Green Future Project: Simplifying Climate Action Through Collective Action Green Future Project provides a platform for individuals and businesses who want to gain access to effective climate solutions, and empower them to have an active role in reversing climate change.
By Ashok Raman
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Green Future Project (GFP) provides a platform for individuals and businesses who want to gain access to effective climate solutions, and empower them to have an active role in reversing climate change. The platform allows users to track, trace, and visualize their impact in real-time. The firm provides access to solutions including restoration, preservation, renewable energy, and marine restoration.
GFP has three co-founders: Pietro Pasolini, Zain Tarawneh, and Briano Martinoni. On one of Pasolini's trips in Ecuador, when working on a documentary and walking through the deforested woods, he was struck by a very tall tree which had the following sign on it: "On sale, US$50." He decided to post the image on Instagram, and suddenly, he started receiving several requests to buy and save the tree from being cut and sold. Thereafter, Pasolini sought out to build a founding team that shared the same vision and desire to create impact at scale. Pasolini then met Tarawneh, who had just piloted a project with the Museum of the United Nations building circular green rooftops in Jordan, and was working with a newly founded creative agency in London that was anchored on sustainability communication. Martinoni then joined forces with the duo, bringing his expertise from the retail and luxury fashion world having worked in Prada for eight years, and thereby having a strong understanding of corporate and consumer culture.
Image courtesy Lucidity Insights/Green Future Project.
As the globe is getting more anxious about climate change, the team at GFP has realized that many feel powerless and are not sure how they can contribute to the fight against climate change. GFP addresses this by providing opportunities for businesses to access the best climate solutions, and have an active role by investing in them. Businesses are often skeptical of donating as they have no visibility where and how their money is spent. To give one example, forests can provide 23% of the cost-effective climate mitigation needed before 2030; yet, they receive less than 3% of climate mitigation finances. GFP is aiming to change that by focusing on conservation projects and funneling capital to one of the largest and most important non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Ecuador, Fundacion Jocotoco, and using satellite monitoring and remote sensing to ensure the protection of these areas.
GFP is a turn-key software-as-a-solution (SaaS) solution for corporate sustainability practices. The company helps clients build their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework, set their sustainability agenda, and provide them with the expertise and tools to reach these goals. Backed by a scientific team and strategic partnerships, GFP gives access to a best-in-class portfolio of certified projects, allowing businesses to invest and finance in climate solutions globally, and track and trace the impact of their investment in real time through a personalized dashboard. The company provides different solutions for individuals and businesses, which include:
- An e-commerce and app application program interface (API) that allows companies to decarbonize as they sell. Its automatic API integration can plug in to any content management system (CMS), connecting e-commerce transactions to live climate counters. Companies can choose to also manually devolve a percentage of sales to the platform's climate projects.
- A climate positive subscription allows to offset employees' carbon emissions depending on their lifestyle and habits, in the goal for a business to reach a climate neutral workforce.
- The platform also offers a carbon offset tool that allows businesses to purchase carbon credits by simply inserting the emissions they would like to compensate for.
Related: Expo Live's Latest Cohort Opens Applications For Climate-Related Solutions Ahead Of The UAE's Hosting Of COP28
Image courtesy Lucidity Insights.
GFP's most used product is the e-commerce and app API that allows companies to decarbonize as they sell by assigning a percentage of their sales to a project, creating a positive climate action per transaction. Companies can show their live impact counters on their website, and thereby share both external and internal stakeholders the progress they are making in reaching their sustainability goals. In addition, data generated from third party providers, NGOs, and two strategic partnerships with Pilio (providing environmental analytics), a University of Oxford spin-off, and European Space Agency (providing satellite imagery) to visualize real-time impact on GFP's dashboard, all help in providing users with real-time data to track their impact, content to learn and engage with supported projects, and a downloadable impact report with an analytical breakdown of their climate action.
An interesting initiative by GFP is The Drive Fast, Act Faster campaign, which aims to reshape the future of the motorsport industry by embracing sustainability as a core value. The goal is to help teams in the motorsport industry understand their carbon footprint, set up an action plan to reduce emissions internally, and then compensate remaining emissions by supporting the preservation of high biodiversity ecosystems, such as the expansion of the Narupa Reserve in Ecuador. The company sponsoring the car had the Narupa forest and GFP logo printed on the livery of the vehicle; plus, the uniform and merchandise were made from 100% upcycled plastic from the ocean, and all proceeds went straight to the protection of the Narupa Reserve. With this project, GFP helped purchase and protect 154 acres of rainforest, and offset the equivalent of 7,000 one-way flights from Rome to New York. The company is further driving this campaign forward, and discussing with other teams to implement this practice.
Image courtesy Green Future Project.
GFP has come quite some way from the time when it initially launched its minimum viable product in Q3 2021 and then its final product in March 2022, having already witnessed 4x growth year-on-year. Boasting over 70+ B2B clients across seven countries and high retention rates of 96%, GFP is proud to have had a significant impact, which includes the protection of 56.95 hectares of rainforest (this equates to over 2150 tennis courts). The company has helped plant 284,363 trees, and offset 12,437 tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to 12,095 one-way flights from Rome to New York.
GFP was one of the 16 selected startups for Abu Dhabi-based Hub71's second cohort of 2022. Prior to that, GFP secured EUR525,000 in seed funding in July 2022 from Green Arrow Capital, Growth Engine, and Kagu Capital. It is now fundraising for a EUR1,000,000 bridge round from the region to scale its team and operations in the UAE before its planned Series A in Q4 2023. Given that the UAE is investing a lot of attention and funds to tackle the climate crisis, the company is also focused on co-developing and onboarding mangrove restoration projects in Abu Dhabi and the region.
GFP aims to support the UAE's development climate policies by forming strategic partnerships to develop, finance, and scale environmental frameworks in the short and long term. Simultaneously, it is focusing on helping raise corporate awareness in sustainability in the areas of coastal and terrestrial restoration and preservation. GFP's mission is to help build the framework and infrastructure for effective sustainable action on both the corporate and individual levels. This is by helping institutional bodies find, fund, and support NGOs and climate solutions. As sustainability is one of the main focuses on the UAE's agenda, GFP is thrilled to be the first climate tech player leading up to COP28, striving to work with both corporates, institutions, and governments to help shape climate policy and corporate sustainability practices in the region.
This article was originally published on Lucidity Insights, and it has been reposted on Entrepreneur Middle East based on a mutual agreement between the websites.
