I understand that after our purchase – someone somewhere in the forest will plant our tree? How is it confirmed?
Yes, the European tree will have a PDF certificate of planting in Poland with the decision of the environmental protection inspector at a specific commune.
How do you choose your target tree planting partners?
We rely on strong brands that have been planting trees for years. In the case of Polish trees with communal certificates, we buy thier planting from the company posadzimy.pl, and in the case of trees outside Poland, for which we are unable to check the planting of forests in their place of location – we buy tree planting from the Arbor Day Foundation.
American trees are much cheaper, but at this stage, unfortunately, we cannot guarantee whether they will be protected by the local gov as well as our Polish ones after planting. But we will do our best in the future to have also US certificates. Naturally you can also buy service to plant US trees already from us – look at our e-store, but at this moment we prefer EU trees (due to certs are possible, as above).
How do your tree planting partners verify the place where trees are planted so that there are no unpleasant surprises when these trees are cut down in the near future for economic purposes, which would reduce the ecological effect?
Each of the selected forest planting companies has high requirements regarding the locations, so as to obtain the best ecological effect and the greatest possible protection of the forest against economic exploitation. Partners describe their policy in detail on their blogs. Posadzimy.pl describes its policy on this page and the Arbor Day Foundation on this page.
How is your certificate issued?
We put the PDF cert in a durable blockchain medium, no one will ever be able to erase or falsify this certificate 😉 If you want, you can put some data in both the PDF certificate and the blockchain item of a durable medium (e.g. “Ann with family” or something like that), because by default, for obvious reasons (GDPR), neither the certificate nor the blockchain item contain any personal data. But you can naturallly put your names if you want to habe them. An item to a durable blockchain medium will be additionally at your address (it’s easy with your wallet, when it works), so it’s such proof forever. As long as you don’t give someone this item via blockchain (e.g. as a gift), you will always be able to show on your wallet in blockchain – “look, these are our trees in the forest”.
Is my personal information included in the PDF certificate or NFT confirmation after purchasing the trees?
I don’t have a Web3 address, and I have absolutely no idea how to install it. And I would like an item confirming the certificate of planting a tree to appear in a durable blockchain medium. Do you have any tutorial on how to install Web3 address?
It is best to install (and then use) on a different browser than the one you use every day. Then you won’t have to worry that it’s some “bad devil”, because you’ll be using it on some other browser than the one that you use for your everyday affairs.
Here’s a step-by-step guide – https://levelup.gitconnected.com/how-to-use-metamask-a-step-by-step-guide-f380a3943fb1
Good luck! If you succeed, you will have your own Web3 address on MetaMask for connecting to different networks and different Web3 applications in the future. Remember to keep the Secret Backup Phrase mentioned in Step 2 somewhere. You must not share it with anyone (except your loved ones), or save it on your computer desktop, etc. Because anyone who has this Phrase will have access to your tokens and Web3 assets on that MetaMask you installed.
Are you a foundation, i.e. a public benefit organization?
No, we are a European business from Poland providing eco-compensation services.
Why are you not a foundation, then I could make a donation for planting forests by you?
By purchasing a service from us – you plant the right number of trees, depending on the type of service purchased. We use foundations from which we buy tree planting services, according to the information about our products. As a company, we provide a wider service in addition to this purchased planting. As a customer of these services, you do a few extra cool things besides planting trees (which is of course the most important) and the pro-ecological effect of your funds will be wider (concerns new pro-ecological technologies). In this way, we protect our mission, as well as the whole world, against a situation where trees in the future (e.g. as a result of a fire) emit CO2 back into the atmosphere. At the same time, we are following the path of additional new technologies as a result of the sale of our services. It also enables companies to purchase services from us as part of their positive marketing to their own customers.
Why do you sell tree planting at a higher price than if you planted them directly at the appropriate planting service (a public benefit organization)?
Generally, we deliver the eco-compensation effect at a lower cost than carriers do for their services. You can additionally choose different variants, tailored to your individual activities that you want to compensate. Naturally, this is why we have a higher price than planting a tree directly in the appropriate planting service (a public benefit organization), because we provide different variants, but above all, with the purchase you get an entry to the “eternal” blockchain database plus an individual token to the Ecopernic Club. Thanks to the price surplus in relation to the price of the foundation – Ecopernic Club will develop in order to build an ecosystem to support startups of pro-ecological technologies. Therefore, each payment for our services includes not only planting trees. The price includes also building such new ecosystem, and your Ecopernic Club NFT tokens allow to your influence the directions of development of this ecosystem in the future. Ecopernic Club is not yet launched at the moment, but with the development of this project, we will open further elements of the ecosystem. In short – by buying our services, you buy vouchers that allow you to participate in the Ecopernic Club and thus shape what we will do together as part of new pro-ecological technologies.
Will I receive an invoice for the service purchased from you?
Yes, during the purchase you specify whether you want to receive an invoice. The invoice contains information about the type and quantity of the service purchased by you in the form of registering your action in ECOperNIC blockchain database, allocation your entry (through Ecopernic NFT voucher) to the Ecopernic Club. Also number of trees planted with this entry will be mentioned as the result of above mentioned service. The 23% VAT rate in Poland applies to this type of service, unless you are a foreign entrepreneur who can take advantage of the so-called VAT reverse charge, then the payment for the service will be reduced to the net amount. Any information regarding the possibility of using the so-called You must obtain VAT reverse charge from your local tax office or from your tax advisor.
Hi, I have a direct question – I’m impressed with the idea, but on the other hand – all this climate policy serves no purpose, the only thing that makes everything more expensive! I hope they don’t introduce these carbon passports to limit our freedom to the max. Do I understand your idea correctly, i.e. if there are limits and limits on CO2 in the future, will these trees mean that I will be able to have additional limits in my travels?
We think about it a bit differently 😉 In a nutshell, the point is that if you ever feel like buying CO2 compensation “by yourself” for a flight, train or bus ride (and today you can buy it in many places) , then you can buy real eco-compensation on our website, i.e. as much as you have issued, you can conscientiously planted yourself a tree. Of course, nobody has to do anything, the point is that people already buy on their own. Mariusz, for example, has not bought in his entire life, but when in January 2023 he saw how much CO2 one Bitcoin transaction in the native network emits, his conscience set in motion and for the first time he started buying from carriers for his flights by plane. Then he saw that he would prefer a little different eco-compensation, if there were some local gov certificates that trees are real, and finally he prepared this business. So it’s not in terms of any compulsion, just if someone wants it, it’s cool, and if not, no problem. Mariusz also didn’t have an internal need for so many years and it’s completely normal that someone else doesn’t have to either. A matter of taste, just an internal need.
And regarding blockchain – there are no cryptocurrencies here as stoe-of-value. We only save items of certificates to a permanent blockchain medium within using Polygon, so we use very liite amounts of Matic cryptocurrnecy for registration the data in this blockchain. This is similar method like a bank saves regulations to clients in a durable medium on a blockchain and another bank started saving art galleries with certificates of ownership of works of art through NFT tokens in the blockchain. We use Polygon as ecological blockchain, this is a tehnology over 10 years later than Bitcoin technology adn Polygon consumes 1000x less energy than Bitcoin. Naturally there is also possibility to pay for our services by cryptocurrencies, but we accept only that kind which runs on eceological blockchains. Of course the world is full of other and similar use cases. But you know, the differences are still little known and everyone thinks that very blockchain solution and crypto are the same 🙂