With more scrutiny than ever of companies’ climate commitments, many brands feel paralyzed by the fear of taking the wrong actions or making the wrong claim. Some choose to take no action at all, while others choose to hide their climate action — a trend known as “greenhushing.”
Businesses need to have confidence in the actions they’re taking, that they’re in line with the latest science, and will have a demonstrable impact. Oftentimes, that level of rigor requires a breadth of experience and a depth of effort or investment that end up presenting more obstacles to urgent climate action.
That’s why certification bodies such as Change Climate (formerly Climate Neutral) are so essential to unblocking corporate action on climate change. Change Climate is a nonprofit organization working to eliminate carbon emissions. They’ve developed an independent and trusted climate neutrality label, backed by a rigorous and uniform Standard. Brands become Climate Neutral Certified by measuring, reducing, and compensating for their emissions annually.
The Climate Neutral Certified label requires companies to begin implementing immediate emissions-reducing activities. Science-aligned decarbonization goals are also a requirement of the Standard. Carbon credits purchased for compensation purposes must meet specific eligibility and verification criteria.
Because of the rigor of their Standard and criteria, Change Climate offers education, coaching, and enablement resources to help companies accelerate their climate action strategies. More than 300 brands, including Parachute, KORA Organics, Allbirds, and REI, are Climate Neutral Certified.
Problem: A seamless way to source eligible verified carbon credit projects
Change Climate's mission is to eliminate carbon emissions by making climate neutrality a priority for businesses and individuals. Because climate neutrality requires businesses to fully compensate for their emissions, a key part of certifying is the process of purchasing the right carbon credits.
Since only certain carbon credit projects are eligible under Climate Neutral’s Certification Standard, certifying companies must be deliberate about their carbon credit purchases. If this step is too confusing, it can delay the certification—or in some cases, prevent a company from completing the process altogether. It’s important that certifying brands have plenty of options to select from within those quality boundaries—different project types, price points, locations, and more. In addition to viewing available inventories, companies need it to be easy to purchase credits.
“Many of our brands want to research a wide range of projects to build a climate impact portfolio that meets their goals and budgets. With Radius, Patch offers a seamless option for certifying brands to access and purchase from a diverse collection of projects that meet the Climate Neutral Standard."
– Ellie Read, Certification Director at Change Climate
Solution: A wide, accessible marketplace — curated to meet the Climate Neutral Certified Standard
Patch Radius was designed for companies at the heart of large networks of companies to scale up the surface area of their climate impact. It helps consultants, carbon accountants, private equity firms, and many others empower their networks to easily and quickly take more effective climate action. Radius gave Change Climate the ability to curate the vast Patch network down to include only those projects that meet their eligible verified criteria, helping certifying brands reliably research options and make qualified purchases.
Implementing Radius helped Change Climate scale access to Patch’s project network at pre-negotiated rates. It also gave certifying companies a seamless and fast onboarding experience through Climate Neutral’s directory and branded Patch dashboard. This removed barriers to engage and enabled them to easily compare projects side by side without gating access behind a sales conversation.
“We wanted to create an impactful and well-balanced project portfolio to compensate for our carbon footprint. Accessing the options through Change Climate's Patch dashboard was seamless — we had a lot to choose from and detailed resources were all available so we didn’t have to sacrifice time or confidence in selecting projects aligned to our brand values."
– Tessa Hahn, Sustainability Manager at Parachute
Radius made it easy for brands like Parachute to build a diverse portfolio of credits that align to their goals, reducing risk and enabling them to contribute to a range of solutions. Patch also provides dedicated support to brands that wanted neutral guidance as they built out their portfolio.
Reporting is just as effortless. Brands don’t need to submit any documentation post-purchase, since Change Climate can automatically view order details in Radius. Brands also receive a shareable dynamic certificate that tracks their credit status from order to fulfillment.
"Patch's Radius platform is helping to increase transparency in the voluntary carbon market," said Ellie Read, Certification Director at Change Climate. "It is adding rigor to the carbon credit procurement process, as well as a seamless experience for any company to meet the Climate Neutral Certification Standard. We're proud to offer Radius as an option to certifying brands seeking high-integrity carbon credits, and appreciate all of the ways it will help channel climate finance to quality projects."
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