Head of Marketing
Edited: 23 Sept 2025
10 min read
Tree planting and carbon offsetting are often talked about in the same breath. But while trees are powerful tools for drawing down carbon and restoring ecosystems, not all tree-planting efforts are suitable for carbon offsetting - at least, not in the way most businesses need them to be.
At Ecologi, we love trees. Our members have funded reforestation projects around the world, helping to restore habitats, improve biodiversity, and strengthen climate resilience. But if your goal is to balance out carbon emissions through offsetting, the type of project (and how it's measured and certified) matters.
In this article, we’ll explore when tree planting can be used as part of a credible offsetting strategy for businesses, how to assess the integrity of forestry credits, and what role tree planting should play in your broader climate action plan.
What is carbon offsetting and how does it work?
Carbon offsetting is the process of balancing out your emissions through a carbon offsetting strategy by funding the reduction or removal of carbon elsewhere. But not just anything qualifies.
To be considered a legitimate carbon offset, a project needs to meet strict criteria. Each tonne of carbon dioxide avoided or removed must be:
Real: emissions reductions must actually happen
Measurable: tracked and monitored over time
Additional: outcomes would not occur without funding
Permanent: stored carbon remains out of the atmosphere
Verified: audited under a recognised standard
These criteria are the difference between tree-planting (reforestation) projects that can issue carbon credits, and therefore be labelled offsets, and those that simply plant trees (still important!) but aren’t considered offsets. It’s important to understand this difference. As a business, making credible claims about your climate action is critical.
Globally recognised carbon standards such as Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and the Woodland Carbon Code have developed methodologies for calculating and verifying tonnes of carbon avoided or removed. Each project must follow a set protocol, undergo third-party audits, and meet requirements related to permanence, leakage, and social and environmental safeguards.
If a project doesn’t follow these steps, or doesn’t issue certified credits, it cannot be used for offsetting or making carbon neutrality or net-zero claims.
How to offset carbon emissions effectively
At Ecologi, we support businesses to fund high-quality, science-aligned climate solutions. When it comes to offsetting, that means verified, measurable impact.
We do this through our rigorous carbon project assessment framework, and we start by sourcing certified high-quality carbon credits from avoidance and removal projects that have already delivered results. Each credit represents one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e) that’s either been prevented from entering the atmosphere, or permanently removed from it.
Before any project issues credits, it undergoes a rigorous verification process under a recognised carbon standard in the Voluntary Carbon Market, such as Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard. This process includes third-party audits, monitoring, and proof of climate benefit.
Once issued, credits can be bought and retired. Retirement is what makes the impact count. It ensures the tonne of carbon can’t be used again by someone else, preventing double counting and guaranteeing that the climate benefit is real.
This is what credible offsetting looks like. It’s not planting a tree today and hoping it sequesters a tonne of CO₂ thirty years from now. It’s paying for real, verified climate outcomes and contributing to the scale-up of solutions we urgently need.
Why most tree planting does not qualify for carbon offsetting
Traditional tree planting projects are one of the most recognisable climate actions initiatives, but that doesn’t mean every tree planted can be used to offset carbon emissions.
In fact, the vast majority of reforestation projects today don’t meet the requirements to issue certified carbon credits. That’s because most fall short on one or more of the key offsetting criteria: permanence, measurability, or verification.
Here’s why:
Carbon sequestration takes time. Trees absorb carbon gradually as they grow, meaning the climate benefits accumulate over years or decades. This makes it difficult to match immediate emissions with immediate removals.
Nature is unpredictable. Events like droughts, fires, or disease can reduce the lifespan of planted trees, affecting how much carbon they ultimately store.
Only projects that go through rigorous, independent verification can issue carbon credits. Unless a tree planting project is verified by a recognised carbon standard (like the Woodland Carbon Code or Verra’s VCS), it cannot issue credits or be counted toward offsetting.
When tree planting qualifies for carbon offsetting
Tree planting can be part of a credible offsetting strategy, but only in specific circumstances. Most importantly, the project must be designed, verified, and monitored as a carbon removal project.
These are known as ARR projects: Afforestation, Reforestation, and Revegetation. These projects involve planting trees in areas that were previously forested or naturally suitable for forest ecosystems, with the express goal of sequestering carbon over time.
Here’s what makes these projects offset-eligible:
They’re measured and monitored to calculate how much carbon is removed over the lifetime of the forest.
They’re certified under recognised standards like the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) or Gold Standard, or national schemes like the Woodland Carbon Code in the UK.
They issue verified carbon removal credits, which can be purchased and retired to offset emissions.
Unlike traditional reforestation, ARR projects follow strict protocols for permanence, additionality, and leakage, and are subject to third-party validation. These safeguards ensure that the tonne of carbon claimed is not only real and measurable, but also durable and additional.
But even then, there’s often a delay: trees must grow for several years before enough carbon is sequestered to issue verified carbon avoidance or removal credits. That’s why many standards issue pending issuance units (PIUs) early on, which aren’t eligible for offsetting until verified removal occurs.
