Climate Protection Contribution

The Swiss Climate Model deliberately favours CO₂ reduction. Wherever possible, CO₂ reductions should be achieved within a company's own value chain or product lifecycle. In addition to the reduction potential in their own value chain, companies have the opportunity to achieve CO₂ reductions outside their own value chain. This is done by making carbon offset contributions to certified carbon offset projects.

This contributes to achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, according to which as many greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as possible should be avoided already today. Swiss Climate brokers CO₂ certificates from high-quality projects that contribute to local, sustainable development.

Our Offer

Swiss Climate offers tailor-made solutions to help you make a meaningful contribution to climate protection - tailored to your corporate strategy, your brand and your goals.

• Advice on the technology, standard and country of origin of carbon offset projects.
• Demonstration of the additional positive impact on sustainability through the carbon offset project.
• Investment in carbon offset projects only via already issued certificates, i.e. CO₂ reductions already achieved (no "Futures" where the reduction takes place in the future).
• Support in communicating carbon offset contributions to target groups.

Your Benefits

Making a meaningful contribution to environmental protection offers your company a wide range of benefits and opportunities:

• Improved positioning of your company and products in the marketplace.
• Customer loyalty through brand enhancement in the realm of sustainability.
• Competitive advantage in tenders and elevated climate protection requirements from customers and investors.
• Improved employee identification with the company (attractive employer).
• Minimising climate-related risks in the value chain and from future regulations (voluntary action and preparation before obligation).

Due Diligence

Quality, credibility and transparency are at the heart of Swiss Climate's project selection process to ensure that the requirements for high-quality carbon offset projects are met. We work with a portfolio of selected carbon offset projects, with which we also maintain personal contact. All projects in our portfolio undergo strict quality and credibility checks. In the case of third-party emission reductions, we regularly review criteria such as additionality, double counting, climate impact, measurability, and development impact in relation to global sustainability goals. This enables us to ensure compliance with the highest quality standards.

The following quality criteria are required for high-quality carbon offset projects:

• We only offer carbon offset projects with high, internationally recognised standards (e.g. Gold Standard, Verified Carbon Standard VCS) that address other sustainability criteria in addition to carbon offsetting.
• The standards must certify the CO₂ emission reductions or CO₂ storage of the projects as well as the development impact (based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) / also known as co-benefits). This can also be achieved by combining several standards, each covering only parts of what is required, but together covering all aspects.
• Our projects are developed using a robust scientific methodology. Emission reductions are quantified against a transparent baseline scenario, and emission reductions are regularly monitored. Negative impacts on sustainability in the project region are avoided.
• All our carbon offset projects are validated and verified by recognised, independent auditing companies (e.g. SQS, TÜV Süd). This involves on-site checks to ensure that the CO₂ reductions indeed take place and that the high standards are met.
• The emission reduction would not have been achieved without the carbon offset project. A project is additional or complementary if it 1) can only be implemented thanks to additional funding from the sale of carbon credits (financial additionality), and 2) goes beyond the climate targets of the host country and fills regulatory gaps (policy level additionality).
• The projects comply with the applicable legal, environmental and social regulations of the host country (compliance).
• Any CO₂ emission reduction or storage must be of long-term benefit to the climate. Projects and programmes must mitigate the risk that the reduction or removal of GHG emissions will be reversed at some point in the future due to natural disasters, climate change, human activities or other events. Permanence is particularly important for projects that remove carbon from the atmosphere through nature-based solutions or storage technologies.
• To ensure a real climate impact, offsetting should be based on ex-post carbon credits. We only use pre-issued carbon credits from validated and verified carbon offset projects (exceptions are subject to strict conditions).
• As part of our client mandates, we cancel the carbon credits in a recognised international registry (e.g. Gold Standard Registry), ensuring that the emission reduction is used only once. Double counting is avoided.
• Our carbon offset projects not only reduce CO₂, but also support sustainable development in the project regions (SDG co-benefits). In addition to climate protection, the projects also contribute to other aspects of sustainable development on the ground (e.g. clean energy, biodiversity, education, inclusion, etc.). The projects do not have a negative impact on the environment, biodiversity or society. For example, the projects create jobs, improve health care, provide access to new technologies or improve education. These co-benefits of the projects in the area of the other SDGs are documented and diverse.
• We work with project owners and intermediaries with impeccable reputations. For the projects in our standard portfolio, we maintain long-term personal contacts with the projects and therefore have direct insight into the projects