Today we are shining the spotlight on Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary. Our ultra-transparent 

 includes this and over 100 others around the world.

Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation in Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary


The Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary protects approximately 170,000 hectares (420,000 acres) of forested land that is the ancestral home of the Indigenous Bunong people whose unique culture and beliefs are inseparable from the forest. It is also home to more than 950 wild species, including 75 globally threatened species.

The project preserves the region’s vulnerable wildlife, including the world’s largest populations of endangered, black-shanked douc and yellow-cheeked crested gibbon, as well as a nationally significant population of Asian elephants. The project channels private-sector financing to the local community conserving the forest. The investments are made possible through the sale of Verified Emission Reductions that are verified using the globally recognized Verified Carbon Standard. The resulting Verified Carbon Units are then traded on the voluntary carbon market. Proceeds from the VCU sales are used to fund forest conservation, wildlife protection, and community development in one of the most under-resourced communities in the world.

Since 2009, the project has assisted with co-creating impactful local community teams that protect and manage threatened landscapes. These teams also work to co-develop education, skills training, and other initiatives to improve well-being.    Without the project, destructive activities such as illegal land clearing that replaces native tree species with commercial cash crops would continue posing a risk. With the project, over 1.4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions have been avoided each year for a total of 16,378,529 tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided to date.

A factor to take into consideration when choosing an offset project to support is which of the UN's SDGs it covers and which are important to your company.


...recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.”

Here are the SDGs that Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary supports:

Certification is another important factor to keep in mind when selecting an offset project. 

At the end of the day, carbon offsets are your way to invest in meaningful, measurable projects that either pull greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere or prevent them from ending up there. Browse through our projects to find the perfect one that your customers, employees and other stakeholders can be proud of.

Today we are shining the spotlight on Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary. Our ultra-transparent offset project marketplace includes this and over 100 others around the world.

Offset Spotlight: Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary

We were frustrated that every time we spoke to people who wanted to act on climate, we ended up having to educate them on all the complexities of carbon markets and climate change. That as sustainability professionals at large companies created the tools for dealing with their problems, they were creating a system and a language that was inaccessible to the layperson. We decided it could be done differently. We want to make powerful climate action available to everyone.

One of the first things that most people decide to do is buy carbon offsets. They often don’t know why, just that it feels like the right thing to do. As someone who developed 

the largest carbon reforestation project in US history

, I’ll be the first to tell you that offsets are important. There is no path to our climate future without continuing to develop high-quality, carbon offset projects.

But to be clear, the first and most important priority in any company’s climate action plan is to 

 We cannot offset our way out of the problem, based upon the limits of physics and biology. Offsets will only be part of the solution, which is why we’ve made 

our climate accounting and analytics tools free

 to everyone. We believe that you have the right to know what your footprint is.

The other problem with offsetting is that it leaves a company concerned about the legitimacy of the offsets that it is purchasing. There are a lot of reasons to be worried, as we hear increasing stories of why one offset project or another doesn’t add up to what it claims to be. In part, these stories are correct, but they’re missing the bigger picture — the most responsible companies offset 

 having an emissions reduction plan. You don’t need to be that worried about offsets coming back to bite you if you’re already doing the hard work.

. Because offset projects have some really amazing secondary benefits in addition to their climate outcomes, and as a whole, you can be proud of what you have helped create.

Now, let me tell you what you need to know about carbon offsets

The Earth is warming due to a variety of gases we release into the atmosphere known as “Greenhouse Gases” or GHGs. The most common and having the greatest impact is carbon dioxide (CO2). The other gases include methane (aka natural gas), nitrous oxide, and a variety of industrial gases. As they’re less common, their affect upon the climate is converted into an equivalent of carbon dioxide or CO2e. The standard unit of measure in climate is in metric tons of CO2e, usually written as tCO2e or sometimes as MTCO2e. That can be a lot, so typically people refer to it as a 

 for short. So when you hear about carbon credits, they’re talking about buying or selling some multiple of tCO2e. At Aclymate, we think that’s a fine unit for the big guys, but for most of us, we need to measure our impact in units more suited to the average person, so we display things in 

An offset is a way to pay to someone else to reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. The idea is that what might be currently too expensive for you to achieve might be cheaper for someone else to do. Offsets generally fall into two categories: 

 are when you pay someone else to reduce their emissions. These are projects that have met some minimum standards of additionality that without additional finance would not have been feasible for development. Some examples:

Mine Methane — The geology of coal produces a lot of methane — the deadly gas that made the canary in these mines so famous. As humans have been mining coal for our entire lifetimes, there are a lot of abandoned coal mines that continue to leak methane into the atmosphere and which have no legal requirement to stop it. Methane is a highly potent GHG, especially over the next 20 years, which is why it is the focus of the climate conference in Glasgow right now. Preventing these emissions can have an outsize impact on the climate but capturing this gas can also displace the burning of other fossil fuels, too, as this methane can be a substitute fuel source.

