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Earthly assessment

Our industry-first holistic assessment encompasses a unique scoring system that analyses 106 data points to ensure that all Earthly projects are of the highest quality.

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How does Earthly assess projects for quality and longevity?

The voluntary carbon market is experiencing rapid growth but has historically lacked transparency and sufficient detail about what projects can achieve. An effective, transparent scoring system must analyse issues such as risk, additionality, and permanence of project solutions - in areas beyond just carbon.

Earthly's assessment process allows projects to be evaluated effectively to show their potential to deliver on biodiversity and social impact goals as well as carbon. This means we analyse the detail of benefits in sectors such as health, local employment and education.

The assessment analyses 106 data points, aggregating information from several data partners, including BeZero and Google Earth Engine. It is transparent, scores across a wide range of aspects, and creates a clear methodology for assessing impact.

Why do businesses value Earthly's project assessment?

Earthly assessment

How Earthly scores projects

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Criteria & weightings

Earthly evaluates projects across three fundamental pillars: carbon, biodiversity, and people. Within these domains, specific criteria hold different weightings, each playing an important role in our assessment:

Carbon: (Weighted heavily)

  • Baseline accuracy: This criterion scrutinises the precision of initial data used in assessing carbon impact. It gauges the reliability and accuracy of the established baseline figures.

  • Additionality: At this stage, we assess the degree to which the project's carbon and climate impacts wouldn't have occurred in the absence of intervention. We measure the genuine incremental difference attributed to the project's efforts.

  • Permanence: Our focus lies in evaluating a project’s capability to sustain and maintain its benefits in reducing carbon over the long haul. Consequently, we look for long-term positive impacts that persist beyond the project's immediate actions.

Biodiversity: (Weighted moderately)

  • Species diversity: This factor checks the range and health of the diverse flora and fauna of the project. We examine the richness and variety of species within the project area.

  • Habitat protection: Our evaluation focuses on the effectiveness of measures taken to preserve crucial habitats within the project site. Earthly prioritises the safeguarding of critical ecosystems and habitats.

  • Ecosystem health: To ensure the sustained health of vital natural systems, we examine the overall well-being and resilience of the ecosystems affected by the project.

People: (Weighted moderately)

  • Social impact: One of our goals during the assessment is to understand and measure the positive changes brought about by the project. To do this, we gauge how the project influences the well-being and livelihoods of local communities and the broader society.

  • Community engagement: Community participation is a vital aspect of our assessment. We assess the level of involvement, collaboration, and empowerment of local communities in the project’s implementation.

  • Local knowledge utilisation: We measure the incorporation and utilisation of indigenous knowledge and expertise in the planning and execution of the project.

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Scoring process
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Score calculation

Partnering with high-quality projects around the world

Earthly doesn't stop at the initial project assessment. We continue monitoring projects to ensure they deliver real impact.

Carbon

We evaluate and track carbon emissions reduction and removal throughout the life of the project

Biodiversity

Biodiversity impact factors in a variety of measures, including endangered species, area protected or restored, as well as ecosystem services.

Social

The People/Social pillar measures how a project benefits its local communities. This can include providing education, training, healthcare, profit sharing, or other benefits.

Project spotlight: peatland protection

One of our planet's largest carbon storehouses are peatlands, which store over 500-600 gigatons, second only to oceans. This is an incredible feat, considering that peatlands only occupy 0.3% of the Earth's surface.

Peatlands project overview ->

Our methodology enables you to compare verified and unverified projects that follow different standards and bodies (i.e. Verra, Plan Vivo, Gold Standard). The goal is to compare, fully understand, and communicate the impact of projects, such as the species protection and flood alleviation benefits of mangrove planting in Madagascar or livelihood programmes focused on employment, education, energy, health and equality in local villages of Indonesian Borneo.

To learn more our Project Assessment, fill in the form and and receive an overview of the detailed 106-point methodology.