FAQs

Balance is a fresh approach, moving on from carbon neutral, combining biodiversity and economics with Climate.

The purchase of a Balance Unit guarantees that at least a tonne of carbon will be taken out of the atmosphere over time as a direct result of the company’s contribution. We plant trees in a biodiversity-supportive way, That creates sustainable income for local people in accredited forests with full carbon monitoring, supplemented by the planting of new saplings in a location that is convenient to the client’s business, creating visible impact. Our planting partners have to adhere to the best-practice principles created from the innovative balance methodology and Planting Partner Contract (see below).

All ‘additionality’ is mitigated, meaning that the Balance Unit results in genuine carbon reduction rather than being attached to planting that might have happened anyway (as was sometimes the case in the carbon market historically).

This means that a client can have confidence that their contributions have made a genuine difference, as well as having a visible demonstration of their commitment to the environment through natural woodland growing in accessible locations that provides income for local people.

Every Balance Unit will result in at least one tonne of carbon taken out of the atmosphere over time in a way which creates biodiversity and jobs for local people.

Balance projects are the first of their kind and this new system empowers organisations and businesses to enrich the natural world.

We are in a biodiversity, socio-economic and climate emergency. Balance enables partnership with customers, staff and stakeholders to build a loyal community delivering a positive solution. Forests are public spaces registered to the company, creating a three dimensional brand extension into your customers’ environment and enabling events, planting days and outdoor classrooms. You can keep customers updated on biodiversity and wildlife enhancement, building and maintaining long term relationships.
Beyond its positive environmental impact, Balance has other immediate benefits.

Balance is becoming a recognised platform, a mark of quality that shows an organisation approaches its environmental responsibilities thoughtfully and holistically. It helps companies attract and retain the best people, many of whom want to work for ethically sound companies.

Balance is designed to interact with your own ESG agenda. It moves beyond offsets and powered by our peer-reviewed methodology, the projects are the first of their kind designed to last a minimum of 100 years, in harmony with the true lifecycle of CO₂.

We advocate reduction, efficiency, and then Balance reimagines your relationship with nature.

Our three-pillar approach generates biodiversity by restoring nature, creates sustainable income for local communities and fights for a stable climate by removing carbon.

Biodiversity is not a luxury. Plants, animals and fungi do not exist in isolation but in complex and connected ecosystems that form the foundations of human life.

A healthy ecosystem performs vital roles, including preserving climate, cleaning water, maintaining soil, purifying air, recycling nutrients and creating habitats. A biodiverse ecosystem is also resilient and a good insurance against unforeseen environmental events resulting from climate change. When one part is lost the whole system is threatened, and we are losing biodiversity at unprecedented rates around the world, with thousands of species facing extinction every year.

It is very different. Each Balance® Unit is an investment in the creation of biodiversity, generating income for local communities and in turn benefiting the climate.

The six point legal framework that has evolved from our methodology cleans up, re engineers and converts a carbon credit into a Balance Unit, making it fully interoperable with the existing carbon credit system and retired on the S&P Global index, which means it cannot be double counted or sold on.

The Balance approach takes the lessons from past experience and uses them to provide a radically different and improved alternative.

We plant trees and ensure they are protected. Both matter. New woodland creation is one of the most controllable and tangible ways to take carbon out of the atmosphere and reduce climate change. But forests need protection too. Trees that are planted outside of a sustainable ecosystem will die early and release carbon back into the atmosphere. Under Balance, new trees are planted in a sustainable and biodiverse way, with forests carrying a 100-year maintenance contract from a trusted partner.

For companies that do not have a current carbon assessment, we offer two options.

Balance to Sector is an innovative, validated approach developed by Balance that allows organisations to estimate their Scope 1 and 2 emissions simply by inputting annual turnover and company registration number. These two inputs allow us to provide high accurate estimate with minimal time spent and at no cost. This is an attractive option for many smaller companies without complex supply chains. To try out the simplicity of Balance to Sector click here.

Balance to Assessment is suitable for organisations with significant supply chains who need to include their supply chain emissions (Scope 3) in the calculation of their total carbon footprint. The Balance to Assessment tool provides a thorough in-depth study of a company’s emissions with step-by-step assistance from expert analysts. It is powered by Ecometrica, a leader in environmental monitoring and reporting. Further details here.

