On April 13th, 2023, we organized our annual relation day. This year: Deep Dive in Fair Climate Projects. The event was hosted at the headoffice of our client Secrid in The Hague. The event was a great success were relationships were strengthened and all questions about CO₂ compensation projects were answered. We look back with great pleasure on this inspiring day.
The program started with a warm welcome from ambassador Nienke de la Rive Box and director Neera van der Geest, followed by a presentation by Secrid's Impact Manager, Robin Foolen. He discussed their sustainability strategy.
The day continued by diving deeper into the world of CO₂ compensation with a panel discussion. Neera van der Geest and Marcel Spaas from FairClimateFund talked with Nadine Planzer from SustainCERT and Arine de Bordes from FORLIANCE. The discussion focused on the criticism towards CO₂ compensation projects, the developments in the voluntary carbon market, and how this can be made future-proof. Transparency and fairness are of great importance to us. The people most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change should benefit most from carbon offsetting projects.
After a short break to process all of the information, attendees then had the opportunity to attend an in-depth session on our Fair Climate Projects. The choice was between a session on clean cooking projects and a session on nature-based solutions (NBS) projects. We discussed the complexity and challenges of setting up and monitoring these climate projects.
After discussing the current developments in the carbon market and our offsetting projects, the focus shifted to the future. A second panel discussion provided more clarity on the question: How can the voluntary carbon market be made future-proof? Our panel members each shared their vision of the future of the carbon market, such as growth, regulation and digitization. But above all: transparency & fairness.
The day concluded with a presentation by Elise Vonk, an expert in sustainable communication. She presented how companies can best communicate with stakeholders about their climate strategy. The core message was to avoid using hard claims such as carbon neutral or climate neutral, but rather to tell your entire climate story, including setbacks and highlights.
Overall, important topics were discussed and new opportunities for working together towards a sustainable future were explored. We would like to thank Fairtrade Original for sponsoring the delicious goodie bags. And we thank Secrid for the hospitality and co-organization of this successful day.
See you next year!
The FairClimateFund team
Ps The link to the presentations can be found here and photos of the event can be found here.
