FAQs

Nope - we're a social enterprise who drive sustainability funding into renewable energy projects and reforestation charities. Given that the core purpose of our initiative is to maximise our long-term positive climate impact through reforestation and renewable energy offsets, we chose to be a limited company due to the scalability and flexibility this provides us vs a registered charity.

As a limited company, we don't need to rely largely on government grants or donors and are instead able to create a self-sustaining system of long-term climate funding.

Making a profit from this initiative is not our aim here, and when compared to other competitors in our space, we donate a higher percentage of monthly subscriptions to projects to ensure the biggest impact possible. Please take a look at our Transparency page to see how our subscriptions are broken down, noting that every piece of project funding goes directly into the projects themselves

Renewables Projects

For us, it's completely fundamental that we support renewables in places where, due to a lack of the right funding, they wouldn't exist (this is known as 'additionality' in the climate community).

Without our funding, the projects we back could not take place. This is exactly why we focus our funding on projects in developing countries, where renewable projects are typically not viable right now.

This 'additionality' aspect is one of the key factors enabling us to truly say that we’ve reduced (or 'offset') carbon emissions, as we are able to confirm that the reduction could not have happened without our funding.

Reforestation Projects

Similar to our renewables projects, we believe that we have a duty to help fight deforestation where it's needed most. Madagascar, Kenya and Mozambique have all had terrible experiences with deforestation, leaving local ecosystems decimated. Tree planting here can help to combat the impacts of deforestation at the core and prevent loss of habitat for animals, water cycle disruption, increased flooding and increase local temperatures.

We have partnered with world-leading reforestation charity Eden Reforestation Projects to plant our trees. They are the same non-profit that Ecosia use to plant trees, having planted over 440 million trees across the world. We chose to work with Eden due to their razor-sharp focus on providing employment to local communities, with every tree planted by villagers living local to the projects.

We are planting trees across 50+ sites in Mozambique, Madagascar & Kenya. You can see the record for each tree we plant with Eden through our Transparency page, or you can also see us in the partner page of Eden's site. Also see FAQ on “How do I know my trees will be planted?”

Transparency is of the utmost importance to us, and this of course extends to our subscribers having complete certainty around when their trees have been planted.

As per our partnership agreement with Eden Reforestation Projects, our trees are planted within 1 month of donations being sent from our side*. You can keep track of the number of trees you've planted via your account, however in our commitment to 100% transparency, we also post each of our paid invoices to Eden Reforestation Projects in our transparency page. These invoices cover each tree we plant with Eden.

*Please note that the lead times of trees being planted have recently increased slightly to up to 2 months due to COVID.

Every tree we fund is planted by communities indigenous to our projects, with part of the cost of each tree going towards providing paid employment hours for these community members to plant the trees and manage the reforestation programs.

The vast majority of the trees at our sites are also owned by these local communities who actively participated in the restoration of their regional forest during their employment period. The common (but much smaller exception) is when agroforestry trees are planted at small plot farmer sites where the land is owned by the local farmer. In such cases, the small plot farmer owns the trees along with the proceeds from the trees.

The team leaders across our partner project sites with Eden have developed reliable systems for counting and sorting the number of seedlings produced in the tree nurseries and/or the number of mangrove propagules collected. After the seedlings and propagules are collected and sorted, they are planted within designated sites.

A percentage of seedling and propagule mortality is, of course, inevitable. However, this mortality becomes irrelevant as natural regeneration begins to occur and begins to multiply impact. At our mangrove sites, natural regeneration typically exceeds 150% of the original number planted. The same is true of the dry deciduous sites in Madagascar.

This is of the utmost importance to us, with great care taken to ensure the sustainability of the forests we plant:

1. Work is carried out with all levels of government to secure written agreements designating the restoration sites as protected in perpetuity.

2. No planting takes place in logging areas. There is never a 100% guarantee that some form of illegal harvest will not occur. However, everything within legal limits is done to ensure the restoration sites are guaranteed to stand in perpetuity.

3. Only local villagers are hired to plant the trees. In this way, we alleviate extreme poverty within the impacted community, and the villagers now have an economic incentive to ensure the wellbeing of the restoration project. They also have a sense of “ownership” over the trees and restored forest and they protect it with great care.

4. A minimum of 10% of the trees to be planted are agroforestry species (fruit, fodder and construction species designed to provide food security and benefit legitimate human needs). Over time these trees become a source of sustainable income.

