Incentivizing Social Climate Action Using On-Chain Environmental Assets - Kieran White, Co-Founder & CEO at Return

Disruptors for GOOD | Social Entrepreneurs and Social Enterprises

In episode 179 of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, I speak with Kieran White, Co-Founder & CEO at Return, on incentivizing social climate action using on-chain environmental assets.

Return is a climate technology startup that offers verified and incentivized social climate action to individuals, corporations, and communities. It uses blockchain technology to create a protocol that directs funding towards present or future climate projects using on-chain environmental assets, which help fight climate change.

Why does Return exist?

Despite the estimated 30-fold growth of the Voluntary Carbon Market by 2030, this will only satisfy 2% of the overall demand required to combat the climate crisis, according to scientific estimations. Voluntary carbon offsetting, both for individuals and corporations, has not achieved the level of adoption required. Although recent developments, such as corporate Net-Zero commitments, have aided in this area, there is still much ground to cover.

After conducting extensive research, Return discovered that the reason for this lack of adoption was the absence of incentive alignment among the three key stakeholders: consumers, businesses, and climate projects themselves. By leveraging some of the innovative tools provided by blockchain, we can finally achieve this necessary incentive alignment.

How it works:

Select a climate track that suits you best, either through an upfront payment or a deposit that generates continuous contributions. Establish your impact identity by personalizing and displaying all your actions, which will reflect your values. Increase your community by inviting friends to join your climate guild and connecting with like-minded individuals who share a similar digital identity. Enjoy exclusive rewards through Return's ecosystem partners that will help boost your impact identity.

Your Impact Identity

An impact identity is a unique digital NFT that is not tradeable and serves to showcase your dedication to the environment following your actions on the Return platform. At Return, we believe that everyone should receive recognition for contributing to the planet, and this is one of the ways we provide that acknowledgement through social proof. By displaying your impact identity to friends and striving to attain different levels of impact, you can visually transform it over time as you compete with others in the community to be the first to reach the top tier!

What can you support? Verified Climate Projects

Rimba Raya Biodiversity Project - Preserving the forests of Indonesia in the Tanjung Puting National Park
Cordillera Azul National Park REDD Project - Avoiding deforestation in the lowlands and montane forests of Peru
Jiangxi Province Le'an County Forest Farm Carbon Sink Project - Improving the management of protected forestry in China

How is individual carbon footprint calculated?

Their internally-developed emissions calculation methodology allows Return to determine your blockchain-linked carbon footprint. To assess your overall carbon footprint, they utilize averages determined by the Nature Conservancy, which approximate the average American individual's carbon footprint to be around 16 tonnes.