Does offsetting actually work? If so, how can we see the tangible, real-world impact of the carbon credits we buy from a project?

It’s a request we often get from our Lune customers.

So, to help bring the impact of business carbon offsetting to life, we’re publishing monthly updates from Lune’s library of curated, high-quality carbon offset projects (we won’t have updates for every project every time, but we’ll share what we do) – and this is the update for April 2023. 

To support any of the projects mentioned in this blog, go to the Lune dashboard to buy carbon credits (you’ll need to sign-up or log-in to access the projects.)

Katingan Peatlands – forest conservation 🌳

This month we added a new carbon project to the Lune library: Katingan Peatlands.

Peat soils are a vital carbon sink, storing at least twice as much carbon as trees, but they face degradation across the world as they are cleared, drained, and burned for use in industrial activities.

This project protects 149,800 hectares of tropical peat swamp forest in Indonesia from being deforested, drained, and converted into timber plantations. 

The Katingan peatlands are also home to many vulnerable and endangered species, including one of the last remaining populations of Bornean orangutans.

Find out more about the project in the Lune dashboard

Keo Seima – forest conservation 🌳

Everland, the project developer for Keo Seima, continues their ‘community voice’ series – sharing the stories and voices of local people living and working in the project area, including community member Ly Sareoun who speaks about the traditional, spiritual role of the forest for the indingenous Bunong people.

Everland also announced this month that they are partnering with Space Intelligence as their data partner. 

Everland will use Space Intelligence’s leading data and technology to continue improving forest monitoring and measurement practices across Everland’s projects – including both Keo Seima and Southern Cardamom from the Lune library. 

Running Tide – ocean carbon removal 🌊

This month Running Tide released the research roadmap for their project, as they continue to develop and refine their methodology for ocean carbon removal. 

Key areas of research for Running Tide include:

• Potential ecological and environmental impacts of both sinking their kelp-seeded buoys and their open ocean monitoring platforms

• Methods for ocean alkalinity enhancement – ways to combat ocean acidification

• The potential, impact, and most effective methods for open ocean algae cultivation.

Running Tide also announced a partnership with Microsoft, who have made a commitment to buy 12,000 tons of carbon dioxide over the next two years – providing Running Tide with vital funding needed to continue their work.

UNDO – enhanced weathering 🪨

UNDO have shared an article looking at 4 incredible benefits of enhanced weathering. 

In brief, those benefits are:

• Boosting soil health. Intensive farming practices have degraded our soils, and spreading nutrient-rich basalt rock on agricultural land helps to restore soil health – increasing nutrient availability and improving crop growth.

• Ocean deacidification. The increase of CO2 in the oceans has led to them becoming acidic, bleaching corals and damaging other marine life.
  During the process of enhanced weathering there is a slow release of alkalinity, and once the weathered rock eventually washed out to sea this helps to deacidify the oceans.

• Promotes greener communities. Bringing new techniques for carbon removal to existing industries offers new, sustainable income streams – both agricultural communities and industries like quarrying and mining where crushed basalt rock is sourced from. 

• Reducing costs for farmers. UNDO offers their basalt rock spreading on agricultural land free of charge, and it leads to increased soil health, reduced need for fertilisers, and increased crop yields for farmers – increasing food production and farming profits. 

Curious about our own process for sourcing and evaluating the high-quality carbon projects we include in our library at Lune? Take a look at our guide.