5. Every effort is taken to supply the local villagers with alternative fuel sources (fuel-efficient dry wood stoves and solar parabolic stoves), which reduces and/or eliminates their dependence on charcoal.

6. Eden Reforestation hire forest guards as part of the labor force. Around 1 percent of the price of each tree is put into a fund for long-term guarding and protection of the forest sites.

7. Most significantly, we have seen the villagers fall in love with their forest. They also recognise and benefit from the restored forest through an increase in fisheries, improved farming, cleaner water and the formation of microenterprises.

1. Before planting begins, handheld GPS units are used to map the boundaries of our planting sites, and the pre-planting conditions are documented so we have a base to compare to in the future.

2. Geotagged photos are used to monitor the site before and after planting and then every 6 months for at least the first 3 years to document growth.

3. These photos go through a verification process to ensure they're taken within the correct site boundary before the results are shared.

Teams on the ground also conduct semi-random forest inventory circle plots to measure how many trees have survived, and drone mapping of the sites is used in areas where this is permitted.

As well as monitoring the survivorship of the trees we plant, regular surveys are done to measure the socioeconomic impact of reforestation projects on local livelihoods, both during the project and after completion.

We plant only native tree species with Eden Reforestation Projects, which vary from nation to nation. We never plant or introduce any invasive species at any of our project sites. We also plant a percentage of agroforestry species for sustainable community use. This prevents the community from going into newly restored forests and provides greater community benefit and involvement in the project. Click here to see the species of trees we plant across our reforestation project nations (Mozambique, Madagascar & Kenya)

We offer monthly subscriptions that include prize draw entries because they're exciting & rewarding and can therefore encourage more people to fund carbon offset and reforestation projects. Who says saving the planet has to be boring?

Free prize draws, such as ours, do not require a gambling license. This is made possible by offering a free entry route to each prize prize draw, which you will find next to the other subscription options. Entering the prize draw via the free route will mean that you will not fund any carbon reduction or tree planting.

Prize draw entries are included with all of our subscription packages. You can decide on the best package for you, or you will also see an option to enter for free. When you sign up for free this doesn't fund any carbon reduction or tree planting.

As part of the service, we send out a succinct monthly email containing things like:

• Monthly prize draw results & upcoming prize updates - please expect some great prizes to come!
• New projects we're supporting and any updates from on the ground.
• Updates on any new features we are dropping as we grow and develop

To note:
Winners will have 20 days to claim prizes and prove eligibility (over 18 years of age), with any unclaimed prizes being included in the next eligible prize draw.

Each Furthr prize draw runs for a period of one calendar month ending on the 14th of every month. You will be entered into each month's prize draw from when you sign up to one of our subscriptions.

You will receive the monthly email around the 17th of every month to let you know if you won.

To note:
Winners will have 20 days to claim prizes and prove eligibility (over 18 years old), with any unclaimed prizes being included in future prize draws. You can see all claimed and unclaimed prizes on our transparency page

You can keep up to date with your climate positive impact in your account page.

Your online account is created automatically when you sign up to one of our plans - all you need to do is verify your account from within the welcome email which is sent when you sign up.

If your verification link has expired, please drop us a note on live chat or email us

We understand that right now is a difficult time for a lot of people so by default we will always refund your last month if you forgot to unsubscribe - please just drop us a message on live chat or email us

Default for Subscription Cancellations
If you cancel your subscription in the middle of your subscription month (timed each month after the date on which you signed up) your subscription will still be active until the end of your subscription month but you will, of course, not be charged for the month after.

For Upgrades/Downgrades or Swapping of plans
If you upgrade/downgrade or swap your type of subscription in the middle of your subscription month, your old subscription will be active until the end of its subscription month and your new plan will be active from the next payment you make in your subscription. You can see all the details within your account section and we're always here to help.

We currently only offer subscriptions on the site as we think this model makes a bigger climate positive impact overall. However, it wouldn't be that hard for us to begin offering one-off payments so if it is something of interest please let us know.

The emission levels you reduce by sponsoring our renewable energy projects are verified to the highest standards possible:

1. By the UN's Clean Development Mechanism, which is where we purchase our certified emissions reductions from

2. By the independent verifications agency Gold Standard, who were set up by WWF to add a rigorous extra layer of due diligence for carbon offsetting project. This includes verification that projects can be monitored to ensure they are producing as much clean energy as they agreed.

