Yes, Reduce Our Carbon is a UK based Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). Our registered charity number is 1188256
Email us at info@reduceourcarbon.org
This is a measure for someone's impact on the planet. Human activities release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The result of all these actions combined is your carbon footprint, measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2e.
CO2 is an abbreviation of carbon dioxide which is one of the major greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Human activities have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere to unsafe levels which has increased the temperature of our planet, causing climate change.
In June 2019 the UK government committed to a target of Net Zero emissions by 2050. Unfortunately, there will always be emissions that can't be reduced and so these unavoidable emissions must be ‘offset’ by removing emissions in the atmosphere by the equivalent amount through initiatives such as tree planting.
Because we all still eat, travel, and do other everyday activities, it is not possible for a person to have no carbon footprint. Offsetting is a way to compensate for your carbon footprint by funding carbon reduction projects in other parts of the world. For every tonne of carbon dioxide (measured as carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO2e) produced by your lifestyle, you can fund offsetting projects like tree-planting to reduce the amount of CO2e in the atmosphere by a tonne. We would always recommend trying to reduce your carbon footprint by emitting less, and then offset your remaining emissions to become 'carbon neutral'.
Being ‘carbon negative’ is going one step beyond ‘carbon neutral’ and means that a person offsets more carbon than they emit into the atmosphere.
There is no current consensus on what an individual's carbon target should be, but the least you should aim for is to offset your current CO2e footprint and become 'carbon neutral'.
There are different ways of calculating your carbon footprint, but it is usually done through an online calculator that asks questions about your lifestyle. An average UK adult has a carbon footprint of approximately 10 tonnes CO2e per year.
Planting trees is only one of the solutions, but it is the cheapest and quickest way to buy us time to change to a more sustainable way of life. Planting trees also permits countries to have more time to stop their dependence on fossil fuels and adopt renewable energy.
We commissioned a study to understand the best science available and have found that a sequestration rate of 20kg of CO2 per tree per year is a sensible, slightly conservative figure which we use for the basis of all our calculations.
If you are interested in learning more about climate change, you can visit our Resources page to find a series of articles, blogs, and scientific studies that will provide you with important information regarding climate change.
The donations received are used to fund tree planting in Nicaragua and the Caribbean. You can look at the work we do here.
We publish quarterly reports about the work we do and how the money is spent.
We are a registered charity in England & Wales and as such you can harness the benefits associated with that status.
Having received and approved applications for local communities to participate in our projects, we employ local people to conduct regular monitoring and mentoring to ensure that trees are being planted and cared for. We also have country directors to support the local monitoring staff.
Participants plant trees and in exchange they receive planting fees and fruit trees on a 1:1 basis. After 3 years they are able to start to commercialize the fruit crops from the trees planted, which generates vital additional income in the community.
Trees are chosen based on what works locally. We never introduce non-native species to the eco-system, and we work with our local partners to evaluate the most successful and sustainable tree species. The most significant risk is that trees don’t survive their first dry season. To mitigate this, planting fees are paid in instalments: 50% after planting and 50% in the following year, based on the number of trees that have survived. Our partners are thereby incentivised to replace any trees that die.