While both Voluntary Biodiversity Credits (VBCs) and carbon credits contribute to environmental goals, they address different challenges and represent different outcomes.

Carbon credits represent a verified tonne of carbon either avoided or removed from the atmosphere. These credits are most commonly used by businesses to compensate for their emissions, with the unit of sale being a tonne of CO₂e. At Earthly, we go further; we only support carbon credits that also deliver measurable benefits for biodiversity and local communities.

Biodiversity credits, by contrast, represent a verified or quantified improvement in nature, such as the recovery of a key species, improved habitat condition, or enhanced ecosystem function. Interventions that are essential to improve soil structures, for adaptation to climate change, and to contribute to the prevention of natural disasters like flooding and droughts. Earthly also seeks to support projects that demonstrate a positive carbon and social impact. At Earthly, we assess these outcomes through a rigorous methodology and support the sale of biodiversity credits to companies looking to invest directly in nature restoration.

There isn't a fixed formula or ratio for the number of VBCs a business needs; it depends on your specific biodiversity goals and the scale of the impact you wish to achieve. The best way to determine your needs is to reach out to the Earthly team to explore options that suit your company's budget, goals and scale.

VBCs do not contribute to net zero targets in the traditional sense, they don’t directly compensate for emissions through measurable carbon removals or reductions. Net zero is primarily focused on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and balancing any remaining emissions with carbon offsets.

However, VBCs play a complementary role by funding nature-based solutions that enhance ecosystem resilience - a key pillar of climate adaptation. By supporting the restoration of habitats, species recovery, and ecological functions, VBCs help ecosystems withstand climate-related shocks such as floods, droughts, wildfires, and temperature extremes.

VBCs also address a major limitation of the net zero framework: its narrow focus on carbon. Many high-value conservation efforts like coral reef restoration, the removal of invasive species, or rewilding with keystone species do not result in significant carbon sequestration, and are often overlooked by carbon markets. By channeling investment into these kinds of interventions, VBCs ensure that biodiversity is not left behind in the race to address the climate crisis.

Unlike carbon emissions, there isn't a universally standardised method for businesses to directly quantify their comprehensive biodiversity footprint. However, setting biodiversity goals aligned with global targets like COP16 and your organisation's values can drive meaningful impact.

For businesses looking to understand their broader nature impact or dependencies, frameworks like the Science Based Targets for Nature (SBTN) or the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), which includes its LEAP approach, are emerging tools that can help. However, VBCs are designed to fund and support restoration initiatives that generate measurable biodiversity gains, rather than directly offsetting a company's operational impact.

When your business invests in Voluntary Biodiversity Credits (VBCs), you are supporting projects that quantify their ecological uplift. These projects use recognised biodiversity metrics like the UK Goverment approved DEFRA BNG metric. Specifically, projects quantify ecological uplift by using tools such as remote sensing, environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling, and field-based ecological surveys to monitor key indicators like habitat condition, species richness, and functional diversity.

Currently, Earthly’s VBCs are generated in England under the DEFRA framework but national and global expansion is being explored. Please reach out to our team for updates.

For more insights on VBCs, visit our FAQ page.