of Arctic sea ice.
As with every COP, there are already discussions taking place in the media about whether the event is or will be a success. Lots of these are centred around the fact that certain world leaders have ‘snubbed’ the event by not showing up in person. 
More pressing is the notion that concrete, effective climate agreements and commitments need to result from COP26 in order for there to be a realistic chance of limiting global surface warming to 1.5ºC by the end of the century, and perhaps even for limiting it to 2ºC warming.
This is why our message to the world leaders, in particular those representing countries of the Global North and countries with the highest historical and current emissions, is this:
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Welcome to Glasgow.
We have offset your personal travel here (even if you didn’t show up) and we have also planted two trees for each of you, in your country’s name.
We have done this because we believe that running COP26 in person will lead to a better chance of the conference ending in an agreement that will heal our ecosystems, restore balance to our climate system, and support a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.
It is our hope that you will listen to the billions of people worldwide who are calling for climate action. These people deserve and expect you to deliver real, impactful action in Glasgow in the coming days.
The following two weeks are your opportunity to step up. Show leadership. Take initiative. Cooperate. You already know what’s at stake &#8211; your own scientists have been warning you for years.
It now falls to you to carry out your end of the bargain. 
Make it count.

5 things we learned whilst researching this campaign:

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Last year, COP26 was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic whilst other global summits simply went online. Telepresence (a fancy word for <a href="https://drawdown.org/solutions/telepresence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tuning in remotely</a>) is a recognised climate solution since it dramatically reduces (though does not totally eliminate) carbon emissions associated with running the event.
But undertaking an international climate summit online would have its challenges. Aside from the now-routine issues with accidental muting and difficulties connecting, there are more substantial ways that telepresence cannot match being there in person, when complex, sensitive issues are at hand.
As Leo Hickman, Editor of <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CarbonBrief</a>, pointed out during <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/events/2021/annual-lecture-2021.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Cabot Institute’s recent Annual Lecture</a>, it can be much easier for representatives of powerful countries in the Global North to ignore or shut out the voices of their counterparts from the Global South &#8211; when ignoring them can plausibly be blamed on a poor wifi connection.
The negotiations that take place at COPs are incredibly complex, involving thousands of people, and relying on quick, reliable, person-to-person communication to produce effective outcomes. In 2011, the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, which committed the Parties to a new legally-binding treaty to be defined in 2015, was agreed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference#Durban_Platform" target="_blank" rel="noopener">after a marathon 60-hour negotiation</a>. That new accord that the Parties had agreed to be bound by in 2015 became the Paris Agreement. Producing similar outcomes remotely may be difficult or even impossible.

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We already know that the countries of the Global North <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/contributed-most-global-co2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are responsible for the vast majority</a> of historical emissions, and we also know that the countries of the Global South <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/global-climate-risk-index-2021" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are more at risk from the impacts of climate change</a> that they are not responsible for having caused. In addition, key pledges of funding by the Global North to the Global South <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-why-climate-finance-flows-are-falling-short-of-100bn-pledge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">have not yet materialised</a>, and this funding is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59040538" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unlikely to be made available until 2023</a>.
There are a huge number of ways in which rich countries are treated differently on the international stage, but the ways in which the influence of countries from the Global South is suppressed at events such as COP26 goes beyond this. 
The COP has become prohibitively inaccessible for many delegates from the Global South. Two of the key reasons for this are vaccine inequity (since many countries are simply blocked from attending due to UK travel restrictions) and cost (since accommodation in Glasgow for two weeks during COP could set you back well over £5,000). In addition to travel bans, vaccine inequity means delegates from some countries in the Global South may be forced to risk their own health if they make the journey to COP. Delegates from many countries are also forced to reconcile the fact that journeying to COP in multiple legs &#8211; which applies far more to countries of the Global South than those of the Global North &#8211; creates far more emissions than a direct route.
As a result of all this, some activist groups including the Climate Action Network recently <a href="https://climatenetwork.org/2021/09/07/cop26-must-be-postponed-climate-action-network/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called for the COP to be postponed (again)</a> until it could be carried out inclusively. The COP is going ahead, but unfortunately, it still features exclusion and injustice.