In short: yes, you can plant trees to offset emissions, but only if you’re supporting a high-integrity ARR project that meets all the requirements of a certified removal credit.
How to assess the integrity of forestry carbon credits
Tree-based projects can play different roles in climate strategies, but they’re not all created equal. Some restore ecosystems without generating carbon credits. Others avoid emissions by protecting threatened forests. A smaller subset removes carbon through verified afforestation or reforestation.
Here’s how the three main project types compare:
Planting new trees Example project: Restoring native Polylepis forests in the high Andes | Preventing deforestation of old-growth forests | Sequestering carbon through Afforestation, Reforestation & Revegetation (ARR) | |
|---|---|---|---|
❌ Do not generate carbon credits | ✅ Do generate carbon avoidance credits | ✅ Do generate carbon removal credits | |
Role in offsetting | Why: The amount of carbon being sequestered by these trees isn't being measured. Instead, average rates of carbon sequestration are used to estimate the amount of carbon that a tree will lock away over its lifetime. But this assumes that trees absorb a set amount of CO₂ each year which isn't the case, and that all trees planted will reach maturity, which is very rarely true. | Why: Protecting trees that are actively in danger of being cut down prevents the carbon that is locked away in those trees from being released into the atmosphere. The amount of carbon locked away in the trees and surrounding soils is measured to accurately calculate the amount of CO₂ that would have been released without the existence of the project that prevented deforestation. | Why: Trees planted in Afforestation, Reforestation & Revegetation (ARR) carbon removal projects are monitored to accurately measure the amount of CO₂ that they have removed from the atmosphere. |
Certification | ❌ No carbon certification | ✅ Verified Carbon Standard | ✅ Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard |
Role in net-zero | ✅ Can be funded as part of the net-zero journey (also known as BVCM alongside prioritising business emission reductions). | ✅ Can be funded as part of the net-zero journey (also known as BVCM alongside prioritising business emission reductions). | ✅ Can be funded as part of the net-zero journey (also known as BVCM alongside prioritising business emission reductions). ✅ Counts as nature-based carbon sequestration. |
Each project type serves a different purpose and each has different implications for climate claims. That’s why Ecologi applies detailed due diligence when selecting projects to include in our offsetting portfolio.
We also encourage businesses to ask the right questions when evaluating forestry projects:
Is the project certified by a recognised carbon standard?
Does it follow a methodology that ensures permanence and additionality?
Has it issued verified credits, or are credits still pending?
Are the broader impacts on biodiversity, local communities, and ecosystems being measured and monitored?
Offsetting with integrity starts by knowing exactly what you’re buying and how it fits into your broader climate strategy.
The wider benefits of tree planting beyond carbon
Even when it’s not suitable for offsetting, tree planting can offer powerful co-benefits for nature, people, and the planet.
Well-designed planting and restoration projects help:
Support biodiversity by restoring degraded habitats, reconnecting wildlife corridors, and protecting threatened species.
Improve water cycles and soil health, especially in areas vulnerable to desertification or erosion.
Boost local livelihoods through community-led planting, agroforestry, and sustainable land management.
Strengthen climate resilience by helping ecosystems absorb shocks from heatwaves, droughts, and extreme weather.
These benefits aren’t always captured in carbon credit accounting, but they’re real, and increasingly valued in climate and nature frameworks. In fact, some standards (like Verra’s Climate, Community and Biodiversity Standards and Sustainable Development Verified Impact Standard) track these wider social and environmental outcomes alongside carbon.
That’s why Ecologi supports a range of reforestation and ecosystem restoration projects that aren’t used for offsetting, but are still a critical part of the climate puzzle. They contribute to beyond value chain mitigation (BVCM) - voluntary action that goes beyond a company’s direct footprint.
Tree planting isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card for emissions. But it is one of the most visible, inspiring, and community-empowering ways to restore balance with nature - and that has lasting value far beyond carbon.
How tree planting fits into a credible business climate strategy
If you’re serious about tackling your climate impact, as many companies are these days, tree planting can’t be your only tool, but it still has an important place.
Credible climate strategies start with cutting emissions. That means measuring your footprint, setting science-based targets, and driving down emissions across operations and your value chain. It also means disclosing your progress and updating your plan as you go.
Once you’ve done what you can to reduce emissions internally, you’ll be left with residuals - those unavoidable emissions that remain even after decarbonisation efforts. That’s where offsetting comes in. And when it comes to forestry, only high-integrity carbon removal projects like ARR are appropriate for neutralising these final emissions.
But tree planting isn’t just for the final 10%. Supporting reforestation and restoration can also be part of your BVCM. These are the actions businesses take to contribute to global climate goals even beyond their own footprint, helping scale nature-based solutions, support communities, and deliver biodiversity outcomes.
In short: tree planting has a role to play, but it’s one part of a much larger journey. When done well and in the right context, it can strengthen your climate impact, your brand, and your relationship with nature.