Ecologi

General Chat
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Edit - updated thread title as they’ve changed names to Ecologi

Anyone else use Offset Earth or a similar service?

https://offset.earth/

I enjoy the ease of use of the service set it up, choose the options you want and you’re doing a small bit too help the world. They’ve just launched the option to support a project in the UK.

You get monthly updates on what projects you’re money’s gone into and can read more about them.

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It came up as a suggestion a few months ago on Facebook so thought I’d give it a try, I’m glad I did to be fair there’s a whole host of knowledge about the projects, who’s been helped and where. I think mines a tenner a month now, just have it set for myself and 4 pets and then added on the UK project support one this month as that’s totally brand new.

I think the link below should show what I’ve saved on carbon so far, how many trees etc.

https://offset.earth/dave81

It’s good to be able to do it this way as for most people going out and planting a forest or helping out with various projects is pretty much out of our scope, at least this way there’s a sense of inclusion

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I read it as the £3.40 extra for the tree each month would plant a new tree each month.

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Yeah it’s a tree per month or at least that’s how I read it when updating the subscription along with helping the woolly pigs out. Works like the normal trees abroad it’s just more expensive to do the work over here

https://offset.earth/projects/reforesting-dalry-scotland

Edit, I’ve dropped them a message will see what the response is

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Yeah have been set up with them for about half a year now. Like you say, nice to be able to contribute to doing some good and so much transparency and info on the site so you know where your money’s going.

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We have done it for the last 9 months and upgraded last month to add the UK project too. :slight_smile:
https://offset.earth/boudjinis

Also, I fund this to book flights and I will most likely try it once covid19 is gone. https://flygrn.com/

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I also read it as just one tree - “Get a photo of your actual tree” and “GPS coordinates of your tree” - all sound like just the one.

Interesting initiative.

Though I am a bit caught up now in reading about how it they are set up / fund these projects - I’m really keen to know how my money is spent in a donation, so what I discovered for anyone else interested:

Tree Planting

  • The donation to Offset Earth covers both Tree Planting and Carbon Offset
  • Tree Planting, by default, is done in a Madagascar mangrove, and donations are made to another charity doing the planting, Eden Projects.
  • Accordign to the Eden Projects FAQ page, it costs about $0.10 to plant 1 tree in Madagascar, including all salary + maintenance costs too - so 12 trees = $1.20.
  • Looking at Eden’s financials, about 55% of their annual spend goes directly on tree planting (buying trees, paying people to plant trees, equipment), and 30% on their staff salaries. (The remaining 15% on marketing, sundries, other cost of doing business things).

CO2 Offsetting

  • Carbon Offsetting projects - are funded Monthly, and go to a “Gold Standard” offsetting project per month. (Gold Standard is an organisation managing donation to carbon offset project, not neccesarily a statement of the quality of the project).
  • It’s only the offsetting project that counts in the CO2 Footprint calculation (i.e. they don’t count the tree planting in that).
  • They have a register of all the projects they have historically supported here - with links to evidence that ‘credits’ have been spent.
  • They basically “buy” offset credits through this platform, and allocate them to the project of choice. Market place for projects basically.
  • The platform does a lot of work to certify and validate the projects too, so a lot of this work is funded.
  • Per their page, they offset 14 Tonnes CO2 / year / subscriber, or about 1.2 tonnes per month.
  • I see average figures on the two platforms they donate to hovering around $10-15 USD per Tonne CO2, or between 5-10 USD / tonne, depending on the project. (Though I assume there is some form of bulk donation benefit?)
  • I can’t see much info about how those credits relate into final £ amount the project they fund recieve though - myriad of fee structures that look confusing, and their financials don’t divulge costs of salaries, office expenses, etc, separately to issuing money to the projects they fund. (The last report shows a $700k net
    profit).
  • Would be interested to see the actual financial cost of their donations, not just the “credits” they donate - I can’t otherwise understand how the 14 tonnes figure is achieved.

The Offset Earth website makes a claim that 85% of the donation goes to projects, but that in reality is donating that money to other charities who use it to fund other projects - so it’s not quite taking into account the other organisations costs / where your overall donation goes.

Somehow spent longer looking at this than I should have. Not intended as any commentary, other than I want to understand where my donation actually goes.

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Yeah it’s a tricky balance right - just have to determine what that level off how much good vs how much admin am I paying for.

It’s interesting how transparent they are - they do have a page around their revenue (about £45k per month), and as you say, their financials coming soon - but yet I do find it a bit convoluted to understand what the money actually does.

I’ve been donating to the Woodland Trust for a while, who have a massive UK based initiative to replant forests. https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/. If anyone is more interested in the Tree Planting side of Offset Earth - worth a look!

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I’ve been using them for a few months and it brilliant. I make extra donations when I can and I’ve got a forest going on in Madagascar now!

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Damn it! I literally spent two days last week planting actual trees - are you now telling me there was a way to do this from my bed without destroying my back? :man_facepalming:t3:

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Yup - just click https://offset.earth/danwoodhouse

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:eyes::thinking:

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Yeah would be a good little feature something like that, I wonder if they have any usable APIs

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So just to confirm the UK addition for the monthly subscription would add one tree per month or more if you add multiples in

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My 1st one with the UK added goes out at some point tomorrow, be interesting to see what updates I get in regards to that one and the progress etc

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Because you’re making yourself carbon neutral and if the best way to achieve that in the marketplace is via for profit companies I’m happy with that.

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The thing that worries me about carbon offsetting in general is partly that the funds often go to a for profit company, but also, how does the customer know whether or not these trees would not have been planted anyway?

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Oh I’m definitely conscious of where I spend my money, for example we use Octopus Agile for our electricity, which is 100% renewable anyway but then make sure we use the majority of energy at off peak time when the grid itself is at its greenest.

However we also enjoy our holidays and spending time in the sun and there’s no way to travel by air in a green fashion, so I offset everything. I’d rather do that through Offset Earth who allow you to clearly see where your money has been spent and have a really strong approach to transparency but may spend of your money with for profit organisations than a murky charity!

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Also don’t see why those have to be mutually exclusive and it needs to be ‘instead’.

I try and buy as ethically/green-focussed etc as I can, but I can’t change everything, and so use offset as well.

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The two aren’t mutually exclusive!

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