The Carbon Shop
Local, Real, Accountable Carbon
Help Save The Planet!
Climate Realities
On land since the pre industrial revolution era
Predicted to accelerate over time
Per year in the UK, compared with pre-industrial revolution
What is carbon offsetting and why do it?
Human activity releases enormous amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, directly intensifying climate change. We must all eliminate our own carbon emissions as much as possible. Unfortunately, some emissions are still unavoidable. Carbon offsetting exists to compensate for those. Most projects on substituting carbon emissions focus on planting trees, however trees can take up to decades to absorb enough carbon and store it in the soil. We need faster solutions to combine with trees, and that’s why The Habitat People are dedicated to creating meadows. Meadows are effective sponges of carbon and can reach maximal absorption rate by the third year. Our carbon offsetting services are all based in North East Scotland and designed to increase rare and valuable biodiversity.
Learn more about our way of offsetting carbon through habitat creation and why it’s important below.
Our essential values for carbon offsetting
Each criterion must be satisfied before carbon credits are sold
GHG reductions are additional if they would not have occurred in the absence of a market for offset credits. Additionality is for carbon offset credits to have a maximum contribution to climate change reductions.
Evaluating whether GHG reductions are additional is complicated. Emissions reducing activities can be byproducts required by law, or simply a byproduct of a profitable investment. These emissions reductions are not the result of offset projects. For example, insulating a building will reduce heating or cooling costs, but may be done for cost saving. For an activity or project to be additional, the possibility to sell carbon offset credits must play a decisive (“make or break”) role in the decision to implement it.
Determining whether an activity is additional requires comparing it to a scenario without income offsetting. Unfortunately this is unknowable and must be predicted. Only a project developer can say whether the prospect of selling carbon offset credits was truly decisive, but regardless of the truth, every project developer has an incentive to argue that it was.
Our answer: we create habitat to sequester emissions and fund this by the sale of carbon credits. Without carbon sales we couldn’t create habitat. The initial soil organic carbon measurements of our sites are low, this is a criterion for us. Our work increases soil organic carbon.
Overestimation allows permanent GHG emissions to escape accounting systems, furthering climate change.
- Overestimating baseline emissions or underestimating baseline absorption rate. This baseline is used to determine GHG reductions.
- Underestimating actual emissions. Many kinds of carbon offset projects reduce but do not eliminate GHG emissions. This value is used to calculate the overall emissions savings, which will consequently be overestimated. Errors in measurement cause this problem, and lack of uncertainty factors..
- Failure to include project emissions. Projects often include large works, transport, supply chains and more. These all have associated carbon costs and must be included to determine the net carbon emissions reduction. For example forest establishment requires large number of saplings, to be grown and delivered, incurring energy, water and transport, then disturbing the ground releasing more emissions.
- Forward crediting. Selling credits ahead of projects can lead to over issuance and in worst case scenarios unexecuted projects
Monitoring and verification of projects must be ongoing to prevent overestimation and guarantee veracity. Monitoring methodology must be robust and cautious values derived from these measurements. Carbon offset project developers have an economic incentive to report data that increases sales (overestimation). Verification of monitoring data is essential to ensure veracity.
Our answer: we have designed an independent monitoring program reliant on Rothamsted Research and blockchain to report accurate and elucidating figures.
Carbon stored must be permanent in order to compensate GHG emissions which are permanent.
Projects should have measures to make reversals impossible or extremely low improbable. Carbon should not leak back into the atmosphere. For example, a forest fire on an afforestation project would re-release a large component of carbon stored and sold.
Our answer; we use historically unchanging land, such as estates, and form legally binding contracts with landowners to make it impossible to release the carbon we store for future generations. Furthermore, our sites are attractive to humans and biodiversity, improving the landscape and increasing long term security.
Only one company should be selling each carbon credit.
In a scenario where two companies laid claim to the same 50 tonnes of CO2 reductions. The claimed reduction would be 100 tonnes, but the actual reduction would only be 50 tonnes. If both companies sold this double-claimed carbon, there would be 50 tonnes of emissions. This type of “double counting” can happen in three ways:
- Double issuance occurs if more than one offset credit is issued for the same GHG reduction.
- Double use occurs if two different parties count the same offset credit towards their GHG reduction claims.
- Double claiming can happen if offset credits are issued to a project, but another entity (e.g., a government or private company) then counts the same GHG reductions towards its own GHG reduction goal.
Our answer: we do not share projects or an accreditation system with other companies and will be transparent with our quantity of carbon sold, when compared with our independent party monitored carbon storage value it will be self evident that we have not double counted and carbon.
Our answer: all supply chains are fully investigated and replaced by our own nurseries using locally collected seed where possible. We propagate numerous nationally endangered species of plant. Our sites are designed to also be home to great wildlife with carefully planned layouts to allow visitation and appreciation
Land use should be benefit the greatest number and the environment.
High-quality offset projects should not contribute to social and environmental harms. Projects should be legal where they are located, with reviews and safeguards built into the process. Furthermore, the capacity of offsetting projects to combine and multiply the benefits of carbon sequestration sites should be fully exploited. Notably, biodiversity should benefit and ecosystem services should be reinforced.
Our answer: all our supply chains have been extensively studied and replaced by our own wildflower nursery where possible. We propagate several nationally endangered species on our sites and maximise the total number of plants and wildlife. Our sites are designed by conservationists with whole ecosystems in mind. A careful lay out of paths allow visitors to appreciate without disturbance. The mere presence of our sites cleans air and water locally.
Our process
Creating habitat isn’t easy. Creating habitat for emissions reductions and biodiversity is even less. Our conservationists have innovated the first and only local, biodiverse, and meadow-based offsetting scheme.
Watch our video to hear more on how we do this.
we are The Habitat People
We are a company of passionate, skilled and ambitious conservationists. Our mission is to create carbon absorbing and biodiversity rich habitat. Our vision is to accelerate Scotland’s journey to net zero and arrest biodiversity decline.
Questions and Enquiries
07507 482375
available from 10:00 – 18:00
Address Old Mill, Castle Fraser, AB51 7LD
Email david@habitatpeople.co.uk