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The airline industry operates <a href="https://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/flight/modern/airline3.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">with a ‘hub and spoke’ model</a> &#8211; meaning that some airports (like London Heathrow, Dubai International Airport, and Amsterdam Schiphol) are vast international hubs. From far away, you usually have to travel long-haul to these hubs if you want to get to any of their nearby smaller cities. That’s why <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Dgk7vSL-7ZznhqZPjc5SsUXeQYYZ7HYeA3zkR7_GpUw/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">so many of the routes</a> to get world leaders to Glasgow include travelling through London or Amsterdam &#8211; these are the nearest major hubs.
Many of the possible routes provide hints at their respective countries’ colonial histories. This is why places like Nairobi in Kenya and Bridgetown in Barbados have direct flights to London, places like Luanda in Angola and Maputo in Mozambique have direct flights to Lisbon, and places like Bogotá in Colombia and Lima in Peru have direct flights to Madrid. Often these direct routes are run by the ‘flag carrier’ airline from the country which was historically the coloniser.
There are practical reasons this is the case too &#8211; for example, these countries are likely to share a common language (though of course this is often related to colonial history as well) &#8211; but looking at the data in researching commercial routes to COP, it’s hard to ignore the trends that appear before you.
In parallel, there <a href="https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=climate+change+and+colonialism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are lots of long-reads</a> about the links between climate change and colonialism, and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01460-w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research has been conducted</a> into the coloniality of ecology too. This coloniality is why, for example, the Latin names for hundreds of bird species incorporate the surnames of European people, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-021-01460-w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">with most of these species appearing outside Europe</a>, in formerly colonised countries.

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The Working Group I submission to the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, which was published in August, <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave a stark warning</a> of how slim the window of opportunity now is for us to limit warming to 1.5ºC. In each of the five emissions scenarios examined by the IPCC, warming was projected to surpass 1.5ºC (though it is important to note that in the lowest emissions scenario, warming recedes to 1.4ºC by the end of the century). Current policies have us <a href="https://climateactiontracker.org/global/cat-thermometer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on track for significantly more warming</a> than this.
However, the ‘ratchet mechanism’ from Paris, exercised for the first time in Glasgow, is specifically designed to make these pledges, targets and policies more ambitious over time. This makes Glasgow’s conference enormously high stakes, and also a huge opportunity to show climate leadership. That’s why our message to world leaders is to make it count.

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Over the last five or six years, there has been an unprecedented upswell in awareness and action on climate. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/10/25/climate/world-climate-pledges-cop26.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The progress that has been made in such a short time</a> since the Paris Agreement is truly astounding. It’s still not enough yet, but the needle is starting to turn.
This applies both in terms of policy, but also the economics of climate change, with the price of renewables plummeting over the past few years, as well as the public awareness and consumer attitudes; increasing numbers of people are choosing plant-based diets, electric vehicles and gaining an <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2021/10/14/6e40a/2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">improved public understanding</a> of the importance of climate change.
The latest IPCC report shows us that we need action on climate now. The movement has never been bigger, and we are really only just getting started. In Glasgow, what we need is an understanding of the gravity of climate change, coupled with a fierce determination that will motivate us to drag down emissions and restore nature. The action we’ve seen in these past few years should encourage us, and give us hope that we can seize these immense opportunities and set things right.

