TIST Values Transparency
Honesty is at the heart of what makes TIST Farmers successful.
TIST Farmers Impact
Community & Planet
TIST Farmers collect seeds, plant trees, maintain groves, monitor results, and receive 70% revenue share from the sale of dual-validated and verified carbon credits.
First Step: Farmers form Small Groups
Second Step: Establish a Baseline
Trained TIST Quantifiers record the existing environment of each farm
Third Step: Quantification of Results
Fourth Step: Verification & Validation
3rd party auditors verify TIST Farmers' trees, validate CO2 sequestration, and issue carbon credits
Last Step: Use by environmental leaders
Premium carbon credits are sold on the global market to individuals, families, companies and organizations who value full-spectrum environmental sustainability
TIST Farmers respond effectively to the climate change challenge.
TIST encourages Small Groups of subsistence farmers to improve their local environment and farms by planting and maintaining trees on degraded and/or unused land.
Over 100,000 farmers in 4 countries have successfully planted more than 20,000,000 trees and captured over 5,500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide to date.
As the trees grow, carbon captured is quantified and verified and certified greenhouse gas credits are sold in the global carbon market.
TIST Farmers receive annual carbon pre-payments for each tree established and
70% of the net profit when credits are sold.
Smallholder farmers also derive significant non-carbon related benefits verified to exceed $8 per tree. Trees provide fruit, fodder, fuel, windbreaks, shade and stabilize riverbanks plus participants have access to health information and training and safe cooking stoves.
What we are doing right now:
Highly-effective climate change restoration
Restoring existing degraded land is a highly effective climate change opportunity.
Planting 20+ million trees, alive and counting
Tree planting is one of the simplest and most cost effective means of mitigating climate change, by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere.
Sequestering carbon and improving lives
TIST's verified results show that the current farmers have received over $140 million in benefits that are additional to the carbon income. That is over $8 of benefits so far for each tree planted and kept alive.
The International Small Group
and Tree Planting Program
Creating effective afforestation and improving farmers' income in response to global climate change!
The TIST Program grows by word of mouth
Farmers learn about TIST from other TIST farmers and join small groups of 6-12 people that form clusters of 200-400 local farmers. Clusters coordinate the small groups of women and men and provide leadership opportunities that make a difference in their local community.
Participating farmers are motivated
Farmers decide whether, where and how to plant trees, change farming methods, source and own the seeds and keep ownership of the trees and land.
Trees are restoring degraded environments
Trees are typically planted on degraded and/or unused land (e.g. around houses for shade, in small wood lots for firewood, along boundaries as windbreaks, along streams for flood and soil control).
Groves will live a minimum of 30 years
Participants contract to maintain the tree groves for 30 years in return for annual carbon pre-payments per live tree, and a 70% share of the net profits from carbon credit sales. In addition, farmers have achieved over $8 per tree of non-carbon benefits
Results are quantified and third-party verified
After 5 years of tree growth, tree mass and the volume of carbon stored in the trees can be calculated, the carbon captured is verified to international standards, and carbon credits can be offered for sale.
Carbon credits are created for now and later
Carbon credits can be retired to offset a carbon footprint, or can be retained and used at a later date.
What makes TIST unique?
Self-reliance and ownership
Farmers join voluntarily because they value the benefits of participation. They maintain ownership of their improved farms, trees and products.
Environmentally and climate friendly
Large environmental benefits are achieved through improved biodiversity, water quality and soil fertility.
Sustainable and low cost
TIST remains financially sustainable by keeping costs low and focusing on serving farmers.
Successful and award winning
TIST is not a greenfield project. 20 years of success has resulted in over 100,000 farmers in 4 countries who have raised over 20,000,000 trees. TIST's award-winning model is widely acclaimed.
Scalable
The TIST Program is participant-led and highly scalable.
Benefits farmers, communities, and the planet
TIST touches on all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The TIST Program creates dual validated & verified carbon reductions.
TIST was the world's first dual validated and verified carbon offsetting program by Verified Carbon Standard and Climate, Community and Biodiversity standards.
TIST was voted Best Offsetting Project and Best Project Developer in Forestry and Land Use.
A leading carbon offsetting program
TIST is recognized as a leading carbon offsetting program and has developed an award-winning monitoring system, using third-party verified standards to ensure carbon emission reductions are real.
Trusted internationally
TIST has sold carbon offsets directly and through resellers to individuals, groups, organizations, colleges and to a number of large corporations. Purchasers have included BP, Delta Airlines, DHL, Freshfields, Grundon, Hyundai, Marks & Spencer, Microsoft and Tata.
Growing trees, growing leaders!
These Kenyan women were filmed by Ripple Effect Images to show their success in enriching their lives and local communities through the TIST Program.
Who supports TIST Farmers' work?
I4EI
The Institute for Environmental Innovation (I4EI) facilitates TIST Small Groups' leadership development, restoration, food security and health activities.
Clean Air Action partners with I4EI, manages operations including monitoring and verification of environmental and carbon credit results.
Grow Clean Air offers products and services to businesses, organizations & individuals through the TIST Program.
Want to become a TIST Farmer?
4 countries, 100,000+ farmers, 20,000,000+ trees alive... and counting!
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