Livestock Methane — In animal feeding operations, manure is collected in holding ponds, where without being aerated, certain biological processes occur, releasing a lot of methane. Capturing that methane can both replace fossil fuels and reduce atmospheric methane.

Avoided Conversion of Forests or Grasslands — There are pressures on developing land into more intense uses, such as agriculture or housing. These natural and working landscapes have a lot of stored carbon in the soil and plants, so by plowing up the landscape, that carbon is released. Preserving that landscape not only saves the carbon emissions, it also allows it to continue absorbing carbon in the future, as well as have positive outcomes on habitat, water, and outdoor recreation.

Renewable Energy — Though renewable energy is increasingly cost competitive, there are cases where it can’t quite yet complete on cost with new fossil fuel energy projects. By helping to finance these projects, you’re preventing locking in decades of emissions from new fossil fuel projects.

 are when you pay someone else to capture carbon from the atmosphere. As this is a more intellectually pure argument — you make a mess and pay someone else to clean it up — removals are increasingly in demand, which of course affects the price. There is some change in the language in the market, where removals are seen as distinct from offsets, but that isn’t yet a standard. Carbon removals come in two flavors: nature-based and tech-enabled. Nature-based removals are projects that increase the capacity of natural and working lands to increase their capture and storage through photosynthesis — locking carbon up in the bodies of plants and the soil they live in. Tech-enabled removals try to capture carbon dioxide with machines or other manufactured processes. Some examples:

Reforestation — The poster child of carbon projects. When a forest is lost due to wildfire or some other disturbance, it takes time and money to replant. Forests are one of the best tools for capturing carbon from the atmosphere, so paying someone to replant these forests is important. These nature-based removals have huge positive impacts on water, habitat, and more, but they can be reversed by potential future disturbances.

Direct Air Capture — An emerging technology, huge machines suck CO2 directly out of the air (hence the name) and inject it underground for permanent storage. Since they permanently keep the carbon out of the atmosphere, these projects are starting to gather significant attention, but they’re also very expensive and require significant amounts of clean energy to work.

Improved Forest Management — A nature-based removal, these preserve existing forests and manage them for increased carbon capture. Most of these projects are paid for some existing carbon storage above the surrounding landscape, so it can be a bit of shortcut to offset production, which makes these project types a little less a straightforward removal and more of a blend between a removal and an emissions reduction offset.

Mineralization — There are processes where certain types of rock or concrete can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lock it up in the mineral itself.

There are a few players in the offset market:

 These are typically non-profit organizations that create the marketplace. They have a process for identifying different offset project types, creating a standard methodology for measuring the projects ability to reduce emissions and/or remove atmospheric carbon, and running it through a scientific review process for legitimacy. Once a methodology is approved, offset project developers can use it to create offset projects, for which the registry will issue offsets to the developer as proscribed by the methodology. An issued offset can then be sold and traded as an asset until it is consumed, at which time it is permanently retired. The registry maintains track of the offset from its creation until its retirement. Reputable registries include 

 are emerging by creating improved practices in remote project monitoring and offset tracking and issuance, but are still working to establish broader market credibility due to their size and shorter track record.

 The people and organizations who do the work of finding, financing, and developing offset projects. A particularly specialized field of work, it requires the ability to speak to financiers, land owners, registries, auditors, and more. In many ways, these people are building our climate future.

: Every reputable registry requires that offset project developers not only adhere to the methodology they choose to develop a project, but that their projects go through an independent audit or verification by an accredited third-party. These verification bodies check the paperwork and processes to guarantee that high standards of authenticity are being upheld.

 Project developers frequently lack the connections to the large corporations to sell their offset volumes. Intermediaries would facilitate these transactions for a fraction of the sale. This market favored bundling multiple offset projects into a single sale for very large corporate buyers. This is part of the space that Aclymate occupies because we think that small companies should not only have access to these projects, too, but that instead of bundling projects into one sale, we can help to bundle multiple buyers into increasing their purchasing power.

 Historically, offset buyers have been very large corporations with teams of sustainability professionals. They have been doing really important work in supporting and directing the carbon markets, but there’s a big risk that these large buyers are going to block the ability of smaller businesses to make meaningful action. Aclymate is here to democratize carbon market access.

