Goal: zero pollution. The goal is very ambitious, but not impossible because there are already some start-ups that allow us to eliminate our carbon footprint forever. And best of all, make money with it.
Vicente Cano is one of those guys who doesn’t stop. He is continually sniffing out possibilities to see how the environment we live in can be improved. Years ago, his connection to the automotive world led him to study different ideas to reduce our carbon footprint, the one that each of us leaves behind when we eat, wash… or drive.
From this environmental concern arose a project that under the name of ForestBank allows you to cost-effectively eliminate your personal carbon footprint. Yes, take his money.
The proposal is not trivial. Transport alone is responsible for 15% of the greenhouse gases produced on the planet. Of course, no one is obligated to eliminate their carbon footprint. The 2015 Paris Agreement, signed by 197 nations, did not set penalties for governments that fail to meet their commitments. Perhaps because only two small states, Suriname and Bhutan, have CO2-neutral economies.
Good intentions and too much delay
Germany, Iceland, Austria and Sweden committed, after COP26 in Glasgow, to reach the same target in 2045; Spain in 2050. Why not sooner? Everyone has relegated the hardest homework to the next decade, but according to the organization The Global Carbon ProjectEmissions must be reduced by 50% by 2030, just eight years, if we are to prevent the planet’s temperature from rising by more than 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times.
It’s everyone’s responsibility, including the automotive world. The grain of sand of the automobile multinationals comes from the hand of electric mobility. Battery powered car sales experience a 34% growth in 2021 Compared to the previous year; a percentage that will undoubtedly continue to grow, although there are still many issues to be resolved, such as recycling batteries or obtaining the truly green electricity used by these cars.
Are you eco-anxious?
Pessimism is evident to the point that the word eco-anxiety, although not yet classified as a disease, has crept into consultations with mental health specialists. 57% of UK psychiatrists already treat people who somatize their fear of the consequences of the carbon footprint they are leaving on the planet.
The vast majority of eco-anxious people are between 15 and 26 years old. In other words, the generation of ‘centenarians’, the next consumer-workers. Right now, they are already changing their habits and adopting new forms of mobility, such as car-sharing, rental or vehicle platforms with on-demand drivers. It is they, the young people of this group, who have already noticed initiatives such as the ForestBank, but not the only ones. Several Spanish start-ups with this environmental vocation are also attracting the attention of environmentalists and investors.
Some tips to reduce your carbon footprint
The Good Goal is an app that guides you through tips with which you can achieve goals such as reducing your CO2 footprint, water consumption or plastics. They started in 2021 and already have 25,000 users. There is also Encantados de Comarte, another Spanish start-up fighting food waste. Its system is based on lots that restaurants and other establishments make available to users with up to 70% discount; was ranked by the UN in 2021 as one of the top 50 startups in the world for its ability to improve food systems.
ForestBank, The Good Goal and Encantados de Comarte are just a few examples that something is changing in the way we try to reduce our carbon footprint. On average, around 30% of the CO2 we produce is due to mobility; about 40% for domestic activities; and in the remaining 30% there are factors such as the type of food we consume or the textile industry.
Emissions of more than seven tonnes of CO2 per person
Each Spaniard emits, on average, 7.5 tonnes of CO2. To reduce them, the business world has already put the batteries. Apple and Microsoft have announced that they will extract all the CO2 they have produced since their foundation from the atmosphere, while Repsol guarantees that it will be carbon neutral by 2050.
Like them, many other companies, including automobiles, have declared similar purposes. This is where startups based on gigantic forestry projects and focused on the business world, like CO2Revolution or Retree, have a lot to say and do.
The next challenge now is to transfer all this to the private sector. To each of us. And to do it, moreover, in a profitable way for our pockets. That, at least, is the approach Vicente Cano takes with Forest Bank. “Our goal is not only to eliminate a personal carbon footprint, but also to provide benefits to those who choose to do so.”
ForestBank’s approach involves first calculating a person’s carbon footprint. Based on this, a series of trees are planted to absorb all the CO2 that that citizen emits each year. So far everything is normal. The difference from other proposals is that ForestBank acts as if it were an investment fund. This means that it will share the economic benefits of the trees planted with its users and local communities.
It is possible to sell the carbon credits you have in your favor and profit from your environmental awareness
ForestBank bases its strategy on several pillars. On the one hand, by providing behavioral guidelines to its users so that, with their improvement in habits and over time, they can capture more emissions than they produce. This, in addition to producing great ecological satisfaction, makes it possible to auction the carbon bonds that each one has in their favor annually. In 2021, the price of these bonds exceeded 50 euros in Europe and continues to rise.
An investment with increasing returns
It also manages public aid for reforestation and those that will arrive from the EU from 2023 onwards to maintain its projects and revert the economic benefits to its customers’ accounts or, if the user prefers, plant more trees. Logging in 2021 has multiplied its value by four.
Vicente Cano, from ForestBank, calculates that in three generations of trees, more than 50% of the surface of the forests of the Iberian Peninsula will have been recovered. If initiatives like this end up thriving, it looks like at least our grandchildren won’t have eco-anxiety anymore.