Climate Ventures, together with WayCarbon, has developed a Climate Impact Calculator for Forests and Land Use, supported by Fundo Vale, the Institute for Climate and Society, Bayer and the Institute for Business Citizenship. Businesses and projects in the sector were recently invited to test it for free and contribute to its evolution.
Using the Opportunities Matrix presented in a study called The Green Wave to segment businesses, the new tool measures greenhouse gas emissions and other climate impact indicators for startups. The Climate Impact Calculator uses automated calculations based on well-established methodologies, such as IPCC and GHG Protocol tools, allowing enterprises to verify the potential contribution of their operations to the climate agenda.
About the Climate Impact Calculator
During the development of this climate impact assessment methodology for social and environmental impact businesses, Climate Ventures, WayCarbon and Fundo Vale realized that there was no similar tool for startups. Large companies already use consulting firms to produce their carbon inventories, but smaller enterprises do not, whether due to a lack of culture, time, budgetary resources or technology.
Having identified this gap and the value proposition of the businesses assessed on the Green Wave Platform – which compiles the main challenges facing Brazil in this area and calls on stakeholders in the Brazilian impact ecosystem to lead a systemic transformation in the relationship between business, people and the environment – we supported the development of this calculator as a business support tool for evaluating forests and land use.
It is now possible to calculate the climate impacts of forest restoration and protection initiatives, as well as more sustainable agricultural practices, understanding each business’ impact on emissions or carbon sequestration. By mapping and organizing this data, it is possible to cross-reference information to understand which projects have removed carbon from the soil and which have generated a positive impact, in order to arrive at a coherent calculation.
According to Liz Lacerda of Fundo Vale’s Partnerships and Business Promotion team, the tool’s great distinctive advantage is that it can allow startups to think about impact carbon and they will already know how to integrate positive impacts into their business strategy and see opportunities for products and services related to climate crisis mitigation, adaptation and resilience.
Fundo Vale and Climate Ventures
The partnership between Fundo Vale and Climate Ventures, established in 2022 and set to continue, aims to strengthen good businesses for the climate, focusing on five areas of work:
1. The Green Wave Platform for Climate Innovation and Entrepreneurship and a Zero-Carbon Economy;
2. The Climate Impact Calculator, to measure the potential climate impacts of climate-related startups – to be launched soon;
3. The Amazon at Home, Intact Forest Movement, focusing on the distribution and sale of social and bioeconomy products made in the Amazon;
4. Climate Launchpad Brazil; and
5. The Program to Promote Good Business for the Climate.