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Biodiversity
12.02.2025
Biodiversity net gain one year on
A year has passed since England’s Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) rule came into effect, requiring many new developments …
Earthly’s biodiversity credit ledger - the new standard for transparency
Earthly has created a tool that helps businesses showcase their biodiversity efforts through a unique, verifiable ledger.
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The biodiversity crisis requires substantial and sustained investment, yet there’s still a
. As global commitments and pledges to stop and reverse nature loss increase, mechanisms are needed to mobilise private capital and direct it towards ecological restoration.
allow businesses to fund measurable, science-based conservation outcomes. However, market growth has exposed challenges in transparency, standardisation, and verification.
, over 60% of corporate biodiversity claims are unverifiable, undermining credibility and stakeholder trust.
Earthly’s biodiversity credit ledger was created to address this trust gap. It ensures that nature-positive actions are trustworthy by providing a transparent, traceable and verifiable system for tracking biodiversity credit purchases.
Challenges in measuring, issuing, and tracking biodiversity credits
Tracking and verifying biodiversity credits is challenging due to the complex nature of ecosystems and the early stage of market infrastructure:
Lack of standardisation:
Biodiversity credits lack universal methodologies, making it hard to compare impact across schemes or ensure consistency.
Data fragmentation:
Without a central registry, credits are scattered across platforms, increasing the risk of overlap or duplicated claims due to poor coordination.
Verification complexity:
Biodiversity gains require Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) - including field surveys, satellite imagery, and eDNA sampling - to ensure outcomes are real and lasting.
Double-counting and greenwashing:
Credits may be sold or claimed more than once, and a lack of transparency can lead to misleading sustainability claims.
Overlapping systems:
Projects often generate multiple benefits, but siloed credit systems for carbon, biodiversity, and social outcomes risk double-selling the same intervention.
A view of the Iford biodiversity project in the South Downs National Park. Each unit purchased from this project is uniquely geolocated and recorded, ensuring it cannot be double counted or resold.
How Earthly’s ledger supports biodiversity accounting
"Through our ledger we ensure traceability from origin to retirement, which is good news for a biodiversity credit market that relies on verifiable and transparent solutions."
Angelina Purschel,
The
biodiversity ledger Technical Lead at Earthly
is a
public registry
of all biodiversity credits issued through our platform. A record is added to the ledger when a biodiversity credit is generated and sold.
The ledger records the buyer, the number of credits purchased, and the specific project and location they support. Each credit corresponds to a defined area of habitat, ensuring all entries are standardised and set to a fixed area.
Key elements of the biodiversity ledger
Earthly’s ledger was designed to
prevent double-counting and double-selling,
achieved through its key features:
Immutable entries:
Once a credit sale is logged, it cannot be removed or altered.
Unique identifiers for credits:
Each biodiversity credit is tied to a specific plot.
Transparent purchase records:
The ledger lists all the buyers (or contributing entities) of credits. It shows client names and the number of credits they’ve purchased, along with the total area those credits support.
Standardisation and metadata:
Earthly’s biodiversity credits are based on a recognised standard and are aligned with the UK government’s
Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)
units framework.
Public accessibility:
The ledger is public (on Earthly’s website and reports), and records are open to third-party scrutiny and review from stakeholders, auditors, and other interested parties.
A snapshot of the Biodiversity credit ledger's records
How the ledger ensures biodiversity accounting standard integrity
The ledger is designed to ensure the accuracy and trustworthiness of data while keeping it user-friendly for stakeholders:
Integration of geospatial data
Each Earthly biodiversity credit is linked to a precise 3×3 m² plot of land, anchored by geospatial coordinates. To make these locations accessible and human-readable, Earthly integrates What3Words technology, which assigns every square a unique three-word address, such as “orchard.frog.meadow.” This allows anyone to locate and visualise the exact area associated with a credit.
This geospatial grounding enables seamless integration with GIS tools, where users can explore mapped areas and view project details. Because each credit corresponds to a unique, non-overlapping square, double-counting is inherently avoided, and the physical footprint of every intervention is transparently verifiable.
Fixed records with version control
Ledger entries are time-stamped and locked in sequence, creating an unchangeable audit trail. If updates are needed, they’re added as new entries, ensuring transparency and preserving original records.
At the same time, Earthly’s ledger version control feature allows for follow-up assessments to be appended as biodiversity outcomes evolve. A credit issued today can be updated with future data, enriching the record while maintaining its original context. This gives buyers access to the most current information without compromising the integrity of the original issuance.
Rich metadata and links
Each ledger entry includes detailed metadata and links to supporting documentation, such as project verification reports, imagery, and third-party audit certificates, ensuring scientific rigour in credit assessment and quantification.
Earthly’s projects undergo
covering environmental and social criteria. This is further enriched with partner data, including satellite imagery from Google Earth Engine and biodiversity scoring tools. Together, these inputs provide an evidence-backed profile for each credit.
