Guide
12 essential questions to ask before buying carbon credits
Protect your business from low-quality offsets with this practical buyer’s checklist.
Introduction
Not all carbon credits are created equal. Before investing in climate projects, it’s vital to ensure the credits you purchase are high-integrity, science-aligned, and transparently verified.
This free guide from Ecologi gives sustainability, procurement, and ESG teams a practical checklist to help protect your business from low-quality offsets — and invest in projects that deliver real climate impact.
Avoid greenwashing. Invest in credibility.
Carbon credits can accelerate your path to net-zero - but only if they’re genuine. With new scrutiny from regulators and stakeholders, businesses must now prove that their climate investments meet robust standards such as Verra, Gold Standard, and Puro.
This guide outlines 12 essential due-diligence questions every buyer should ask to safeguard reputation, meet compliance requirements, and ensure measurable outcomes.
What’s inside the guide
✔ Project integrity and certification
Know which carbon standards matter and how to verify project authenticity.
✔ Transparency and traceability
Ensure every credit is registered, retired, and reported with full visibility.
✔ Permanence and risk management
Learn what to ask about buffer pools, monitoring, and long-term climate security.
✔ Impact and co-benefits
Discover how to identify projects that deliver biodiversity and community impact alongside carbon reduction.
✔ The Ecologi approach
See how Ecologi’s science-led due-diligence framework ensures quality, integrity, and transparency across every portfolio.
Who it’s for
Sustainability and ESG leads
Procurement and finance teams purchasing carbon credits
CSR, comms and investor-relations professionals
Legal, compliance, and risk managers