Donating 2%

Published Sunday, 10th January, 2021

This essay follows one I wrote in 2019 titled 'Donating 1%'. In it, I explain why I donate 1% of my earnings to not-for-profit causes and list those causes for both transparency and in hope it might inspire you to give.

In 2021, I am donating 2% of my gross earnings to climate change solutions. Like previous years, I am splitting that percentage to takle the problem in different ways but unlike previous years, they do not have to be not-for-profit.

For 2021, I am committing...

• 1% of my gross earnings to tree-planting programs, planting 86 trees each month in countries including Mozambique, Madagascar, and Nicaragua via Eden Reforestation and Dalry in Scotland via The Future Forest Company. By the end of 2021, I will have planted over 1,000 trees both at-home and abroad.
• 1% to direct carbon capture and prevention solutions via Gold Standard curtailing the equivalent of 74 tonnes of carbon in 2021. That's the same as offsetting the lifestyles of approximately 8 average UK citizens, including myself.

I am achieving this in partnership with Ecologi, a platform that buys carbon offsets and makes donations to tree plantation programs en-masse. As a for-profit company, they charge 12.5% of my total donations for the service which is a significant amount less than the Individual Member dues of 1% For The Planet, a program I will cease to participate in.

You can view my progress on my Ecologi profile (I had planted 981 trees and offset 35.6 tonnes of carbon prior to undertaking this pledge) and in the interests of transparency and accountability, I will also be publishing updates here on the 1st of each month.

In terms of not-for-profits, I will continue a donation to Cool Earth each month, a charity that has been touted as the most effective not-for-profit for fighting the climate crisis. Including this monthly donation, my giving total for 2021 is likely to be 3% of my gross income.

JANUARY:
6.18 tonnes of CO2e offset
86 trees planted

• 48 trees planted in Madagascar
• 33 trees planted in Mozambique
• 3 trees planted in Nicaragua
• 2 trees planted in Scotland (at victor.orders.foreheads + sprouting.veal.vowing)
• 5.5 tonnes of CO2e offset by providing clean energy through hydropower in Kanungu, Uganda
• 0.68 tonnes of CO2e offset by preserving the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor in Guatemala
• plus a monthly donation to Cool Earth