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Firstly, we took a list of all 197 Parties to the UNFCCC, alongside listing their seats of government. We chose the seat of government because not all capital cities are used to host government offices or agencies (for example, in the Netherlands the capital is Amsterdam but the government is based in The Hague).
Where multiple candidate cities existed (for example, South Africa, which has three capital cities), the executive capital was chosen, as this is where the relevant world leader would be ordinarily based.
Where the seat of government does not contain an airport, or where a short overland journey could reduce the number of flight legs required, then the nearest accessible airport was selected as the origin airport. For example, we used Amsterdam Schiphol as the origin airport for the Netherlands, even though The Hague is 28 miles from Amsterdam. This process ignores political or other reasons which would otherwise exclude the nearest airport from use. 
Having established the origin airport and the destination airport (Glasgow), a simple online flights search was carried out for each world leader’s journey, to establish the optimal route for the journey. This journey was split out into its constituent legs, and each leg was entered as a return premium class flight into the <a href="https://www.icao.int/environmental-protection/CarbonOffset/Pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator</a> to produce an estimate of the emissions output in tCO2e.
After a few iterations of this process, data for the final legs of many journeys could often be copied across, since so many routes to Glasgow arrive via a popular hub airport nearby &#8211; most often Heathrow, Dublin, Amsterdam Schiphol or Paris Charles de Gaulle. The data shows that 4 countries&#8217; representatives were able to travel to Glasgow in a single flight, 81 were able to reach Glasgow in two flights, 85 in three, and the remaining 27 in four.
A small number of journeys produced by the online search required an airport change between legs of the route on arrival (such as arriving into London Gatwick but leaving London via Heathrow). This was allowed.
A number of assumptions were required for producing the calculations for this campaign, primarily due to lack of available data, including:
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<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">That all world leaders would attend COP 26, and that all of them would fly from the location of their seat of government. Comprehensive lists of world leaders attending the COP are not available, nor are there lists including where they will be travelling from, or their mode of transport.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">That world leaders would fly via commercial routes. In reality, some world leaders will fly to Glasgow on governmental planes, landing at military airbases and so on, as opposed to taking commercially available routes.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">That all world leaders will travel in premium class or equivalent. This makes a difference because emissions calculations per passenger are often produced as a function of the increased physical space afforded to the passenger in their specific class of travel.</li>
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Once we had completed the calculations for the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to get an individual from the seat of government of every UNFCCC Party to Glasgow we summed them together, totalling 330.15 tonnes (which we rounded to 331 tonnes), and we added this as impact to <a href="https://ecologi.com/copse26" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the COP 26 forest profile</a>. 
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<a href="https://ecologi.com/business/overview">Sign up</a> to Ecologi today to start taking real climate action.

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Hopescrolling: 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.

The good news timeline

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We know that funding high-quality carbon credits provides vital funding to impactful projects <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2023/03/20/press-release-ar6-synthesis-report/">which prevent and avoid emissions</a>.
However, it’s vital to look at the bigger picture: how carbon credits are being used is critical in taking meaningful climate action for our planet.
Simply using carbon credits to offset our business-as-usual emissions (often referred to as becoming ‘carbon neutral’) without taking steps to reduce those emissions directly <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/40875/EGR2022_KR.pdf?sequence=3">will not solve climate change</a>. In addition, there’s increasing pressure on businesses following recent crackdowns on green claims, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/15/uk-advertising-watchdog-to-crack-down-on-carbon-offsetting-claims-aoe">claiming ‘carbon neutrality’ through offsetting alone</a>. So, across our industry, we need to rethink carbon offsetting completely, from the ground up.
Let’s unpack this.

