Green Future Project: Simplifying Climate Action through Collective Action

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 visualise their impact in real-time. The firm provides access to solutions including restoration, preservation, renewable energy, and marine restoration.

 

Also Watch Video: Exclusive Interview With Green Future Project's Zain Tarawneh On Helping Businesses Take Climate Action

Origin Story

The Company has 3 co-founders, Pietro Pasolini, Zain Tarawneh and Briano Martinoni. On one of Pietro’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, 50 dollars”.

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 Pietro sought out to build a founding team that shared the same vision and desire to create impact at scale. Pietro then met Zain, who had just piloted a project with the Museum of the United Nations building circular green rooftops in Jordan, and working with a newly founded creative agency in London that was anchored on sustainability communication. Briano joined forces and brought his expertise from the retail and luxury fashion world having worked in Prada for 8 years and having a strong understanding of corporate and consumer culture.

The Problem

As the globe is getting more anxious about climate change, the team at GFP has realised 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 sceptical of donating as they have no visibility where and how their money is spent. To give one example, forests can provide 23 percent 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 funnelling capital to one of the largest and most important NGO’s in Ecuador, Fundacion Jocotoco, and using satellite monitoring and remote sensing to ensure the protection of these areas.

The Solution

GFP is a turn-key SaaS solution for corporate sustainability practices. The company helps clients build their 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 personalised dashboard.

The company provides different solutions for individuals and businesses which include:

• E-commerce & App API allowing companies to decarbonize as they sell. Our automatic API integration can plug in to any 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.

• Climate Positive Subscription allows to offset employees’ carbon emissions depending on their lifestyle and habits, in the goal for a businesses 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.

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 share both external and internal stakeholders the progress they are making in reaching their sustainability goals.

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.

Shift to Abu Dhabi

GFP was one of the 16 selected startups for Hub71’s second cohort of 2022. Prior to that, GFP secured 525,000 EUR in seed funding in July 2022 from Green Arrow Capital, Growth Engine, and Kagu Capital. They are now fundraising 1,000,000 EUR bridge round from the region to scale their team and operations in the UAE before their Series A 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.

Interesting Initiatives

An interesting initiative by GFP is The Drive Fast, Act Faster campaign, that 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 sponsored the car having the Narupa forest and GFP logo printed on the livery of the car. The uniform and merchandise were made from 100% up cycled 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.

Impact

GFP has come quite some way from the time when it initially launched its MVP Q3 2021 and its final product in March 2022, having already witnessed 4x growth YoY. Boasting over 70+ B2B clients across 7 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 tonnes of CO2 equivalent to 12,095 one-way flights from Rome to New York.

The Future

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.

 

Watch the full interview with Zain Tarawneh in this video, or discover more about Hub71's sustainability-oriented startups in these features: Archireef, FortyGuard, and AirCarbon Exchange,