Our portfolio
We fund a portfolio of projects from the top carbon offset providers. This list changes over time and may include wind farms, solar energy, methane and biofuels. Contact us at info@greenbetween.com for a list of our most up to date portfolio.
We typically do not fund reforestation or forest conservation projects, as it is unclear these have a predictable long term impact on global warming (see "permanence" below for details). This does not mean reforestation or forest preservation is not a good thing. Rather, in selecting projects to fund we prefer to focus on other areas whose long term impact are more straightforward to address and measure today.
Our criteria for choosing organizations/projects to fund include:
- Additionality:
Would this offset have occurred without our funding the project? There are some providers who sell offsets that would have happened otherwise without our funding. For example, would a unit of wind energy have been produced without us? If so, all we are doing is help someone make more money per unit of wind energy sold, versus generate additional green energy. This can get tricky. For example, if a parcel of rain forest is bought to prevent deforestation what sort of impact does this really have? Will another tranche of rain forest get burned instead to generate new farm lands or for wood for cooking fires? If so, what impact have we really had to net carbon production? - Quantifiable impact & ongoing monitoring:
Does the project produce measurable results? Does the project have processes in place to check the impact the project is having over time and whether goals are being met? - Permanence of impact:
Is the project guaranteed to have the environmental impact claimed over the long run? For example, in a reforestation project, how do we know for sure the forest wont accidentally burn down in a forest fire (or even be sold for firewood) 10 years from now? - Avoid double counting:
Countries which have signed the Kyoto Protocol are required to hit certain carbon reduction limits. In some cases, a government will sell carbon credits that are supposed to go to business who cant meet emission or other standards. By buying one of these credits, you are not really helping reduce CO2 emissions (read more about this on our FAQ page - Offset timing:
We prefer funding offsets that are ongoing (e.g. expansion of existing project) or ones that will occur in the relatively near term. Some organizations will sell offsets that will occur many years in the future. In some cases this works fine, but we are concerned about situations in which a very long term project may get funded and then for one reason or another is never completed. - Other environmental benefits:
Optimally the offset project may have additional positive environmental impacts (for example, keep a water source clean and the like). This is not a prerequisite for us, but rather a "nice to have" additional feature of a project.
Additional information on choosing an offset provider
A great report from CleanAir-CoolPlanet has come out recently regarding how to chose a carbon offset provider. We highly recommend reading this if you decide to buy a carbon offset independently of GreenBetween.
We prefer to fund for profit projects as we feel in order to create sustainable energy alternatives the organization needs to be self sustaining and generating profits it can reinvest for additional green energy generation.
There is also some confusion in the industry about RECs (renewable energy certificates) and their impact as offsets. You can read more about RECs on our FAQ page.
Use our carbon calculator to calculate and offset your individualized carbon emission.
Disclaimer about our funding
Please note, we buy carbon offsets from a variety of vendors. Some of them charge more or less for a ton of carbon offset. This means the offset we purchase for you may be more or less then the actual amount we quote (e.g. if you buy a 7 ton offset, we may in some case end up buying a 6.5 ton offset, or a 7.5 ton offset depending on the provider). However, on average the numbers we quote will be roughly correct, and all the money you provide will be used to buy offsets.
In addition, it may take us up to 1 month to make the purchase of your offset. Typical times will be faster then this, but we want to be transparent with our timing and all aspects of our funding process.
Interested in getting your project funded?
We are constantly looking for new projects to fund that focus on sustainable, renewable approaches to energy. We typically fund for-profit organizations under the belief that renewable energy will only succeed if it is self-funding and self-sustaining over the long term. If you are a project leader looking for funding, please contact us at info@greenbetween.com