Offsetting to compensate for business-as-usual emissions is OUT

Science is clear that minimising global warming requires substantial emissions reductions globally. The IPCC has called for <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/chapter/spm/">50% reductions in emissions by 2030</a>, and global net-zero emissions by 2050, if we are to limit the global temperature increase to below 2°C, and as close as possible to 1.5°C. Every year that we continue to increase emissions, the steeper the curve needs to be for the world to decarbonise in time, 
Traditional carbon offsetting involves paying for carbon credits, each representing one tonne of emissions reduced or avoided by a project (like a solar farm). To offset, you would produce one tonne of greenhouse gas emissions through your business activities, and then offset that tonne by buying a carbon credit. 
However, traditional offsetting also gives free licence to businesses to continue generating emissions, or even increase them! Provided that they are also paying to offset them. You can see this in the visual below.
<img loading="lazy" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-7760" src="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20230516164950/COP27-Net-Zero-Pathway-Workshop.png" alt="" width="960" height="540" srcset="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20230516164950/COP27-Net-Zero-Pathway-Workshop.png 960w, https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20230516164950/COP27-Net-Zero-Pathway-Workshop-300x169.png 300w, https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20230516164950/COP27-Net-Zero-Pathway-Workshop-768x432.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px" />
Even when businesses fund high-quality projects and offset their emissions in full, those direct emissions are still taking place. The benefits of avoided emissions are effectively cancelled-out if the projects funded are only being used to offset your business’s continued emissions. The same is true, even if you are doing your offsetting with carbon removal credits &#8211; because the climate impacts of emitting and then removing greenhouse gases are not the same as simply not emitting them.
This is unsustainable. We need to reconsider completely the way we think about offsetting.

Reducing emissions whilst committing to fund high-quality climate‌ action is IN

For businesses to align their operations with <a href="https://www.iema.net/articles/ghg-management-hierarchy-updated-for-net-zero.">the science of climate change</a>, making direct emissions reductions <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/blog/charting-the-path-to-net-zero-for-businesses">across your supply chain is paramount</a>. That’s a separate process, which offsetting doesn’t contribute toward.
Funding impactful projects through carbon credits still has a huge role to play. The SBTi (Science Based Target initiative) deems <a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/blog/net-zero-urgent-beyond-value-chain-mitigation-is-essential">funding carbon credits as an &#8220;essential&#8221; step</a> in the journey towards global net-zero. 
Supporting these high-quality carbon avoidance projects (that’s the same kinds of projects which are traditionally used for offsetting) is a perfect entry point for businesses to start their climate journey &#8211; whilst these businesses gather their plans to reduce their emissions directly.

Reducing your business emissions is a marathon, not a sprint

One of the SBTi’s core requirements for a business to achieve net-zero is to achieve a <a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/net-zero">minimum 90% reduction in emissions in most sectors</a>. This emissions-reduction journey will not be easy, since that’s a BIG task!

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Imagine having to reduce your financial budget by 90% &#8211; it would require a lot of planning, researching, and implementation, over a long period.

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Near-term targets are going to be crucial to break down those larger long-term goals. SBTi <a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/reports/sbti-progress-report-2021">research in 2021 showed that</a> if your business had set its science-based targets that year, you would need to make emissions reductions of just 4.2% per year &#8211; a much more understandable and manageable target for most businesses.
Remember as well that, even if simply offsetting your business emissions was your goal, then the higher your emissions are, the more it will cost to your business to offset them. This means that whilst there’s an enormous challenge in reducing emissions over a sustained period, it will be much better in the long run, both for your business and for the planet.

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This is a long-term commitment which all businesses need to undertake. That’s why funding high-quality climate action is crucial at the same time. You can give back to our planet throughout the process &#8211; and by doing so, you can have a real, measurable impact <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">on people, communities and biodiversity</a>.

High-quality climate action that ‘goes beyond’

This funding of high-quality climate action outside of a business’s operations is referred to by the SBTi as ‘<a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/blog/going-above-and-beyond-to-contribute-to-societal-net-zero">beyond value chain mitigation</a>’ or ‘BVCM’. They highlight this as a critical contribution to reaching societal net-zero because it has a positive climate impact outside of your business’s direct sphere of influence. Your company can leverage its BVCM strategy to generate positive global change for our planet.
The great thing about BVCM is that it allows your business to select project types and locations that matter to you: you can build your own mix of projects to support.

