Frequently asked questions

• Are you a registered charity?

  No, we’re a for-profit environmental organisation.

  When we started Ecologi, we realised that if we became a charity and relied solely on donations and government grants, then we wouldn’t be able to reach the global scale of climate impact that we’re intending to achieve. A thriving and self-sustaining business model is attractive for investors who often come with deep pockets and mean we can grow quickly and have more impact.

  We operate quite similarly to a non-profit or charity though, and highly value transparency. We publicly publish financial information, climate impact data, and our board meeting minutes in our Public Impact Ledger. When it comes to funding climate impact through our subscriptions and Impact Shop, our margin of around 20% is comparable with that of some of the best charities.

• How much of my money goes into climate projects?

  When you buy impact through Ecologi’s self-serve marketplace (Impact Shop), 80% of your money goes directly to funding your selected projects. Included with project costs are any incurred transaction fees carried out on your behalf. This means that our operating margin on revenue we bring in for climate impact purchases is 20%.

  This 80/20 allocation applies to other product offerings too, like our API and Shopify integrations, and our individual subscription plans. For our Business subscription plans (Climate Positive Workforce®) our margin is slightly higher – 22.5%. 

  Transparency and trust are core values of ours. They go hand in hand with responsibly putting your money to the best use possible. Have a look at our Public Impact Ledger to see evidence and certificates of Ecologi’s impact purchases.

• How does Ecologi set its prices for funding climate impact?

  At Ecologi, we pride ourselves on working high-quality partners and selecting high-quality projects to support, and this is reflected in the cost of funding impact on our platform.

  As well as the project quality, the price of carbon credits is also influenced by a number of factors, such as the project type, the overall volume, and the ‘vintage’ (the year the carbon avoidance or removal took place).

  We try to make funding climate impact as accessible as possible through keeping our pricing as affordable as possible, though funding only high-quality projects does come at a premium – so whilst we don’t inflate our prices, the prices we list should reassure you that the projects you’re supporting through Ecologi are top-quality.

• How can you prove that the carbon projects I support are having real impact?

  All carbon credits Ecologi buys on behalf of our community are retired on a public registry operated one of the leading carbon standards. The carbon standards which meet our strict quality requirements are Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard and the Puro Standard. We publish links to the credit retirements, which evidence how many tonnes of CO2e have been prevented from going into the atmosphere through our funding. You can view these here.

  Whilst the carbon standards themselves help to ensure that the projects are having real, permanent impact, they are not the only thing we do at Ecologi to ensure project quality. Our expert Impact Team also vets the projects in-house, assessing for project quality and additional social and biodiversity benefits. We also make use of third party platforms like Sylvera to provide independent tech-based scrutiny of the projects.

• How can you prove that the reforestation projects I support are having a real impact?

  Our team takes great care in selecting some of the leading ecosystem restoration organisations in the world, to take care of the reforestation projects you fund through our platform.

  Our strict due diligence and partner onboarding process covers a wide range of criteria which our partners must meet before we bring them onboard. This includes drilling down on the type and quality of forest restoration they do; how they handle risks on the ground, including risks from fires and logging; how they prioritise social impact, equity and fairness; their ecological integrity, reputation, credentials and expertise. We also actively monitor our projects centrally, receiving and reviewing reports of planting and survival rates; using satellite imaging platforms to examine tree cover over time; and undertaking spot checks during the site visits our team undertakes on the ground.

  All of this leaves us confident that the projects you support are having a real impact on the ground – not just through the planting of ecologically appropriate trees, but also through generating rippling co-benefits for the communities in which they take place.

  Finally, we also publish evidence of our reforestation project funding on our Public Impact Ledger – which you can see here.

• Do you use your tree planting for carbon offsetting?

  No. The trees you fund for planting through Ecologi are completely separate from the amount of  CO2e you’ve offset through supporting our carbon avoidance or removal projects. 

  At Ecologi, we love trees – they can help to sustain biodiverse ecosystems and have a huge role to play in keeping global climatic systems in balance, taking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to prevent it from causing temperatures to rise even further. But, the trees you’re funding right now are years away from storing carbon in substantial quantities.

  You can only carry out offsetting by buying and retiring carbon credits from reputable accreditation bodies (such as the Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard, and the Puro Standard), representing third-party verified tonnes of CO2e avoidance or removal. The only time you’ll find tree-planting activities on the Ecologi platform which can be used for offsetting purposes, would be through the retirement of verified tonnes through Afforestation, Reforestation & Revegetation (ARR) projects. This is entirely separate from our general reforestation initiatives.

  Read our explainer blog to learn more.

• How do you choose which projects you support?

  At Ecologi, our in-house Impact Team maintains an in-depth due diligence process to ensure our reforestation partners are of the highest calibre and the climate projects we support are those with the highest chance of success and efficacy.

  Before we scrutinise climate projects on an individual basis, we refer to Ecologi’s climate impact strategy for selecting the kinds of projects we support. This is a regionalised strategy – which means that our team takes a look at exactly which kinds of climate interventions are best applied around different regions of the world – according to the latest science. You can read our Climate Impact Regionalisation Strategy in full, here.

  When it comes to reforestation partners, our strict due diligence and partner onboarding process covers a wide range of criteria which our partners must meet before we bring them onboard. This includes drilling down on the type and quality of forest restoration they do; how they handle risks on the ground, including risks from fires and logging; how they prioritise social impact, equity and fairness; their ecological integrity, reputation, credentials and expertise. We also actively monitor our projects centrally, receiving and reviewing reports of planting and survival rates; using satellite imaging platforms to examine tree cover over time; and undertaking spot checks during the site visits our team undertakes on the ground.

  All of this leaves us confident that the projects you support are having a real impact on the ground – not just through the planting of ecologically appropriate trees, but also through generating rippling co-benefits for the communities in which they take place.

• Does Ecologi work with any business, even high-emitters?

  When it comes to funding climate impact through our self-serve tools like the Impact Shop and our subscription plans, the Ecologi platform is open to all.

   

  We’ve deliberately made this decision to keep funding climate projects accessible, under our ethos that supporting climate action is about progress, not perfection. 

   

  However, we also strive to be an ethical organisation. And so for all bespoke purchases, where Ecologi provides assisted support to larger businesses, and commercial partnerships, we vet all prospective clients and partners against a strict proprietary scorecard which scrutinises how aligned the organisation is with our values. This includes taking a look at their sustainability credentials and the way they communicate about their climate initiatives.

   

  We don’t enter into these kinds of relationships with organisations who are directly involved in the fossil fuel industry, or in other industries that don’t align with our values (such as weapons manufacturers).