Who are Treeconomy?
If you’re planning on planting trees and seeking to generate income from it, Treeconomy is looking to support you. They are a climate change impact business, focussing on nature-based carbon removal and using a natural capital approach to their work. Most importantly, Treeconomy works with the Woodland Carbon Code in the UK and can submit contracts through the Woodland Carbon Guarantee on behalf of landowners and farm clusters. This would guarantee consistent income over 35 years through DEFRA, straight into the landowners’ pocket. Treeconomy also uses technology in the form of drone-based LiDAR and satellite imagery, combined with a deep understanding of climate change and carbon markets to increase the accuracy of carbon sequestration values and improve the financial value delivered to their landowner customers.
What is nature-based carbon removal?
The IPCC Special Report on 1.5°C highlighted the need for carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere, and demonstrated through their modelling that to limit global warming to this Paris Agreement aligned level is only possible if active action for carbon removal is taken. Nature-based solutions, such as planting trees, can provide more than 1/3rd of the cost-effective mitigation needed between now and 2030 and therefore should be prioritise as it constitutes the ‘low hanging fruit’. While the UK is a small island nation, we have the 2nd lowest forest cover across Europe at 13% – demonstrating a large potential for climate action through wide scale and sustainable afforestation. The Committee on Climate Change, a scientific body who advise the UK Government on achieving their legally binding Net Zero 2050 target, recommend a minimum of 30,000 hectares of woodland is planted annually. Last year only 13,400ha were planted. Treeconomy can assist you in entering the Woodland Carbon Guarantee.
What’s carbon finance?
Capturing carbon dioxide through tree planting clearly has a wide benefit to society. In the atmosphere CO2 can persist for hundreds of years, therefore each tonne removed has a very long-lasting impact. Carbon finance is a way to compensate landowners and businesses who take action to remove CO 2, such as by planting trees, by paying them per-tonne of CO2 captured and stored in woody biomass. At Treeconomy we call this ‘Carbon Farming’. As a carbon farmer, the Woodland Carbon Guarantee could provide you with regular income up to 35 years, assisted by Treeconomy.
Why drones and remote sensing?
Planting trees and woodlands has clear benefits from a climate change mitigation perspective (carbon capture), but it also has further benefits. Woodlands can reduce runoff and flood events (climate change adaptation), they can host habitats and boost biodiversity, and can clean the air & reduce ambient air temperature – benefitting livestock or urban dwellers alike. Each of these benefits are known as ecosystem services; they are provided by nature for free, and are incredibly valuable. Treeconomy is using a technology-first approach to quantify and then monetise these ecosystem services, combining revenue streams from carbon capture and other ecosystem services. Currently methodologies cannot quantify each of these ecosystem services at once and at the scale necessary, but using innovations such as LiDAR can allow for this. Using this ‘revenue stacking’ approach dramatically increases the potential revenue that can be achieved from woodland planting, taking Treeconomy from a Carbon Developer company, to a Natural Capital Investment company.
Treeconomy are currently looking for landowners or Clusters that would be willing to pilot and host such sites. If your cluster would like further information please refer to the website:
(www.treeconomy.co) or email harry@treeconomy.co.
