Science-driven solutions for real climate impact

Balance places a strong emphasis on enhancing and preserving biodiversity through sustainable practices. Species-rich ecosystems are more resilient because different species respond differently to environmental stressors, thereby buffering the system as a whole. The promotion of native tree species in environments that meet their climatic and abiotic requirements fosters genetic diversity, enhancing prospects for climate adaptation and bolstering resilience.

Forests with diverse species composition also have enhanced soil structure, which improves water infiltration and reduces surface runoff. This process helps to recharge groundwater supplies and maintain stream flow during dry periods. Moreover, trees and understorey vegetation reduce soil erosion by stabilizing the soil with their root systems, which is particularly important in hilly or mountainous regions.

Biodiversity also plays a crucial role in carbon sequestration. Diverse forests store carbon far more effectively and safely than monoculture planting. Soil organic matter (SOM), composed of a mixture of materials including soil microbes, decaying organic matter, and decomposed plant and animal tissues, is enriched by high biodiversity, allowing for increased sequestration of carbon (SOC) for several decades. High levels of SOM typically enhance the soil\’s capacity to store carbon, thereby contributing to long-term carbon sequestration.

Biochar, a type of charcoal made from organic materials such as agricultural waste and tree trimmings, offers significant agricultural benefits by improving soil fertility and supporting healthy soil ecosystems. In fire break areas, Biochar plays a crucial role in forest fire management by promoting vegetation growth, soil moisture, and–through its production–removing combustible material from forests. This innovative and ancient technique also plays a vital role in carbon sequestration, holding carbon in an inert form over the long term. By encouraging the use of Biochar across our projects, Balance maximizes the broader ecosystem and climate benefits of every Balance Unit.

The Balance Methodology not only focuses on environmental sustainability but also significantly enhances human rights through various co-benefits. Agroforestry, permaculture, and apiary (beekeeping) initiatives create sustainable livelihoods, promoting food security and economic resilience for local communities. Water catchment enhancement improves water quality and availability, supporting fisheries that provide both nutrition and income. Sustainable firewood management prevents deforestation and reduces environmental degradation, ensuring that forest resources are available for future generations while mitigating fire risks. The diverse array of possible forest products, from timber to non-timber items, can help to sustainably boost local economies. Eco-tourism, an additional benefit of healthy, biodiverse forests, generates income while raising awareness about environmental conservation. These practices present locally valuable economic alternatives to monoculture planting systems, which often lead instead to environmental and economic instability.

Although Balance cannot directly engage in financial compensation to these communities, we encourage project developers to create socio-economic benefits through ethical practices. Additionally, Balance is able to be directly financially involved in the conversion of biochar credits into Balance Units, which are then sold to clients, ensuring that the economic benefits of sustainable practices are realized by local stakeholders.

The Balance Unit is a unique metric developed to combine carbon absorption with biodiversity creation and socio-economic well-being, creating a more comprehensive and reliable measure of environmental impact and direct benefits for local people. This approach transforms the traditional carbon finance model by requiring long-term ecosystem and community benefits, ensuring that projects support principles across the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Balance Unit is built on three pillars:

1. Biodiversity
2. Human Rights/Community Economic Benefit
3. Climate Change Mitigation

Balance aligns projects with the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. This alignment ensures that the projects contribute to national and international goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting sustainable development. By integrating NDCs into the Balance Methodology, we support countries in meeting their climate commitments,and create a new income stream by  becoming balance  project developers and advancing global efforts to combat climate change. Balance’s full approach to the UN’s SDGs can be found here.

The Balance Methodology generates a wide range of co-benefits that extend beyond environmental impacts, designed to create alternative income streams to monoculture crop plantations. These include:

• Permaculture: A design philosophy inspired by natural ecosystems, permaculture creates self-sufficient and sustainable landscapes, minimizing waste, optimizing resource use, and contributing to the local market with marketable products.
• Apiary: Cultivates bee colonies for pollination and products like honey and beeswax, sustaining local economies, enhancing food production, and generating additional community income.
• Water Catchment Enhancement: Improves water quality and availability by reforesting, conserving soil and implementing efficient land management, which boosts water storage, reduces flooding risks, and promotes river flow, also potentially increasing sustainable income from fisheries.
• Forest Products: Encompass a wide array of goods from forests, including timber and non-timber products such as furniture, fruits, nuts, and medicinal plants.
• Sustainable Firewood Management: Ensures the responsible use of forest resources for energy, preventing deforestation, minimizing environmental impacts, and removing combustible materials to mitigate fire risks.
• Eco-tourism: Unlike monoculture-planted sites, dense and biodiverse forest environments are valuable and worth visiting. Eco-tourism markets can generate significant income for local people while increasing the incentive for others to invest in forests, too.
• Agroforestry: Integrates trees, crops, and livestock to enhance ecosystem resilience, augment biodiversity, improve soil fertility, and establish sustainable livelihoods.
• Biochar Production: Converts organic biomass into charcoal through controlled pyrolysis, enhancing soil fertility, retaining nutrients, and sequestering carbon. This is effective Carbon Capture and Storage, involving and benefitting indigenous communities with long-term environmental benefit. Biochar credits can then be converted to Balance Units and sold, generating a long-term and sustainable income source for our project developers.

Biochar credits can then be converted to Balance Units and sold, generating a long-term and sustainable income source for our project developers.

In addition to our primary focus areas, Balance is involved in two important by-products of the Balance Methodology: promoting regenerative agriculture and carbon capture and storage (CCS). For participating project developers, this can result in a long-term economic benefit to the developer, creating a sustained relationship for decades to come, generating capital, sequestering carbon, and improving soil fertility.  These practices, particularly the use of Biochar, are highly effective and cost-efficient methods for improving soil health and capturing carbon. By integrating these approaches into its projects, Balance further enhances the sustainability and impact of each Balance Unit, contributing to a healthier, happier, and more resilient planet.