Should you carbon offset with 9Trees? What I learned
A quick word on carbon offsetting
Carbon offsetting: complex, controversial and easily misunderstood. Derided by some as an unscientific money-making scam and yet defended by others as an important part of climate action. Less well communicated, however, is that not all carbon offsetting is equal. Like any industry, some retailers are more reputable than others .
Unfortunately, it is far from easy to find out which ones are more reputable and why. Because of this, consumers who want to find the best retailers are often left hunting in the dark. In turn, the retailers themselves miss out on useful tips and ‘points to improve’. To try to rectify this, I chose to assess a diverse sample of 19 carbon offset providers last year. This formed my research project for my MSc in Conservation and Biodiversity with the University of Exeter.
Making the assessment
Carbon offset retailers come from many different backgrounds, from corporate consultancy to conservation. It therefore stands to reason that they will approach carbon offsetting differently and have different strengths and weaknesses. To capture this variation well, I assessed each retailer according to multiple attributes. For example, how well they ensure that the carbon offsets have a meaningful long-term impact or how accurately they educate consumers about the climate crisis. I chose the attributes for my assessment by looking at previously conducted assessments (there are few studies and many are somewhat out-dated –the most recent from 2011). Having considered these, I also added in some attributes which I consider to be important.
With my chosen attributes (detailed in the table at the end of this article), I went ahead and assessed how well each retailer performs against each attribute. To do this, I both explored the website in great depth and phoned or emailed the providers themselves wherever possible. The following is an overview of what I learned about 9Trees detailing both their strengths and areas where they can make improvements.
9Trees: a brief description
Based in Wales and recently established, 9Trees principal objective is to help offset subscribers’ annual carbon emissions through the planting of 9 trees. With a background in conservation, restoring biodiversity is one of their key motivations. Moreover, money-making is not their aim. As a Community Interest Company, the bulk of their funds raised are used to plant and care for trees.
9Trees: greatest strengths
Drawing on extensive experience in conservation, 9Trees is very well-placed to increase biodiversity at their woodland sites leading to environmental benefits beyond carbon storage. In addition to planting native broadleaf species only, they focus on creating habitat corridors. (To read more about how 9Trees does this through proper woodland management, check out this blog. These habitat corridors, and reforestation more generally, have been shown to greatly improve the chances of rare species (read this to find out more).
All planting sites are very carefully selected based on potential biodiversity consequences, suggestions from local authorities, and long-term impact (i.e. they only choose sites where land ownership is guaranteed for at least 50 years).
Growth progress of all trees is closely monitored and relayed back to subscribers so that they know how everything is progressing. In particular, all trees are geolocated each year to monitor their survival.
Subscribers can personally visit their trees after requesting permission from the landowners i.e. can personally evaluate how the trees are progressing.
9Trees communicates well with their subscribers through the newsletter and email (with quick reply times).
In addition to environmental motivations, 9Trees is keen to have direct social impact by creating employment and volunteering opportunities (read more about these here).
To see how well the trees actually draw down carbon, 9Trees intends to assess this using the same methods as the Soil Association across the lifespan of the trees (so in years 2, 5, 10, 30 and 49). Since they are recently established, this process is still being developed.
9Trees: Points to improve
On the website, there could be more emphasis that carbon offsetting is not an excuse to maintain high consumption behaviours.
In line with the above, there could be more advice about how individuals may live lower carbon lifestyles or links to resources containing this information.
Carbon offsetting is scientifically complex: how do you measure the carbon stored? How do you make sure it can be stored for a long time? It would be good to see a discussion of this complexity and how it is addressed by 9Trees to ensure high quality offsets.
In summary
Overall, I was very impressed by 9Trees because they harness their expertise in conservation to deliver carbon offsets which are about more than carbon. Through the planting of native broadleaf tree species, the newly created woodlands contribute greatly to the protection of biodiversity. Moreover, all of the points to improve relate to communications only and not technical limitations in how they deliver their offsets.
So, that’s my summary of everything I learned (the assessment is shown in the table below). Something worth highlighting is that any assessment like this will tend to be a bit subjective. But I think that’s okay, providing reasoning behind decisions is clearly given.
So, what do you think of 9Trees? Do you have any feedback for what they’re doing well and for what you think they might improve? If so, please leave this in the comments below!
By Tristian Herbert