The Carbon Bank
The Carbon Bank creates new woodlands to generate and sell certified carbon units, starting in Gloucestershire and Snowdonia. It uses a data-driven model to select high-impact sites and supports wider environmental goals like cleaner air, water, and climate resilience. An online platform will connect buyers and sellers, with Ecotricity as the initial customer.
This project is one of 24 case studies published in 2024, alongside a report evaluating the process, impact and value for money of NEIRF Rounds 1 and 2.
Access full case studyAs the UK’s first dedicated green energy company at Ecotricity we realised that gauging the carbon impact of everyday activities was something that mattered to our customers as it did to us and to address this planted out first woodland in 2004. Since then we have seen our group of companies grow to address other significant areas of carbon impact such as transport and food.
In recent years we’ve seen an increase in interest from businesses looking to measure their carbon footprints and also finding ways in which they can address their residual emissions that can’t be cut by a process of reduction or replacement. The Carbon Bank will help fill the remaining part of our jigsaw, to address those residual emissions and continue our mission to help people along on their journey towards a more sustainable lifestyle be that at work or at home.
This project will allow us to survey our current land portfolio and identify areas suitable for woodland creation. In addition we will use the knowledge gained to build a financial model for partners and potential investors to assess the suitability of a site for carbon sequestration. To ensure that The Carbon Bank is future proof we will also review and consider other forms of carbon sequestration.
An integral part of this project will be the creation of the Carbon Bank website. This will be a platform that will allow individuals or businesses to buy carbon credits through a range of options including location and sequestration method. We want to open this platform up to offer its services to our partner organisations, helping them establish new projects as well as selling the credits generated from them and as such would like to hear from any other projects who are looking for potential outlets for their credits.
Project Aim
Assessment of potential to generate carbon credits from current land
holdings alongside developing a web platform to sell credits from our own
and third party sites.
Funding model
As an energy company Ecotricity has 200,000 customers all of whom are with us because they are looking for a greener outcome. In addition to this we also have other outlets for promoting our activities such as Forest Green Rovers FC (named by FIFA as the “greenest football club in the world”). Across this range we know that there are many businesses looking to address their carbon footprints or individuals who want to reduce their impact on the environment (e.g. from travel to football matches). As such we already have a significant pool of potential customers looking for a simple and easily accessible way to address their residual emissions.
Once identified the initial planting will be funded by Ecotricity New Ventures although we hope that an early stream of credits will be supplemented through partners looking for an outlet to sell their credits (contact here if you’d like to know more). In providing our customers with a simple choice of options to match their needs we will consider hosting credits from a wide range of locations and sources.
Future Investment Potential
Engagement: In the short term The Carbon Bank website will allow us to raise awareness of conservation, carbon sequestration and credits and will promote their use once a full programme of emissions reduction has been carried out. Future expansion of the scheme will allow us to work in other habitats such as coastal or peatland and the associated benefits that we could bring to those areas through conservation based projects.
Thriving Plants and Wildlife: 1/3 of woodland wildlife species are in decline, 1 in 10 are at risk of extinction. The tree planting that we intend to carry out will help to address these issues and in light of Ash Dieback the planting of new trees is an important part in retaining the breadth of biodiversity.
Clean and plentiful water: potential sites on the Cotswold plateau drain into steep valleys below. Woodland creation has the potential to slow the flow of water run off during intensive rainfall into the catchments and will complement the nationally recognised natural flood management work being carried out by Stroud District Council.
Out of date? Contact us at info@ecosystemsknowledge.net