If you’re a small business in the United States, there isn’t yet a regulation requiring you to offset your emissions, so offsetting is part of a story you’re telling a key stakeholder. For some, that stakeholder are your current or prospective employees. For others, its about demonstrating ESG directionality to investors and clients. Or it might be around demonstrating action to customers. Or perhaps its just about an ethos of the management. Deciding about the right offset means telling the right story to the right people. Make sure you know what they’re looking for.

The characteristics of the right project often include some mix of the following:

 Companies generally like to demonstrate to their employees and customers that they’re good members of the community. Offset projects that these stakeholders can potentially visit or benefit from often are a priority.

 Some companies have particular impacts on the environment beyond climate, so being able to tell a story about water, habitat, outdoor recreation, and rural or urban development can be an important attribute to these companies.

 There is clear evidence that the burden of development falls disproportionately upon the poor, the disposed, people of color, and the developing world. Investing in projects that help these communities can be part of a restorative investment in justice.

 To be blunt, some projects just have a better feel-good story. Though destruction of certain industrial gases is incredibly important to our climate future, the pictures and story associated with planting trees is just an easier sell.

 Our future increasingly will depend upon the banning of high-consequence emissions. Investing in those projects now can help build that future.

Finally, don’t let perfect be the enemy of good

Offset projects are hard to develop and the perfect project might not yet exist. Or, if it does, its supply may already be spoken for. You can spend a lot of time looking for that perfect project, but you probably won’t find it, there’s a good chance you won’t do anything as a result, and the time you wasted could have been spent doing something more productive like 

 At Aclymate, we bring you a lot of offset projects — more than anywhere else — so you can spend your time doing things that matter.

If you’re ready to begin your climate journey, please sign up for a

of the Aclymate solution. Our team of climate navigators is here to help you find the course to the outcome you want and the community you need at a time and price that will surprise you.

What you need to know about carbon offsets

Aclymate was born out of frustration…

Things are moving quickly for businesses around the issue of climate change. No longer merely considered a social issue used to identify with certain in-groups, the climate is now a growing regulatory, financial, and operational risk that smart businesses are addressing, the unwise are ignoring, and all will have to deal with shortly. Effectively, it is time to get on the bus or be in danger of getting run over. Here are the basics of what you need to know:

International Scientific, Political, and Financial Consensus is Largely Achieved

The Paris Accord was signed in 2015 at the 21st annual climate summit of the United Nations known as the Conference of the Parties – aka COP21. The agreement continues to be enacted and in force in every country on Earth.

Though the Paris agreement is not binding, it sets specific targets for emissions reductions to achieve climate goals – roughly 50% of all greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut by 2030, with the remaining 50% effectively eliminated by 2050.

There remains a small opportunity for carbon offsetting in 2050 for the most difficult to decarbonize sectors. This balance of offsetting the most essential emissions is known as 

The following several meetings were largely technical affairs discussing means of giving teeth to the Paris Accord, but at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021, there were many breakthroughs. Most notably, asset managers representing 40% of the world's wealth – an astonishing 

European regulators put into force the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) in 2018, which requires European companies with greater than 500 employees to analyze and report their exposure to climate risk. This regulation will be largely superseded by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which goes into effect in 2023 and requires nearly every public company and private company with greater than 250 employees, $44 million in revenue, or a $22 million balance sheet to report and forecast greenhouse gas emissions, including Scope 3. Similar regulations exist in the United Kingdom post-Brexit.

At the same time, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed 

 that are currently out for public comment and will go into effect in mid-2023. These rules will require all public corporations to disclose their Scope 1 & 2 emissions to investors, and for large corporations, those that have public climate goals, or those with a materially significant emissions profile, the requirement will also include Scope 3 emissions.

Scope 3 reporting requirements are creating pressure outside of the public markets, as the suppliers of public corporations must now provide accurate climate accounting, forecasting, and emissions reductions to maintain the business relationship. Two examples:

: “Suppliers will track Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse emissions… and establish time-bound emission reduction goals”

: Suppliers are required to track Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and to reduce them by 55% by 2030.

Simultaneously, those seeking capital are increasingly required to provide their financiers with emissions accounting, with pressure coming both from regulators in Europe (

), but also from upstream asset managers with voluntary climate commitments such as the COP26 commitment.

Basics of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Climate Accounting Standards

Climate emissions are also known as “Greenhouse Gas” emissions – GHG for short – and lead to a process known interchangeably as GHG, carbon, or climate accounting.

