Choosing Carbon Balanced Print, Paper and Packaging will fund World Land Trust’s ecosystem protection and restoration projects in Vietnam, Mexico, Ecuador and Guatemala.

World Land Trust’s Carbon Balanced projects have been designed according to the robust and internationally recognised Climate, Community & Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA) standard to ensure they deliver REDD+ outcomes (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation).

The Carbon Balanced programme funds two categories of projects. The first is WLT’s self-certified Portfolio of projects: Vietnam, Mexico and Ecuador. Due to the relatively small scale of these projects, it is not financially viable to undertake third-party verification, therefore WLT certifies the carbon, biodiversity, and community benefits of these projects according to internationally recognised standards. For businesses that require additional verification, World Land Trust’s project in Guatemala is externally verified to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) and Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards (CCB).

In both cases, projects are rigorously monitored to ensure they account for “additionality”. To be classified as “additional”, it must be proved that the project’s emission reduction or avoidance activities would not have occurred in the absence of the project. Steps must also be taken to ensure the project does not displace deforestation or forest degradation (e.g. illegal logging) to another area. Finally, both WLT and Verra (VCS) maintain offset registries to avoid the same offset being sold to multiple buyers, ensuring all emissions are offset appropriately.

Carbon Balanced Paper funds the WLT-Certified Portfolio, while Carbon Balanced Printers have offset their carbon impacts either through the Portfolio or the VCS-Verified project.

Learn more about World Land Trust’s Carbon Balanced projects below.