A certification for every tree

It depends on what you want to fund and what you want to report.

Foundation is for carbon-focused sponsors funding large-scale agroforestry hedgerows and biodiversity corridors on private farmland, where the highest measurement precision matters. Satellite Aboveground Carbon (AGC) data resolves carbon down to individual planting lines, and carbon rights are included. Best when carbon reporting accuracy carries the weight in your disclosure.

Mission is for carbon-focused sponsors funding diverse private-land reforestation. Satellite Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) tracks vegetation and biodiversity development over time, and carbon rights are included. Best when you want full carbon reporting fit across a wide range of project types and geographies.

Nature is for climate-first sponsors funding mangrove and riverbank restoration on public land at ecosystem scale, rather than claiming the carbon themselves. Government partnerships and community wages let projects run at €0.35 per tree, which is where the largest available climate mitigation actually sits. Carbon rights are reserved for the communities and governments that plant and maintain the projects. Best when you prioritize climate impact over climate reporting.

Forest Gardens is for sponsors funding smallholder agroforestry, where trees are integrated into a family's household economy for food, fodder, timber, and cash income. Carbon accounting is conservatively capped at 200kg per tree, reflecting the working nature of these trees. Best when farmer livelihoods and biodiversity co-benefits are the primary reason you're funding.

The comparison table above maps each tier to its intervention, verification approach, and reporting frameworks so you can match it to your goals.

Yes. Certifications are tied to specific projects, not to your account. You can fund multiple tiers simultaneously and adjust your mix over time. Each project keeps the certification it was funded under, but new funding can go to any tier you choose.

Yes. Tree-Nation contributions align with SBTi through the Beyond Value Chain Mitigation framework (explained in the Standards Alignment section above) and map to CDP, CSRD, and VSME disclosure frameworks. The comparison table above shows framework fit across the four certifications, and each certification's page has a detailed Reporting & disclosure section for specifics.

Vintage refers to the year a carbon credit is generated. For Tree-Nation, that's the year the tree is planted. Because our credits are ex-ante (sponsors can purchase before planting occurs), vintage assignment depends on when planting takes place relative to when the sponsor retires the credit.

If you retire a credit after the tree has been planted, the vintage is already assigned and available for disclosure (for example, "Vintage: 2026"). Tree-Nation maintains vintage records for every planted tree, accessible through your account.

If you retire a credit before planting has occurred, under our pre-sale model, the vintage will be assigned once planting is completed. In disclosures like CDP Question 7.79, sponsors can select "No" on the vintage question and note the expected planting year, or wait to retire until the vintage is available.

Either path is valid. Vintage timing follows the tree's actual planting cycle, not the moment of purchase.

For corporate GHG neutrality claims: yes, when properly substantiated under CDP and CSRD ESRS E1-7 rules, requiring reduction targets, quality substantiation, and no impediment to internal decarbonization. Foundation and Mission provide the contractual carbon rights needed to support this; Nature reserves carbon rights for governments and communities, and Forest Gardens leaves carbon rights with the farmers who grow the trees, so neither supports corporate climate mitigation claims. For product-level marketing: no, EU consumer protection law (ECGT) prohibits 'carbon neutral' product labels based on offsetting, regardless of the credit source.

No. Tree-Nation has not applied for CCP certification. We focus instead on building a fully transparent system where publicly available documentation and results define quality, backed by two layers of independent review: international academic review of our methodology, and independent third-party assurance of each certified project at year 5 of its crediting period. Both CDP and CSRD explicitly accept other reputable certifications, provided sponsors conduct due diligence.

Because our mission is to plant new trees and support small projects worldwide. Per-hectare accounting requires large project areas to be economically viable, which excludes smallholder farmers and dispersed reforestation. Per-tree calculation lets us support any project size and grounds the CO2 estimate in each species' actual biology (wood density, growth rate, lifespan) rather than in landscape-level averages. This keeps our carbon math physically grounded at every scale.

