BeZero carbon raises $50 million as the investors’ interest in the carbon offset market grows

BeZero Carbon, a British company, raised $50 million during the Series B round. This round of funding brings BeZero to a total of $70 million. It is among the largest funds raised in the carbon offset rating companies. Investors for this round include: 

• US investment firm Quantum Energy Partners
• EDF Pulse Ventures, the VC arm of EDF
• Hitachi Ventures 
• Intercontinental Exchange
• Molten Ventures
• Norrsken 
• Illuminate Financial
• Qima
• Contrarian Ventures

This success story goes to show that carbon-offsetting markets are gaining more popularity and the market gaining more traction. 

What is carbon offsetting?

Carbon offsetting is a way to compensate for CO2 emissions. Every person, household, or company activity produces a certain amount of greenhouse gasses. 

In the last few decades, we have developed rapidly as a society, producing exponentially more CO2. Companies are reconsidering their use of resources, such as fuel, packaging, paperwork processes, and transportation usage, and moving to more sustainable practices. Carbon offsetting helps to balance these activities in different ways. 

However, as long as there is activity, it will produce a certain amount of emissions. Therefore, sustainable solutions alone make it impossible to reduce emissions to zero. For this reason, carbon credits are becoming more popular. 

Organisations, such as DGB, bring together experts and scientists to a specified area and pass the required certifications and start a nature restoration project. Then, once these projects are completed, they will get them certified by third-party certification standards. Every well-executed nature restoration program helps to reduce carbon emissions. That number is quantifiable. Once these specific outcomes are achieved, companies can acquire carbon credits to offset the CO2 they produce. 

Sure, companies could plant trees themselves - but tonnes and tonnes of carbon dioxide need millions of trees for years to come. And it requires a massive amount of scientific, local, and legal knowledge and operational excellence. That's why companies opt for reliable carbon offsetting companies to do what they are good at - so business owners can focus on the business.

Why is the carbon offsetting market growing?

Countries and companies are making pledges to bring their emissions down to zero, following the Paris Agreement. Also called becoming a net-zero company. So far, giants such as Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, and many others are leading the net-zero trend.

This market has two distinct parts. First is the compliance carbon credit market - which aims to meet a set of rules put in place for governments. Second is the voluntary carbon credit market - aimed to help organizations to offset their carbon footprint to improve corporate social responsibility and public relations. 

Since there is high demand for quality carbon offsetting - companies are emerging to meet these demands with quality carbon credits. 

What are quality carbon credits?

Carbon credits are a relatively new idea for the general public. If someone talks about the price of gold and says 1 gram of gold is $50, everyone understands what that means. It is a physical product, and they can touch it and see it. They understand the exchange process clearly that if "I give 50 bucks, I get back 1 gram of gold."

As the market grows, third-party organisations do thorough certifications for carbon offsetting projects, both before and after the execution of the project. Only those projects that got certified are awarded the carbon credit. Then the other companies can buy the carbon credits. However, with carbon credits, since people need to become more familiar with how it works, there is a lot of wiggle room to misinform. 

Companies need to research and ask the right questions to get high-quality carbon credits. Reputable carbon offsetting projects should have the certification and reports to prove their carbon credits are legit. 

There are different yet equally important things to consider about carbon offsetting:

1. Additionality. Those carbon credits must come from a project precisely planned and built, not from some random land that was there from the beginning. In other words, people can't just get carbon credits for forests that already exist and just have been there. 
2. Leakage. For example, there is a nature restoration project, but a local tree logging company moved to the nearby forest to cut down the trees. As a result, the tangible outcome in terms of carbon is either non-existent or, worse, harmful. 
3. Permanence. Quality nature restoration projects must last decades to impact the carbon cycle. Leading nature restoration teams count for all the possible situations that could affect the project today or years down the road. The project area's geopolitical, ecological, and economic landscape needs to be considered and proactively planned. 
4. Measurement. Paying attention to clear metrics and the logic behind the projects and carbon credits is crucial. Third-party organisations examine the tasks for the value they provide, and that value is quantified. 

BeZero’s path in the voluntary carbon offsets market 

BeZero combines traditional capital markets research practices with environmental science and technology. The main focus of the company is to provide tools, analytics, and ratings of projects in the voluntary carbon offset market. Based on the information the company provides, businesses can create a tangible plan to achieve net-zero. Hence, the name - “be zero”. 

As the carbon market grows, it is more important than ever to have a transparent and reliable carbon offsetting company on your radar. We are the first publicly traded company. We are on a mission to restore nature and help businesses achieve net zero. You can talk to us anytime if you or your company is starting a journey to give back to nature.