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Don’t be put off by the scientific terminology. Simply, it means continuously funding climate action via high-quality carbon avoidance credits (and other types of impactful climate projects) whilst reducing your business emissions on your journey to net-zero.

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At Ecologi, we select the carbon avoidance projects we support according to our<a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/updates/how-ecologi-finds-and-funds-the-most-impactful-climate-solutions"> climate impact regionalisation strategy</a>, which focuses on directing funding towards locations and projects with the greatest potential impact.
This approach allows our in-house team to identify which, out of the ~200 quotes for carbon credits we review every month, are the most impactful.
The projects we support &#8211; which you can fund through <a href="https://ecologi.com/impact-shop">our Impact Shop</a> or through <a href="https://ecologi.com/business/integrations">our automations and integrations</a> &#8211; are also independently scrutinised by organisations like our friends at <a href="https://www.sylvera.com/">Sylvera</a>.

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Reframing carbon offsetting in a way that makes a real difference

Don’t let your business fall into the trap of thinking that buying carbon credits gets you off the hook by compensating for emissions which you haven’t attempted to reduce. That way of thinking is all wrong.
<a href="https://sciencebasedtargets.org/net-zero">The net-zero pathway</a> allows you to fund carbon removal credits to ‘offset’ your unavoidable emissions. However, you need to reduce your emissions as much as possible first, and only use removals for up to a maximum 10% of your initial emissions, and it has to be carbon removal, which is very expensive!
Think about your BVCM as funding climate action, full stop. It’s not about compensating to let your business keep producing emissions. It’s just one cost of running a responsible business, whilst you work to reduce your emissions directly. 
Don’t think about it in the context of letting your business carry on emitting as it was before &#8211; because that won’t contribute toward solving the climate crisis.

How to take the first step on your climate journey

Every business is different, and that means that although reducing emissions is vital, funding climate action might be the most suitable entry point for you, on your climate journey.
Through Ecologi, you can do this and more:

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If you’re still not sure where to start, <a href="https://ecologi.com/business/overview#get-in-touch">reach out to our friendly team of experts</a> who will be more than happy to find the right climate solution for your business and for our planet.

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Ecologi - Our story

How Ecologi grew from a climate action subscription to the ultimate climate companion for businesses. Read our story here!

<h2>The thought that turned to action</h2>
The story of Ecologi started one morning in 2019, when our founder <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliotcoad/">Elliot</a> picked up his morning coffee and wondered what would happen if he instead spent that money on addressing the climate crisis? 
As a keen ‘armchair environmentalist’ and self-confessed nerd, his research took him down a few rabbit holes and geek out sessions, as he explored the potential impact of just 10% of the world redirecting their loose change from cappuccino to climate action. 
He soon realised that there are ample climate solutions already available to address climate change and restore nature, and the world’s pocket change is more than enough to fund them. The idea just needed to galvanise support and turn into collective action. 
Ecologi began as a family and friend business. Elliot is experienced in product and development, and his wife <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucyjackk/">Lucy</a> is a website designer who is a deft hand with illustration and branding. They were joined by their friend <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/remotealex/">Alex</a>, a talented developer and entrepreneur who had just finished building a subscription product of his own.
Ecologi was born!

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<h2>Ecologi 1.0</h2>
Ecologi started as a subscription service for individuals to take climate action and was founded as a for-profit social enterprise to scale this idea rapidly. In a world of Netflix, Spotify, Headspace and countless other affordable subscriptions, we figured that there must surely be room in the market for something that could literally change the world? 
We decided on the name ‘Ecologi’ in awareness of two great threats to humanity; global warming, and biodiversity loss. These issues are interconnected, and we cannot solve one without the other. Therefore, the projects that we offer give our customers the opportunity to support both climate action and nature restoration in conjunction.
With an ethos based on transparency and putting our planet ahead of profit, we’ve grown a passionate community of over 18,000 businesses and 40,000 members in under five years. Through the support of our community, we’ve funded the planting of over 60 million trees, prevented over 2.5 million tonnes of CO2e from entering our atmosphere through certified carbon avoidance projects and achieved B Corp Certification. 
Our <a href="https://lookerstudio.google.com/reporting/adfb141d-4153-4c22-b6b4-976f7f3930b2/page/p_9zis9oxt3c">Public Impact Ledger</a> lifts the lid on what goes on behind the scenes here at Ecologi and delves into the evidence and detail of all things climate impact. Check out our <a href="https://ecologi.com/transparency">Transparency page</a> for evidence of our impact and finance, and meet the teams driving us forward.