Failure is expected and planned for at three levels of response.

First, failure insurance is baked into the carbon math itself. Survival rate, cull-back, and prudence reductions are applied to the raw per-tree estimate before any claim is made, and CO2 accounting is capped at 10 years even though trees keep growing beyond. These structural reductions absorb normal variance without leaving an over-credited gap.

Second, our contracts with planters require a minimum survival rate for the trees planted. If a planter stops collaborating, we close the project, communicate transparently to sponsors, and complete any trees still owed through one of our own operational projects.

Third, force majeure events beyond the planter's control (fires, disease, extreme weather) do not trigger remediation. That is what force majeure means.

Legacy TN Methodology projects are those in our active portfolio not yet transitioned to one of the four certification tiers. They use the exact same carbon calculation methodology as certified projects; what differs is the level of formal documentation and reporting profile.

Legacy projects are fully compatible with the frameworks that don't require carbon rights: CDP Forests, CSRD ESRS E4 (Biodiversity), CSRD ESRS S3 (Affected Communities), and VSME narrative disclosure. For climate mitigation reporting (CDP Climate Change and CSRD ESRS E1), we recommend using certified tiers instead. Even where we retained contractual carbon rights on Legacy projects, the tighter documentation and monitoring requirements of current reporting standards mean certified tiers are the fit for quantified climate disclosure.

Some Legacy projects are being transitioned to certification tiers over time, and their reporting profile may strengthen retroactively once transitioned.

Tree-Nation is structurally different from Verra, Gold Standard, and other Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) certifications.

VCM certifications credit hectare-based projects, use third-party validation and verification bodies (VVBs), issue tradeable credits with 20 to 100 year crediting periods, and pool credits in shared buffers to cover reversal risk across a portfolio. This model is designed for tradability and financial commoditization of carbon.

VCM certification is also expensive. Registration, VVB fees, ongoing monitoring costs, and periodic audits typically run into the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars per project. This locks out most of the smallholder cooperatives, community reforesters, and independent operators doing tree planting globally. VCM eligibility is effectively reserved for large-scale plantations that can absorb the paperwork overhead.

Tree-Nation credits are per-tree, ex-ante, and tied to specific plantings visible to the sponsor by geolocation. Verification is integrated in-house through public transparency: polygons, monitoring data, planter contracts, and failures are disclosed rather than intermediated. All this data is public, so anyone can verify it independently, and the underlying carbon measurement tools are third-party datasets from providers such as NASA and Planet, which we feed into our platform but cannot alter. Independent oversight is preserved through two additional channels: the methodology is reviewed by independent academic experts, and each certified project receives independent third-party assurance at year 5 of its crediting period. This is the same category of independent scrutiny VVBs provide in the VCM model, applied through qualified assurance under ISO 17000 rather than through a certifying body layered into every transaction.

Insurance is handled differently. Rather than a shared buffer pool, Tree-Nation front-loads conservatism into the calculation itself: we credit less than the raw biological potential through survival rate, cull-back, and prudence reductions, cap CO2 accounting at 10 years while trees continue growing beyond, and require planters to remediate underperformance under contract. Force majeure provisions cover tail-risk events beyond the planter's control.

Tree-Nation fits sponsors who want direct, auditable tree planting tied to specific projects, with access to the smallholder and community operators VCM excludes.

There is no minimum investment. Sponsors can purchase individual trees, subscribe monthly, or fund entire projects at any scale. The certification tier applies to the project a tree is planted in, not to the size of the sponsor's contribution. A single tree purchased in a Foundation, Mission, Nature, or Forest Gardens project carries that tier's methodology and reporting profile.

There is no ongoing commitment. Once your contribution is made, Tree-Nation carries the planting, monitoring, and reporting responsibility for the certification tier's full monitoring period. Sponsors receive updates throughout this period without further contribution required. Sponsors may renew, subscribe, or scale up their contributions at their own discretion.