The ledger also captures key attributes such as ecosystem type (forest, wetland, grassland), the duration of protection (typically 30 years), and ongoing monitoring updates, allowing stakeholders to explore the full context and long-term impact of each intervention.
Preventing double counting at the source
We source our biodiversity credits from certified Biodiversity Net Gain units, which are typically accounted for in a government-endorsed registry. Then we split them into smaller voluntary units, ensuring each portion is only sold once.
Earthly’s ledger, in effect, becomes a sub-registry of a larger verified unit. In turn, each credit has lineage is tied to a specific project and methodology.
Security and reliability
The ledger is hosted on secure servers with backup systems. As it becomes a reference for multiple stakeholders, ensuring high uptime and protection from tampering remains a technical priority.
A hare spotted at the Iford biodiversity project. Wildlife observations like this help track species presence and richness - key indicators in measuring biodiversity uplift and supporting accountable nature restoration.
Business benefits of using the biodiversity ledger
Earthly’s Biodiversity ledger provides a range of strategic benefits for companies looking to take credible action on nature.
1. Verified impact reporting and compliance in alignment with ESG and global goals
, and businesses are facing growing pressure to disclose their nature-related impacts and dependencies. Biodiversity credits recorded on Earthly’s ledger provide clear, verifiable evidence of action, making it easier to report progress in ESG disclosures, sustainability reports and regulatory frameworks.
Beyond compliance, these verified credits also support broader sustainability objectives. They contribute directly to global goals such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 15: Life on Land and SDG 14: Life Below Water. The ledger offers a measurable and transparent way to demonstrate meaningful contributions to these SDGs.
2. Promote stakeholder trust and enhance brand value
Having public, traceable records builds trust with customers, partners, and investors. The ledger acts as proof that your company’s biodiversity commitments are real.
Being listed on the ledger can also foster internal pride and purpose. Employees can directly see their company’s contributions via dashboards and impact maps. This visibility supports morale, engagement, and can even boost talent attraction, especially among sustainability-minded staff.
3. Communicate with credibility
Communicating environmental action clearly and without exaggeration is important in building trust with business stakeholders. Earthly’s biodiversity credit ledger gives businesses a reliable way to share their contributions to nature, backed by verified data and mapped outcomes. Every credit is tied to a real project, location, and measurable impact, making it easy to communicate sustainability efforts without the risk of greenwashing.
Woodland restoration in progress at the Iford biodiversity project, South Downs National Park. Restored habitats like this support species return, carbon storage, and soil health.
Who can be added to the biodiversity lredit Ledger and how
Any business or organisation that purchases verified biodiversity credits through Earthly can be added to the biodiversity credit ledger. This includes companies of all sizes and sectors - retail, finance, tech, manufacturing, or beyond - looking to demonstrate credible environmental action.
To be listed, businesses simply select and fund one or more of Earthly’s vetted biodiversity projects from our marketplace. Once completed, the transaction is recorded on the ledger with details including the number of credits, the project supported, and the corresponding habitat area. This entry is then publicly accessible, offering full traceability and proof of your nature-positive impact.
Earthly’s long-term vision for scaling the biodiversity ledger
"We have some big goals for the future of our voluntary biodiversity system. We would love to evolve this project in several ways."
Angelina Purschel,
The
biodiversity ledger Technical Lead at Earthly
Our
transparent, geospatially grounded design enables integration with emerging global standards and interoperability with registries and initiatives from organisations like UNEP and WEF. As Earthly evolves the platform, planned enhancements include API integration with corporate sustainability dashboards, real-time monitoring via satellite and sensor data, and dynamic project updates - shifting the ledger from a static record to a real-time system showcasing biodiversity impact.
The system has the potential to support the growing nature-positive economy, offering companies a credible way to compensate for unavoidable biodiversity impacts through verified credits. It could also be seen as a trusted tool for public-private partnerships and national biodiversity accounting, including compliance frameworks like biodiversity net gain.
Beyond verification, the ledger serves as a powerful educational tool. By publicly documenting biodiversity outcomes, it showcases what’s possible when businesses invest in nature and helps mainstream biodiversity action. Over time, we envision inclusion in the ledger becoming a recognised mark of environmental leadership and corporate accountability.
A beautiful view of the South Downs National Park. This site, with the support of Earthly, is the first of its kind to offer voluntary biodiversity credits based on government-recognised Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) units.
Invest in verified nature-based solutions and become part of the biodiversity ledger
By
supporting high-integrity nature-based biodiversity projects
, businesses can turn their sustainability goals into real, trackable outcomes. Every contribution is transparently recorded on Earthly’s Biodiversity ledger - building trust, credibility and impact.
to find the right project for your business and lead the way in credible biodiversity action.
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