Afforestation

CO2 OFFSETTING by TREE PLANTING/AFFORESTATION

Restoring lost trees is essential to preventing the climate crisis. Trees capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store the carbon in their leaves, stems, and roots, eventually increasing the carbon stored in soil.

We used to have about 6 trillion trees on earth. Tragically, humans have cut down half, so only 3 trillion trees remain. In a perfect world, we would bring back all these lost trees. But we also need land to grow food and this problem is causing more and more frictions between food producers and environmental protectors. Our approach is that food needs to be produced more and more on a non-harmuful way to our planet, and we are experimenting with other types of production. But for now, we cannot restore all 3 trillion lost trees.

Currently we can restore up to 1 trillion trees without encroaching on agricultural land.
Once these trillion trees are fully grown, these new forests could capture between 488 and 1012 billion tons of CO2. That’s about ¼ to ⅓ of all human CO2 emissions so far (2.2 trillion tons).

We at Earthyficial firmly believe that restoring forests achieves much more than just tackling the climate crisis. By ensuring that these forests recover will help us avoid the loss of plant and animal species who call these forests home, especially because the forests house 50% of all life on the planet. Regenerating forests can also improve local water quality and reduce erosion. Furthermore, when selecting our land surfaces if we can, we will always choose the ones that had food monoculture planted prior, because we want to heal the soil and reforest areas that were used for food production.

WHY SHOULD COMPANIES PLANT TREES?

All companies doing business in the EU are subjected to EU regulation and taxonomy on the road to net zero goal in 2050. First of these obligations are already in place through SFDR and non-financial reporting regulation. But to achieve our net-zero goal the regulation and impact on the companies is growing. Already the financial sector evaluates their clients and/or investments through ESG criteriums and is scoring their services to the large companies based on the results of this evaluation. After launching new European methodology for reporting (CSRD) next year will be the period of learning and adapting to these requests. In 2024. the first report will need to be filed under the new methodology. But why is this happening?

Every single company produces and releases some amount of CO2 during its business processes. Through this the companies are responsible for global warming and will by law, be requested to offset their CO2 footprint. Many companies, especially the ones aware of their impact and with long-term business strategies and their stakeholders in mind, are already voluntarily offsetting their footprint.

Of course, there are many other reasons why companies should plant trees, just to point out some of them:
-Positive impact to environmental and ecological issues (water, soil, air, animals, resources scarcity)
-Actively achieving their CSR (corporate social responsibility) and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) goals
-Increase the company value to all stakeholders
-Avoid reputational risks
-Deliver measurable effects

EARTHYFICIAL CO2 OFFSETTING

As a part of our overall business model Earthyficial invests in land areas which are suitable for reforestation and tree planting. Our approach is that we plant local, non-invasive, and best suited for the area tree species. Also, we plant trees in Croatia, Europe because we reach for the highest CO2 offsetting impact locally.

The process is always the same, we enter the area and scan for the local and already in place species. If the area is suitable, we invest in obtaining the land surface (yes, we own or are in long-term possession of all our land surfaces), afterwards the cleaning and removal of un-necessary or even threatening species, tree residues or just garbage disposed takes place. Next step is establishing the CO2 baseline and the planting preparation of the land.

We offer this opportunity to our clients, and we offer three (3) models…
Initial model we call the FOREST PLANTER, consists of planting event and public relations material, coupled with the planting trip with the client company’s employees and garnished with lots of fun and the sense of purpose.

For our clients which prefer a long-term relation with their forests we have developed the FOREST CARETAKER model. This is the model based on the initial one with added yearly maintenance, visual access through on-site cameras and yearly certificate issued from Earthyficial.

The most advanced model is the AFFORESTATION CHAMPION which encompasses all the points from the previous models but is upgraded with constant surveillance, current CO2 data and possibility to approach directly from the e-MOTH application. This is a long-term relationship which ensures the best data quality for the clients, CO2 absorption certificates and on-call access to video streams.

For each of the planting sessions we award a certificate to our clients, and we issue them a digital stamp with tree number confirmation.

WHAT IS EARTHYFICIAL PARK ONE?

It is our first site, a park with the viewpoint located in Vurot, a place near the Kupa River in the Sisak Moslavina County which was devasted by the 6.2 degrees earthquake on the 29.12.2020. This was already devastated area caused by the war in the 1990’s and later by the poor economic conditions and locals moving to larger cities such as Zagreb, Karlovac and Velika Gorica.

Current scope of our operations in on the 2.5 ha of surface, with local species such as oak, chestnut and alder being present and planted. The surface was once used as a vineyard with almost a 100 year old wooden viewpoint and peace, serenity and positive energy which only the forest and good deeds can deliver.