Yes, a fully Balanced business is permitted to use the Balance® Certification. This will become a widely known and trusted sign of a responsible business. The accreditation includes the grid reference location of the forest and the ‘vintage’ of the year that has been Balanced. The Balanced logo can be displayed on products accounted for within the carbon assessment, on the company’s communications, and in locations around the business.

The Balance system is independently verified and totally transparent. Each Balance Tonne is visible on a publicly viewable database and the planting and forest management are supervised by reputable environmental organisations such as the Woodland Carbon Code in the UK, Plan Vivo, and Gold Standard among others internationally. Over and above this, the Balance planting partners adhere to the high standards of the Balance Organisation’s six- point Methodology translated into a legal planting partner contract.

Trees are planted in a sustainable and protected way in a biodiverse environment, meaning that the forest will flourish and contribute holistically not just to carbon reduction but to a better environment all round. The trees are indigenous to the local area and planted by reputable planting partners with 100-year maintenance contracts, to enable best practice sustainable forestry. This ensures that the forest overall is managed for survival and growth over the long term. A Balanced Forest not only sequesters an agreed and monitored amount of carbon over time, it contributes to vital biodiversity and social, economic co-benefits.

Every Balance Tonne guarantees that at least a tonne of carbon will be taken out of the atmosphere, which means that planting needs to occur in carefully monitored and regulated Balanced Forests. The ‘extra tree’, linked to the Balance Tonne on our database, is not subject to the same degree of costs and regulation, but this allows flexibility for the trees (one per Balance Tonne) to be planted in locations that are desirable for specific reasons, for example, proximity to customers, or to support visible wildlife corridors near urban centres. This extra tree is not instead of other plantings. It is a small biodiversity enhancing thank you from you to your customers, and a visible symbol of their much-needed support for priceless natural ecosystems enabling planting to take place in locations that would not receive funding from carbon finance.

Yes. The Balance mark contains a grid reference. You are given location details and can visit your forests. Balance in Business is about real trees, real forests, real people, and a real difference. We encourage customer and staff planting days. We will also agree with you where your ‘extra tree’ for each Balance Tonne can be planted.

Dan, the founder of Balance, already has a long history of working with over 250 leading Organisations to reduce their environmental impact, such as Sky, BRITs and HSBC.

As a contemporary solution to reducing environmental impact and supporting biodiversity, Balance is already attracting a diverse range of companies with a strong sense of purpose and a desire to leave a positive mark on the world, ranging from CCC (cost control for the advertising industry) to Ninja Tune (a leading independent record label with offices in London and Los Angeles).

1. Planting approach supports biodiversity, with mixed natural species creating a habitat suitable to the area.
2. Each contract is linked to an area of publicly accessible forest.
3. 99-year maintenance and protection contracts to ensure permanence. Uniquely in harmony with the lifetime of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Existing credits only have a 40-year protection so they don’t work.
4. All additionality issues addressed, meaning that contributions directly result in actual trees planted.
5. Provision against ‘force majeure’, e.g. new roads through forests.
6. Indigenous – Local People. Human rights are at the core of the Balance methodology. Climate action should be consistent with human rights obligations that create income for local people.

Emissions do not cause all their damage immediately. In the process of radiative forcing, it takes 50 years for CO2 to be at its most potent and, at minimum, another 50 years for it to be reabsorbed, which is why it is vital that climate protection actions take a much longer view than has often been the case in the past. We therefore write our planting partner contracts to cover 99 years, although our forests are designed to be around for a lot longer than that. (The Forest of Marston Vale has an 840-year lease, for example.)

Balance carbon quantities are based on the tonnage of carbon sequestered per hectare. For an in-depth read on the science behind Balance please see our peer reviewed methodology.

• Balance™ Methodology Executive Summary
• Balance™ Methodology Part-1
• Balance™ Methodology Part-2
• Balance™ Methodology Part-3

No, it is not; forestry is part of a suite of solutions. However, the moon shot, it is estimated that there is a landmass the size of North America globally that can be reforested. If this was done appropriately, it could address 20% of global warming.

£35 per tonne UK-based carbon with the Extra Tree planted. As international forests come on line prices will vary.

Any data you share with us will be kept confidential. If you would like your company name to be displayed alongside the planting you have supported, that can be arranged!

Some of this can get quite complex, so please feel free contact us if you would like to discuss any of it further, and we welcome suggestions and feedback.