Reforestation: programmes to balance emissions from events

Why invest in reforestation?

The natural environment has been under increasing pressure from human activities. The fact that our planet’s climate is changing at an alarming rate has led to increased awareness about our impact on the environment. This has led to a surge in demand for carbon offsets, which are one way to reduce your event’s carbon footprint. A growing number of companies and organisations are offering carbon offsetting programs for events, which allow them to neutralise their emissions by investing directly in projects that reduce or offset global warming gases (CO2). The main advantage of investing in reforestation programs is that they represent an effective way to protect forests from deforestation and preserve biodiversity, while also providing other benefits such as improved soil quality, reduced erosion and better water management. Raising awareness about these benefits also helps increase public support for reforestation projects.

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How to find the best reforestation programme to invest in, to offset your events’ carbon footprint? Look for a focus on biodiversity

The best reforestation programmes are those that have a focus on biodiversity conservation and the restoration of degraded land. This is because the true value of these programmes goes beyond just the amount of trees planted; it is about creating a diverse ecosystem which can provide multiple benefits for future generations. Reforestation projects can be done on land that has been cleared for agriculture or other uses, as well as degraded forests where there are currently no trees at all. Reforestation projects can also be done alongside other types of land management such as forest regeneration, fire protection or restoration of native vegetation. In addition to the types of projects mentioned above, some organisations are working with other groups such as indigenous communities or landowners to help them manage their land sustainably. These groups often rely heavily on natural resources such as timber, water or food from their land, so protecting these resources is important for their livelihoods and survival.

Our experience

Of course, if there is any way that you could limit your carbon footprint or otherwise make your event more sustainable in the first place, you should still strive to do it. But this isn’t always possible for everyone and, event once you have selected sustainable catering and a solar-panelled venue, your event is unlikely to be entirely emission-free, and so purchasing carbon offsets can be a good second step to help achieve a greener event. So go ahead and offset; it’s a positive thing that you are doing for yourself, others, and the planet as a whole. When working on GECO, the Virtual Sustainability Exhibition, for instance, we had very little to tweak in terms of event emissions per se: a virtual event does not require catering or travelling, nor does it produce printed material that could go to waste. And yet, as an event run on servers that consume electricity, it does produce CO2 emissions. For this reason, we subscribed to the reforestation programme of ZeroCo2, that works with local communities in Central America, creating a biodiverse environment from which the local population can benefit both financially and in terms of resources.

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