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How credits are vetted

How your carbon credits are vetted

We buy credits through the supplier that fills our orders. It screens projects, requires independent ratings and spreads each purchase across a portfolio. Here is what that means for the credits retired for your flying.

Wind turbines in a wheat field at sunsetSunlight through a misty forestRows of solar panels in a green field, seen from above

From your payment to a retired credit

Every kilogram you pay for follows the same four steps.

  1. You pay for kg of CO₂

    A plan or a one-time purchase covers a set number of kilograms of CO₂, worked out from your aircraft and your hours.

  2. We order the same amount

    When your payment succeeds, we order credits for the kilograms it covers from the supplier that fills our orders, in an account kept for you.

  3. The credits are retired

    The supplier fills the order from its portfolio and retires the credits on each project's public registry. Retiring a credit cancels it for good: nobody can use or sell it again.

  4. You get a certificate

    Your certificate lists the projects behind your order, their registries and the retirement serial numbers, so anyone can check them.

See what a certificate looks like

You choose how you want to offset

Offset a year of flying with a monthly or yearly plan, or buy a single tonne whenever you want.

One-time or recurring

one tonne once, or a monthly or yearly plan

By flight hours

pick your aircraft and hours, and we work out the kg of CO₂

Personal or business

works for individuals and teams alike

A diversified portfolio

Carbon credits are not all equal. Our supplier builds diversified portfolios guided by the Oxford Offsetting Principles, so you don't have to pick projects yourself.

Diversified offering

Diversified by project type and geography

Respecting Oxford Principles

Guided by the Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Offsetting

Four quality checks

Additionality, over-crediting, durability and double counting are assessed for each project

Every project is independently rated

Our supplier says fewer than 3% of projects on the market are eligible for its portfolios, and each must be highly rated by at least one independent rating agency.

Independent ratings

Highly rated by Sylvera, BeZero, Calyx Global or Renoster

Rated before it's bought

Projects without a high rating from one of these agencies aren't bought

On public registries

Issued on registries such as Verra, Gold Standard, ACR and Climate Action Reserve

What the ratings look for

Rating agencies score projects on the risks that have made some credits worth less than they claim. Our supplier only buys from projects that Sylvera, BeZero, Calyx Global or Renoster rates highly. Four of those risks:

Additionality

Would the project have happened without the money from credits? If it would, its credits change nothing.

Over-crediting

Does the project claim more tonnes than it avoids or removes, for example by comparing itself with an inflated baseline?

Durability

How long does the carbon stay out of the air? Carbon in a forest can be lost to fire; carbon stored in rock lasts far longer.

Double counting

Is each tonne counted once? A retired credit can't be sold again, and the same reduction shouldn't also count toward someone else's target.

Avoidance and removal

Most credits in the portfolios come from projects that avoid or reduce emissions. A smaller share comes from projects that remove CO₂ from the air.

The two aren't the same. An avoided emission was never released, so nothing is taken back out of the atmosphere. A removal takes CO₂ out of the air, but carbon stored in forests and soils can be released again, for example by a fire.

Some technology-based removals are bought for future delivery: they are paid for now and credited later. Until then they are a projection, and they can arrive late or fall short of what was planned.

If a project under-delivers

Registry buffer pools

For projects that store carbon, such as forests, most registries hold back a share of every issuance. If stored carbon is lost, the registry cancels credits from that buffer to make up for it.

Credits replaced by our supplier

If a registry cancels a project, or suspends it for more than 12 months in a row, within three years of a purchase, our supplier replaces the affected credits tonne for tonne at no extra cost.

The conditions, and every project in the portfolios, are in our offset disclosures

What offsetting does, and doesn't, mean

Offsetting pays for projects that avoid or remove CO₂ elsewhere. It doesn't remove the CO₂ your flights emit, and it doesn't make your flying carbon neutral, so we don't call it that. Cutting fuel burn comes first; offsetting covers what's left.

A fair way to put it: "I funded the retirement of 2 tonnes of verified carbon credits through TrimCarbon", with a link to your certificate.

What you can say about your purchase

Questions about the credits

How projects are chosen, what happens to a credit, and what you can check.

Offset the CO₂ from every hour you fly

Retire rated carbon credits for the CO₂ your flights emit. Pick your aircraft and hours, and get a certificate for every order.