There are six different categories of GHGs, including methane, a variety of industrial gases, refrigerants, and of course carbon dioxide (CO2). Each of these gases has a different climate effect, so they are all baselined to carbon dioxide. This leads to the common and technically inaccurate shorthand of all climate emissions being called “carbon” emissions.

The international standard of emissions calculations is to account in metric tons of carbon dioxide or its equivalent – abbreviated to 

For a company’s accounting, emissions are accounted for as either Scope 1, Scope 2, or Scope 3.

Scope 1: The emissions a company is directly responsible for, such as the fuel they burn in their vehicles or the leaking refrigerants from their air conditioning systems.

Scope 2: The emissions associated with energy used by a company in its operations, but which were produced elsewhere. A typical example would be the electricity used in lighting or manufacturing that was purchased from an electric utility.

Scope 3: Corporate value chain emissions that are broken down into 15 categories, including business travel, employee commuting, downstream use of products, shipping of goods to/from a company, and investments.

Scope 3 emissions are about the relationships between companies. For Microsoft or General Motors to disclose and manage their Scope 3 emissions, their suppliers need to report their Scope 1 & 2 emissions, and as a result, all business climate accounting standards require a minimum of Scope 1 & Scope 2 emissions. However, as the examples illustrated, these companies are also requiring Scope 3 calculations, so prudent businesses would measure the 

Material emissions are those emissions that a sophisticated investor would be misled about if the emissions were omitted from a climate-related disclosure. As a subjective term, caution would recommend including those emissions about which doubt around materiality exists. An example of emissions from downstream utilization of products, depending upon company and product:

A law firm’s legal briefs would be clearly immaterial.

An oil producer’s sale of petroleum would be clearly material.

A device manufacturer’s sale of a specific product would require a deeper climate accounting project to determine materiality. Alternatively, conservative emissions estimates could be included to avoid detailed calculations.

Emissions reporting is not about being against business growth, but it is about the decoupling of business activity from GHG emissions. Spoken plainly: 

Those companies that do not find a way to make money without emitting greenhouse gases will be struggling to exist in 2030 and completely out of business by 2050.

Net Zero explicitly indicates that there will be specific, difficult-to-decarbonize sectors, allowing for some offsetting of emissions from third-party providers. In the meantime, the most responsible companies are already offsetting their existing emissions. Microsoft, as an example, is offsetting all its historical and ongoing emissions. While this exceeds current and proposed regulatory requirements, it also allows Microsoft special marketing and branding opportunities, improved employment marketability, and access to specific capital opportunities.

Offsetting is broken broadly into two categories: Avoided Emissions and Carbon Removals

Avoided Emissions: When a company pays another company to reduce its emissions. These are projects that have met some minimum standards that without additional finance would not have been feasible for development. This includes projects that capture methane from livestock, prevent deforestation, and renewable energy projects.

Carbon Removals: When a company pays another else to capture carbon from the atmosphere. As this is a more intellectually pure argument — you make a mess and pay someone else to clean it up — removals are increasingly in demand, which of course affects the price. Carbon removals come in two flavors: nature-based and tech-enabled. Nature-based removals are projects that increase the capacity of natural and working lands to increase their capture and storage through photosynthesis. Tech-enabled removals try to capture carbon dioxide with machines or other manufacturing processes.

Offset markets are massively fragmented, so sourcing offsets has historically been done through brokers with the knowledge and connections to enact transactions for the offsets with the right blend of location, type, mechanism, impact, and registry. Small buyers are generally unable to access these services and turn to a variety of websites selling specific projects.

For all the reasons stated above, now is the time to incorporate a climate accounting project into your company’s activities, but it is also an opportunity to establish your company as a leader in its sector. This has additional benefits:

Business Efficiency: The average rate of return on emissions reduction projects is 57%.

Access to Talent: 76% of Millennials prefer to work for socially responsible companies and two-thirds will take a pay cut to do so. Competition for talent is tight.

Product Differentiation: 73% of consumer purchasing decisions are affected by a company’s environmental and social positions.

Identification of primary and secondary outcomes is part of how any company should build its climate action plan and should include plans on reporting and publicity. This takes several forms, including press releases, blog posts, social media, certifications, and corporate branding.

Aclymate provides the leading end-to-end solution for small and medium-sized businesses. Our climate accounting software application filters the data you already have to identify and calculate emissions, displays the information you need to reduce emissions, provides an industry-leading selection of offsets for purchase, and provides a Climate Leader certification to help you win the business and employees you need to succeed. Sign up for a 

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Offset Spotlight: Keo Seima Wildlife Sanctuary

Aclymate was born out of frustration…

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