‘Additionality’ is an essential component of any carbon offset project. This means that the project must not have gone ahead but for the investment of the funds from carbon offset clients; it must represent new activity over and above the baseline or ‘business as usual’ scenario. In order  to make this easy to demonstrate and transparent, co2balance only invests its clients’ funds  in projects that are at least 50% funded by carbon offset payments. It is sometimes argued (not by co2balance) that a project is additional where just a few percent of a project’s capital originates from offset funding. We at co2balance do not find this a credible approach, hence our minimum 50% rule. We are not aware of any other offset provider with such a high standard.

As well as the visible additionality, we provide further assurance through third party auditors who validate our claims.