The Process

Increasing awareness of the impact of our daily lives on the climate is driving a shift in behavioural change – with many of us now seeking to make choices to tread lightly on our planet and create positive change.

As the leading and longest standing project developer for UK carbon reduction projects, you can invest in our nature-based schemes to do exactly that - helping reduce carbon emissions, alongside supporting a host of co-benefits such as biodiversity, water quality and flood mitigation, as well as positive social, community-based impacts.

For corporates, we can help you act now, by investing in projects to enable you to develop a high-quality, high-impact ESG strategy closely aligned with your brand. This can be as part of a carbon programme, as a general CSR initiative, or, to enhance greener partner choices by applying to the good and services you provide onwards.

For individuals, households and SMEs, our Carbon Club provides an off-the-shelf solution to help you take part in supporting nature in the UK and internationally.

In line with emerging best practice, companies - small and large - are developing carbon programmes following a recommended hierarchy of steps to…

1. Measure your footprint

The first step is understanding your impact as an individual or business. For this you’ll need to calculate your carbon footprint.

For businesses this means using tools, or where appropriate, a third-party measurement consultant to accurately measure the footprint of both your direct and indirect (up & down stream supply chain) carbon emissions.

Forest Carbon does not offer calculation services in house, however our partners at Smart Carbon run carbon calculation courses, certified by Northumbria University and IEMA.

To get an estimate of your carbon footprint, the GHG protocol provides a calculation tool but we recommend you read the guidance and find a third party auditor to ensure that you have calculated accurate benchmark data. This data will form the central evidence base for your decarbonisation strategies going forward.

Other specialist consultants and software tools are available upon request.

2. Implement a decarbonisation strategy

Armed with your carbon calculation data, you can then develop and execute decarbonisation strategies to reduce your emissions in line with the science-based targets. We recommend that you research and select a guidance standard that best suits your businesses.

Here are some useful resources to inform this step:

SBTi.  Oxford Principles for Net Zero. UNFCCC: Get Net Zero Right. SME Climate Hub

Once you’ve implemented your near- and long-term reduction strategy, you can look to compensate for any residual, unavoidable emissions by supporting projects reducing carbon elsewhere.

Note: It is vital to our global goals that you take all necessary and available steps to abate harmful GHG emissions from your activities, and don’t just look to carbon credits as your silver bullet solution. 


3. Compensating for residual emissions through supporting nature-based projects

The process of matching the right type of carbon credits to your business' strategic needs can be difficult to navigate. We have over a decade of experience in helping our customers navigate this market, and finding the certified credits required to meet your needs. Through Forest Carbon, you can support both UK and International projects to help achieve your goals.

If looking to make near-term ‘carbon neutral’ or ‘net zero’ statements, international credits help play a critical role in meeting these as you can offset through ‘ex-post’ or ‘mature’ credits to quantifiably match against your footprint emissions.

To support UK projects, we offer the option to purchase ‘Pending Issuance Units’ (PIUs) from woodland creation and peatland restoration schemes that will deliver carbon removal and avoidance, respectively, over future decades. Check our guidance page on how UK credits fit within business strategy – and how they impact what you can and cannot claim.

***Through investment in UK projects you cannot claim to have ‘offset’ your carbon footprint. For example, new woodlands planted today may not sequester their predicted carbon for years to come. When planting a new woodland, the Woodland Carbon Code certifies Pending Issuance Units (PIUs) of carbon. ***

Ready to take action?

Carbon Club

The Carbon Club is the quickest and easiest way to begin for lower volume requirements (< 300 tCO2e) - investing in one of our UK or International baskets that offer a spread of project types, locations and benefits. Once registered, you can begin supporting projects right away via a one-off contribution or a monthly subscription model. In addition, you’ll have a dashboard presenting your impact and further information on the projects you’ve contributed to. It also gives you the option to easily top up any contributions and track ongoing support.

You’ll be provided with evidence that your credits have been assigned and/or retired in the registry by Forest Carbon on behalf of our Carbon Club members.

Click here for the Carbon Club!

Talk to our team

For larger requirements (> 300 tCO2e) we can help you design a project portfolio to align with brand and values.

Visit our available projects to see some of the new woodland creation and peatland restoration projects we have developed here in the UK.

Get in touch through our enquires form to speak with one of our team.