Climate-KIC start-up: A Decarbonice time
Want to give someone a carbon free week? One of our social technology start-ups now bundles carbon offset certificates with merchandise.
By attaching gold standard carbon credits to physical products, Decarbonice aims to make the current complex and often unattractive carbon credit market more transparent, tangible and appealing.
Christmas cards
The first products Decarbonice has chosen to attach carbon credits to are Christmas cards.
Recipients of these special cards can enjoy a carbon free week, knowing that €2.50 – included in the price of the card – has been invested in either a wind farm project in New Caledonia, or a re-forestation project in Uganda.
Business model
Decarbonice is based in the UK and was formed during the 2011 Climate-KIC Summer Journey – a five-week intensive course focused on climate innovation, during which participants attend classes across Europe – where its three co-founders from Norway, the Netherlands and the UK met and came up with this innovative business model.
From 2011 onwards, the team have been setting up the foundations of the company, which brought them to their first commercial phase by Christmas 2012. Decarbonice has sold over 500 cards and has begun supplying to its first retailer, ‘Craft Central’ in Farringdon.
Next steps
The Decarbonice team are optimistic about the future of their business, and are currently focusing on developing new greetings card designs, as well as diversifying their product portfolio and developing strong relationships with widely recognised retailers.
For more information about Decarbonice, or to purchase Decarbonice merchandise please visit www.decarbonice.com or contact the Decarbonice team directly at hello@decarbonice.com.
If you would like to support them digitally and keep up to date with their progress, you can ‘like’ them on www.facebook.com/decarbonice or follow them on twitter @decarbonice.
Climate-KIC
Climate-KIC is a European network, consisting of dynamic companies, the best academic institutions and the public sector. Integrating education, entrepreneurship and innovation, Climate-KIC produces a creative transformation of knowledge and ideas into economically viable products and services that help mitigate climate change.
As one of the EU’s three Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) designated in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), it is Climate-KIC’s core purpose is to create opportunities for innovators to address climate change and shape the world’s next economy.
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