<h2>The next chapter </h2>
We’ve had a great start, but there is still a lot of work to be done, and we can’t do it alone. So we’ve reset and refocused, with a bold new mission to inspire and empower businesses to accelerate global action on climate and nature. 
SMEs make up 99% of the UK business population and contribute half of all business-driven emissions in the UK. But according to a 2021 survey by the British Business Bank, only 6% are likely to have measured their carbon footprint in the last five years. <a href="https://ecologi.com/articles/blog/climate-commitments-survey">Our own research</a> also found that over four in 10 (41%) of SMEs would like their business to have a net-zero strategy, but feel confused about how to get started.
In the years ahead, the team at Ecologi will champion SMEs as green revolutionaries, empowering them on their journey to reduce emissions and take climate action. There are millions of SMEs in the UK and we believe that with the right support, they can help turn the tide on the climate crisis. 
SMEs are powerful enough to make an impact, agile enough to act fast, and unstoppable when working collectively. Just imagine what would happen if every SME rose up and took action as one? 
<h3>Check out our Climate Commitments Report</h3>
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 📁 Download the PDF report <a href="https://cms-assets.offset.earth/app/uploads/20230328090053/Ecologi_BBB_Report_V6.pdf">here</a>

<h2>Supporting the revolution</h2>
We’ve recently concentrated our efforts on being the ultimate climate companion for SMEs, no matter what stage of the journey to net-zero they&#8217;re on. From calculating their carbon footprint, to reducing their emissions, to funding climate projects, to sharing their impact with their community. And we’ve developed a suite of products to support that journey.
<a href="https://ecologi.com/business/zero">Ecologi Zero</a> is our free and easy-to-use carbon footprinting tool for UK-based SMEs. It’s designed to remove the high-cost, technology and skills barriers to carbon footprinting by connecting seamlessly with Xero accounting software to calculate emissions from existing business data, and requiring no expertise or experience. We’re really proud of it and its potential to be a game changer in enabling SMEs to take the first step on their net-zero journey. 
We’ve also launched our all-new <a href="https://ecologi.com/business/impact-shop">Impact Shop</a>. This pay-as-you-go store for climate impact lets businesses make a purchase for our planet with no strings or subscriptions attached. This allows SMEs to support whatever type of projects mean the most to them, and fund as much impact as they like, whenever suits them. From funding tree planting in specific countries to supporting community-based projects, SMEs can choose from a range of high quality climate solutions and know that they are making a positive impact.
Finally, <a href="https://ecologi.com/business/climate-positive-workforce">Climate Positive Workforce®</a> allows SMEs to bring their employees along on the journey of climate action. This product operates like a regular subscription, compensating for the approximate carbon footprint per number of employees in your business country of operation, while also funding the planting of trees through our trusted reforestation partners. In doing so, your organisation will visualise their impact in their virtual forest, learn more about the different carbon avoidance projects they support each month, and share their impact online.
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<h2>For our planet </h2>
Our planet. This is what brought us together. It’s why we started Ecologi. It’s the purpose of our community. The reason we take collective action. And when we speak to our community, they often say that they work with us so they can do something positive for our planet. 
As we look ahead to the next chapter of Ecologi, these three small-but-mighty words have become our north star, and the core of our brand. 
Now is the time to act together. Let’s rewrite our future. For our planet. 
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