We answer your questions

• Why choose Ecologi?

  We created this service to remove the barriers companies face to making great contributions to the climate emergency.

  We run this platform in a way that totally aligns with that principle. You need us to prioritise impact over profit, to run the company completely transparently, employ only the highest standard environmental projects, and be as cheap as chips.

  We’re a team only motivated by securing a prosperous future for the planet.

  Check out our About page for more details on the above.

• What is a Climate Positive Workforce?

  It is where every person in your organisation has their entire life’s carbon footprint offset because they work within your organisation.

  The carbon footprint includes your employee’s time at work, business travel, and their time outside of work.

• How is a Climate Positive Workforce calculated?

  We work with the law of averages, and we know that the average carbon footprint is around 10 tonnes of CO2 per year, we add a good amount of margin to be safe so we commit to offsetting 14 tonnes of CO2 every person.

  To correctly certify your organisation as having a Climate Positive Workforce, we need to take in to account those who travel more and offset more than the 14 tonnes.

  You’ll need to determine how many employees from your organisation fall in to the following bands when you sign up to the Ecologi for Business service:

  Employee
  Travels under 5,000 business miles by car or no more than 2 short-haul return flights, annually.

  Intermittent jet setter employee
  Travels between 5,000 and 30,000 business miles by car or no more than 10 short-haul return flights or under 3 long-haul return flights, annually.

  Frequent long-hauler employee
  Up to 90,000 miles by car or no more than 30 short-haul return flights or under 9 long-haul return flights, annually.

  For those that travel more than our top category you must upgrade some of your other employees to take the overall footprint in to account.

  Just a quick note on employees travelling by plane: aviation is a huge source of greenhouse gases and is almost entirely incompatible with hitting our carbon budget for 2030. Please make every effort to replace your reliance on air travel within your business.

• Can I offset my company's emissions by planting trees?

  No! The trees you’re funding right now are years away from doing their thing.

  Every Ecologi subscription is used for two purposes: to offset your carbon footprint through verified carbon offsets, and – separately – to plant trees.

  The carbon offset projects you fund to offset your footprint rotate each month between top-quality projects that avoid greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere (such as renewable energy projects which displace existing fossil fuel energy). We only fund offset projects which meet the highest verification standards, such as Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard. In addition, we aim to fund offset projects which meet other important sustainability and development standards like CCBS and SDVista.

  Until they are several years old, your baby trees are not mature enough to sequester carbon in large quantities – and those verification programmes which do exist often will not verify carbon removal from trees until they are around 10 years old. That’s why we do not count your trees as contributing towards offsetting your footprint – and only offset using verified carbon credits. Of course – your trees are still out there, quietly sucking up carbon all the same!

• Can I offset my company's entire carbon footprint?

  Absolutely, but this is a much trickier process. It is one of the main reasons we created Ecologi as full calculations are time and cost intensive, and therefore adds a barrier for many organisations to make any positive impact at all.

  For those that really want to get in to the nuts and bolts of their organisation, brilliant! We have partnered with a leading environmental auditor to be able to accurately measure your company’s carbon footprint. With this information they will certify your company as carbon neutral and Ecologi funds the projects that enable this to happen. We will then add any additional carbon offsetting to your profile. Please get in contact to sales@ecologi.com.

• How can you prove the impact?

  We publish certificates each month of how many tonnes of CO2 (‘carbon credits’) have been prevented from going into the atmosphere or removed from it. View these here. The standards of these projects are certified at the highest level by Gold Standard.

  In terms of trees planted, you can see how many Ecologi has bought on our tree planting partner’s site, and the associated invoice receipts.

  But who is checking our partners are actually planting trees? Our partners are regularly audited by third parties, check out this annual audit for our Madagascan tree planting project.

• How much of the money goes to climate action?

  As much as we possibly can, but still keep enough for this programme to sustain itself. We commit to at least 77.5% to be spent on climate action (includes any associated fees like carbon offset membership and transaction costs). What we do with the 22.5%: Our base fee is 12.5% to both run the platform and attract new customers, then we reserve 10% for the overheads of business specific features, services and account management.

  Absolute transparency is a key value of ours, you’ll be able to see our financial reports every quarter.

• Is this tax deductible?

  It is likely that any business undertaking this expenditure will obtain a business benefit in the promotion of the business, and therefore it is likely to be a tax deductible expense for most trading businesses.

  We recommend you seek financial advice if uncertain.