Please head to Projects & Verification for more info!

We use the latest available data from the worldwide emissions measurement charity Global Carbon Project on UK per capita CO2 emissions from consumption of goods and services. We use UK average data as it has some of the most up to date monitoring in place for day to day emissions, and has average values very similar to the rest of Western Europe where our subscribers are based. If you feel any particular value listed in the questionnaire is incorrect, let us know and we can adjust your personal footprint to reflect any specific measures you have in place to reduce emissions(specific home power system, circular fashion brands used, etc). This figure is 8.3 tonnes annually for one UK individual, so we divide this by 12 to get our monthly data: 0.692.

The Importance of Global Carbon Project's data
Global Carbon Project supply what's known as 'consumption' emissions data, which reflects the carbon emissions caused by our consumption of goods and services imported from overseas as well as from within the UK. In a world where we're often using imported products, this gives a more realistic and thorough representation of our true, end-to-end carbon footprint.

To see an overview of the Global Carbon Project, please click here.
To see more detail on Consumption-based Emissions, please click here.

We do the following calculation to get the amount of beef steaks that each plan offsets per month:.

1. We take the amount of money from each subscription plan that goes towards funding our carbon offset projects each month.

2. We divide this by our Gold Standard-verified tonnage of carbon offset per pound from the carbon offset projects we fund (t per £ or €). This gives us the tonnage of carbon offsetted per month (per plan).

3. We use data from the University of Oxford paper Poore & Nemecek (2008), which calculated that a 75g serving of beef generates the equivalent of 7.73 kg (0.00773 t) of CO2 emissions. This includes the emissions caused by all farm-to-fork aspects including methane generation, meat production and logistics. Of course, 75g is a small steak, so we build the emissions figures up to a standard steak serving of 225g, which is 23.19 kg CO2 (0.02319 t).

4. We divide the carbon offsetted per month (per plan) by the carbon emissions from a standard steak, which gives us the number of steaks that each plan offsets per month.

To note
We round this number to the nearest whole integer as the CO2 emissions from one beef steak is relatively small in comparison to our other offsetting figures.
When you sign up for a plan, your dashboard will reflect your total offset figures since you signed up.

We do the following calculation to get the amount of car journeys from London to Manchester that each plan reduces per month:

1. We take the amount of money from each subscription plan that goes towards funding our carbon offset projects each month (£s).

2. We divide this by our Gold Standard-verified tonnage of carbon offset per pound from the carbon offset projects we fund (t per £ or €). This gives us the tonnage of carbon offsetted per month (per plan).

3. We use CO2 emissions Conversion Data from the Govt Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the CO2 emissions outputted by medium-sized car per mile 0.27 Kg (0.00027 t). We see one car trip from London to Manchester as 208 miles, thus multiplying both of these figures together to get the CO2 emissions from one car journey from London to Manchester: 57.11 Kg (0.05711 t)

4. We divide the carbon offsetted per month (per plan) by the emissions of one trip from London to Manchester, giving us the total trips that each plan offsets per month.

To note
We round this number to the nearest 0.5 as the emissions from half a car journey from London to Manchester are significant.
When you sign up for a plan, your dashboard will reflect your total offset figures since you signed up

We do the following calculation to get the amount of flights from London to Rome that each plan offsets per month:

1. We take the amount of money from each subscription plan that goes towards funding our carbon offset projects each month (£s).

2. We divide this by our Gold Standard-verified tonnage of Carbon offset per pound from the carbon offset projects we fund (t per £ or €). This gives us the tonnage of carbon offsetted per month (per plan).

3. We use CO2 emissions Conversion Data from the Govt Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the CO2 emitted by one individual travelling on a European flight. 1km of short haul European flight travel for 1 individual emits 0.16 Kg CO2 (0.00016t). We see a flight from London to Rome as 1440 km, thus multiplying these two figures together to calculate the total carbon emitted by one individual on a flight from London to Rome as 227.98 Kg CO2 (0.22798 t).

4. We divide the carbon offsetted per month (per plan) by carbon emitted by one individual on a flight from London to Rome, which gives us the number of these flights that each plan offsets per month.

To note
We round this number to the nearest 0.5 as the CO2 emissions from an individual on a flight from London to Rome is significant.
When you sign up for a plan, your dashboard will reflect your total offset figures since you signed up.

Please have a read of our carbon assumptions page to understand how we calculate your footprint and what data sources we have used