CO2 certificates that are sold for reforestation in faraway regions of the world to improve the CO2 balance of private individuals or companies are nothing new on the market – on the contrary, there is a lot of criticism of them. The Vorarlberg startup Tree.ly by Christian Lutz and Jodok Batlogg (also known from the database scale-up Crate.io) wants to do better. Because on the one hand they rely on local forest areas, and on the other hand they have also chosen a strict certification body with TÜV Austria.
“We map the forest digitally, accompany the entire certification process up to validation with annual monitoring by TÜV AUSTRIA and take over marketing and sales of the verified climate protection performance (VER) for a sustainable contribution to global climate protection.” says Jodok Batlogg from Tree.ly. Project partners of the Vorarlberg startup include the Montafon Forstfonds, FBG Klostertal, FBG Jagdberg, the city of Bludenz and the city of Dornbirn with 21 municipalities. Together they manage a forest area of almost 13,000 hectares, which corresponds to around 13 percent of the total forest area in Vorarlberg.
Since the forest is considered a CO2 store, TÜV Austria can then use the ISO 14064-2 standard and the “SILVACONSULT® Forest Carbon Standard” methodology to calculate the CO2 credits that these trees cause (the forests are managed sustainably for a period of 30 years ), certify. Subsequently, both private individuals and companies can buy these CO2 certificates at Tree.ly. This is not yet possible directly online, but if you are interested, it is best to contact Tree.ly by email.
We examine the business with CO2 certificates 🌱
New source of income for forest owners
Tree.ly wants to offer forest owners a new business model in this way. “Previously, to earn income from your forest, you primarily had to cut down trees and sell them. At the same time, their forest provides valuable ecosystem services. Tree.ly enables European forest owners to generate additional annual income from CO₂ storage in their managed forest. But if you leave the trees standing, you can earn money by selling the CO2 certificates. For example, a farm with 520 hectares of forest would earn 36,500 euros per year with the certificates.
Owners of forest plots can register their forest plots with Tree.ly, then a feasibility study will determine how much money the CO2 certificates can generate per year – the basis for deciding how they will deal with their trees in the future.
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