Commons Offset Portfolio Update, July 2024

Commons users have the opportunity to offset they're carbon emissions through the monthly Climate Neutral Subscription, one-time gifts, and one-time flight offsets. The community supports a diverse set of proven climate solutions through Commons Offset Portfolio.

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We're excited to announce that since April 2021, the Commons community has supported over 75,261 tons of carbon offsets, having an impact equivalent to taking 17,912 cars off the road for a year.

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Here are some updates on our portfolio from the past few months>\:

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Running Tide Shuts Down

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In June, we received news that Running Tide would begin shutting down its operations, citing lack of demand as the driving force behind the hard decision. 

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Running Tide sequestered carbon permanently underwater by sinking wood seeded with seaweed in the open ocean. Their methodology was reviewed by over 50 organizations and individuals, including an independent review carried out in accordance with international standards. 

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Running Tide has been in the Commons Carbon Offset Portfolio since 2021. Credits in our previous portfolios have already been delivered, so they are unaffected. Credits in our latest portfolio (launched January 2024) will be replaced with credits from another partner in our portfolio, Charm Industrial. 

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Read more about Running Tide → 

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Project Spotlight: Tradewater's Thailand Project

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Non-CO₂ gases account for nearly half of all global warming from human activity since 1970. Fluorinated refrigerants have a global warming impact that is up to 10,200 times greater than carbon dioxide. Once they are released into the atmosphere, they cannot be removed through nature-based solutions or other technologies. Stopping the release of these gases buys more time to scale CO₂ reductions and removals.

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We selected Tradewater because of its adherence to rigorous third-party protocols from the American Climate Registry and because its project activities are funded exclusively by carbon offset revenue. The approach Tradewater deploys is one of the first two project types to receive CCP approval as a high-integrity methodologies. 

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The Commons community's offset purchase supports Tradewater’s work to safely destroy refrigerant gases brought into Thailand illegally over a decade ago. Tradewater is working with the government of Thailand and a local hazardous waste facility to safely and effectively destroy over 10,000 cylinders of ozone depleting gases seized by Thailand’s Customs Department.

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By partnering with Tradewater and working to destroy these ozone-depleting substances, we will ensure that more than 1.1 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent is permanently prevented from release into the atmosphere.

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Exciting updates from Tradewater

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• Joined The Change Climate Project’s Offset Provider Directory. Change Climate’s 350 brands collectively offset over 1 million tons of CO₂e each year. Climate Neutral Certified brands like Goodee, Veerless, and Dozen Bakery purchased carbon credits from Tradewater as part of their certification process.
• Launched a partnership with Second Nature, a nonprofit that helps hundreds of higher education institutions to act on bold climate commitments. Tradewater will support on-campus refrigerant management projects and provide carbon credits from mitigation of non-CO₂ gases to colleges and universities across the U.S.
• Collaborated with Fortnite to inspire climate action: Tradewater has teamed up with Earthshot and Epic Games to create a new Fortnite island that inspires climate action. On the island, players build skills while collecting canisters of refrigerants and plugging leaking oil & gas wells, paralleling Tradewater’s real-world climate mitigation strategies.

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More Partners in the Commons Climate Portfolio

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• ‍Delta Blue Carbon: Delta Blue Carbonsupports the restoration and protection of 350,000 hectares of degraded mangroves and coastal wetlands in the Sindh province of Pakistan. We selected Delta Blue Carbon because of its demonstrated track record of mangrove restoration and its partnership with communities and government.
• Eion: Carbon dioxide is naturally captured over hundreds of thousands of years when rocks erode and react with the air. Eion's innovative efforts drastically speed up this process by crushing rock and partnering with U.S. farmers to spread it on their farmland. We selected them because of their scalable, pioneering approach, their dedication to scientific rigor, and their direct benefits to US farming communities.
• Charm Industrial: Charm Industrial turns inedible crop residue into carbon-rich bio-oil, then pumps it into underground disposal wells, where it’s stored safely and permanently.
• ‍Pachama: Pachama verifies and monitors carbon offset projects using satellite imagery and machine learning.