Our CRUs
What makes our CRUs unique
Acorn’s Carbon Removal Units (CRUs) find their roots in agroforestry – a holistic system that can benefit not only the environment, but can also empower farmers over the long term.
The best part is this: 80% of the sales price flows back to the farmers, ensuring that our CRUs are an investment in effective carbon sequestration as well as the communities that make it possible.
Agroforestry in a nutshell
Agroforestry is all about planting trees to support soil quality and crop yield – enriching both the farmland and those who tend it. As trees grow, they sequester carbon from the atmosphere, forming the basis of our CRUs.
To do all of this successfully, we closely collaborate with local partners, their experts, and smallholder farmers, integrating their knowledge and resources. While our technology helps us measure the carbon stored in agroforestry systems.
Credits you can count on
Unlike other available carbon credits that aim for the prevention or reduction of carbon emissions, our focus is solely on carbon removal. Our CRUs are measurable, ex post, and nature-based. Advanced remote sensing technologies allow us to offer traceable, transparent credits on a large scale.
And you don’t just have to take our word for it: we’re certified by Plan Vivo, so you know you’re in capable hands. We're involved with two distinct kinds of carbon removal:
Offsetting allows companies to compensate for emissions elsewhere.
Insetting allows traders and roasters to purchase CRUs generated by farmers in their own value chain.
Everyone co-benefits
Our mission is to empower smallholder farmers, but the benefits of our agroforestry projects extend to everyone involved:
Buyers
By purchasing our CRUs, responsible corporates contribute directly to multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), supporting global efforts for a sustainable future. Our buyers have access to a continuous flow of high-quality certified credits, year after year, without needing to invest in new project selection.
Healthier ecosystems
Our projects promote biodiversity and improve soil quality, enhancing the resilience and productivity of the land.
Farmers
We put farmers in the lead, empowering them with the authority and resources to manage their lands and benefit directly from the sale of carbon removal units. With agroforestry, farmers also have access to additional food and revenue from the trees’ produce – all the while building the resiliency of their land to the effects of climate change.
Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goals (or SDGs) are a collection of 17 goals defined by the United Nations that together lead the way to a better, more sustainable future for our planet and everyone on it. Acorn CRUs contribute to:
1 — No poverty
2 — Zero hunger
6 — Clean water and sanitation
8 — Decent work and economic growth
12 — Responsible consumption and production
13 — Climate action
15 — Life on land
17 — Partnerships for the goals
Hear from farmers themselves on the impact of agroforestry for their livelihoods.
Interested in buying our CRUs or partnering with Acorn?
Interested in buying our CRUs or partnering with Acorn? Check our eligibility criteria below and fill out the contact form.
Eligibility criteria
We believe in our mission and commit ourselves to empowering smallholder farmers and fighting climate change. That also means that we want the organizations who buy our credits to make a real effort, and not just buy a few carbon credits and tick a box.
To be eligible to purchase Acorn CRUs organizations must meet the following criteria:
1. Organizations should qualify as a business user and not a consumer.
2. Organizations must not be active in any of the following sectors:
oil and gas;
aviation;
mining, or;
other fossil fuels industries (this does not include power generation utilities who use fossil fuels to generate electricity for consumption).
3. At least one of the following measures should be in place:
a committed science-based target (SBTi) aligned to limiting a global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees;
is part of the Net Zero Banking Alliance;
a written strategy in place to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (publicly available or available to Rabobank); reductions should be in line with the industry target of the SBTi standard;
proven greenhouse gas reduction (publicly available or available to Rabobank), in line with the industry targets of the SBTi standard.
Furthermore, all Third-Party buyers must comply with the Rabobank Sustainability Statement, or have a similar type of policy in place.
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