Rewards.Earth Goes Live. The first monthly update from Rewards.Earth

Finally Rewards.Earth Goes Live!

By Carl Harris
Co-Founder Rewards.Earth

It has taken us eight months for us to get to where we are now. We have worked very hard to build our website, but the actual technical architecture has been the easy part. The hard work has been finding partners that mean we can deliver the maximum impact on offsetting carbon whilst keeping the cost as low as possible.

We are confident that we have the best product on the market, offering a bundle of benefits from less than £1 a week.

As well as offsetting your personal annual carbon footprint, through planting trees, we are excited by the added benefits that working with our selected partners will have on people, wildlife and the environment.

We wanted to make sure that as a member you had a very easy platform to sign up to, which we are confident we have delivered, but also that as a member of Rewards.Earth you can be highly involved in what we are doing, if you want to be of course. 

If you simply wish to just subscribe and be assured you are personally carbon offsetting and leave us to get on with things, that’s fine, but if you want to be involved, then we will provide you with the best experience possible. So how will we do that?

Keeping You Informed on Projects…

We have selected a range of partners and projects who fit our strict criteria, The first and most obvious one being probity and transparency. It is vital that we can reassure you that the trees are being planted. Not only do we have third party audit processes with them but we can pass on video and images of the projects in action. You will notice extensive video content and updates on the site.

When doing market research ahead of launch the overwhelming concern was being able to see the trees being planted and the benefits the projects bring. 

Our Projects Help Communities…

Trees offset carbon, that is the prime reason for joining Rewards.earth of course, but we wanted to make sure that our projects deliver more benefits to maximise our “bang for our buck”. We are delighted that we have achieved this.

Our overseas reforestation projects are through partners who provide employment to local communities to plant the trees. By providing long term employment it has a consequential impact on health, education and happiness, which can never be underestimated, in these communities. The projects also improve the local infrastructure, such as water supply. 

Our Projects Help Wildlife…

It is not just the benefits to people that tick the boxes. Wildlife has suffered terribly as the world loses 18 million of forest every year. I saw some footage of an Orangutan try to fight a bulldozer destroying it’s home, it is the saddest thing I have ever seen. I wanted to do something to help wildlife.

One of the projects we will support is the Ourangutan Foundation, which I challenge anyone not to not adore these amazing creatures. Creating wildlife habitat conserves wildlife and improves the biosphere. It is vitally important that this is a core concern in selecting projects we will support. 

As the human population grows wildlife are the innocent victims and it is unfair and unjust. In my opinion we as a race have a duty to help do what we can to protect them. 

Overseas High Impact Carbon Offsetting

The offshore reforestation projects provide high impact carbon offsetting. The types of trees planted overseas grow faster, are easier to plant and as a result offset more CO2. They are also much much lower cost than planting trees in the UK. We wanted to keep the cost as low as possible. 

To be able to do so much from less than £1 a week to help people, wildlife and the environment is amazing.

If you have a larger than average carbon footprint or want to do more to tackle climate change that is why we have introduced a range of plans priced at £3.99 / £7.99 or £15.99 a month.

Supporting UK Projects and Veterans

It was important for us to also support UK projects, planting trees at home. One of the Co-founders, my friend Jim Holland, is a Royal Navy veteran and knew of a project which supports veterans and their families through planting trees. The Green Force. 

Having seen the benefit this brings to veterans and their families we made it a priority to support this. Though UK tree planting is expensive, relatively, because of land, labour, tubes and stakes required and the types of trees required, UK trees are included in all of our plans and always will be. 

We work exclusively with the Green Task Force and supporting veterans is vitally important to us as a team and the feedback we have received for this has been overwhelming. 

So we are now live and it is onward and upwards.