FAQ

A carbon credit is the right to claim an environmental impact equal to that of 1 metric ton of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. Typically, typically that right is generated by the reduction, avoidance, or removal of one metric ton of CO2 elsewhere (or the equivalent amount of another greenhouse gas, CO2-e).
As you may have read, today’s carbon credits have a lot of problems. Various headlines have highlighted the problem. Various coalitions and taskforces have sought to address the problem. Yes, bad actors take advantage of the system, but the problem is deeper than that. It’s systemic, and it affects all carbon credits.

At the deepest level, the entities that stamp carbon credits “approved” get paid per credit. This conflict of interest is the most fundamental reason for quality issues in the voluntary carbon market. This has led to two very obvious mathematical problems with today’s carbon credits:

First, carbon credits are not equivalent to the emissions they offset.

Second, carbon credits rely on decades of speculative impact that may never occur.
Sky Harvest’s True Credit is a different type of credit from every other type of credit. Every True Credit offsets 100% of 1 metric ton of CO2 and no credit is issued until the impact has been delivered, measured, and verified. That means no risk of partial offsets and no risk of reversal.
Today’s carbon credits
True Credits
Emissions equivalence
Carbon credits today only offset a fraction of the emissions they claim. That’s not conjecture; it’s math.

Why? Well they only measure one dimension of carbon storage: the tonnage. To determine the true impact of climate storage you have to measure 3 dimensions: tonnage, duration, and timing. It’s like trying to measure the volume of a cube with just the width—it doesn’t work!
In contrast, Sky Harvest addresses this persistent gap that undermines the market’s credibility with 100% emissions equivalence. 

Sky Harvest accounts for the entire life cycle of emissions and then bundles as many tons of CO2 as needed to ensure every credit offsets 100% of each ton of CO2 emitted. Mathematically, no other credit on the market does this.
No reversal risk
Traditional offsets rely on speculative promises to protect trees or store carbon underground decades into the future. Then, they insure them with buffer pools–convoluted mechanisms rife with conflicts of interest.
In contrast, Sky Harvest only issues credits after the climate benefit has been fully delivered and verified. No speculative promises. Because we don’t count speculative future impact, there is no risk of reversal. Every credit represents a real, measured, and verified impact.
True Credits are different in two fundamental ways:
Imagine opening a 1,000-piece puzzle but finding only 200 pieces, plus an I.O.U. for another 600 pieces over the next forty years! That’s how most carbon credits work, banking on future benefits that, even if delivered, don’t complete the puzzle.

At Sky Harvest, we don’t issue IOUs. Every puzzle contains 1,000 pieces. That means we issue credits only after the climate benefit is fully delivered and verified—no speculation, no missing pieces. Every credit reflects real, measurable impact. This means we generate fewer credits today, but no risk of reversal or gaps. And when future impact is verified, we’ll issue those credits with the same integrity, ensuring the next puzzle you buy is also complete.
We compensate U.S. landowners to defer timber harvests, which stores significantly more carbon in their forests over time.
Landowners may indicate their interest by completing a brief form HERE. Depending on where we are in the project lifecycle, landowners may then be added to a waitlist or directly screened for enrollment. Ultimately, Sky Harvest will make an offer to eligible landowners based on the characteristics of their timber, its proximity to market, and the quantity of carbon stored within the forest. Landowners then decide whether to accept the offer and contract with Sky Harvest.
Sky Harvest requires that landowners (a) own their land, (b) have the legal right to timber their land, and (c) have proof of historical harvesting operations. Yes, we agree these sound like obvious criteria – but you’d be surprised what’s out there.

Beyond that Sky Harvest prioritizes working with small-acreage landowners or underserved landowners (as defined by the USDA). As of this publication, 100% of our landowner partners are small-acreage or underserved family foresters—or both.
Quite simply, we step into the landowner’s shoes. That is, to determine if the trees were going to be cut, we must understand the landowner’s incentives.

We eliminate the guesswork and gaming by calculating a dynamic baseline of the landowner’s economic incentive in the absence of our program and then only crediting where the landowner changes behavior because we have compensated him/her to do so. 

By modeling real-time factors such as timber prices and merchantable timber volumes, we create adaptive, accurate benchmarks that reflect current realities. This ensures buyers can trust our credits to withstand scrutiny and align with their sustainability goals.
Yes. The project has both environmental and economic benefits.

Environmentally, the primary and most direct benefit is CO2 storage: CO2 once in the atmosphere is now locked in the biomass of forests. However, secondary, indirect benefits include particulate scrubbing, nutrient cycling, habitat, wind break, ecosystem food source, resting/stopover sites for migratory birds, biodiversity, heat protection, perching sites, shade, soil stabilization, nesting materials, water retention, water quality, as well as many others enumerated below. Moreover, Sky Harvest encourages its landowners to practice behaviors that encourage resilient ecosystems. To quantify these impacts, Sky Harvest tracks several key metrics that are scientifically demonstrated to correlate with the above stated outcomes.

Impact of extended rotation age (both in “acre-years” and metric tonnes of CO2 stored)

Number of trees protected (with diameter at breast height >4”)

Mix of forest type (natural versus planted)

Mix of species type (hardwood versus softwood)

Soil type

Economically, our projects support rural, disadvantaged timber operators* in the United States. These timber operators are often cash-strapped with family savings tied up in growing forests. Rather than cutting trees to pay expenses, Sky Harvest offers an alternative: carbon revenue on an annual recurring basis. Beyond landowner compensation, we also employee a network of regional foresters with boots on the ground and GIS analysts with eyes in the sky to precisely measure every acre of forest.

Unlike many carbon projects that operate internationally, Sky Harvest’s these payments circulate within the US economy, generating economic surplus not just for landowners but for the companies that benefit from how those landowners spend their newfound income.

* At the time of publication, Sky Harvest works exclusively with small-acreage and underserved landowners, as defined by the US Department of Agriculture.
Yes, all Sky Harvest credits are verified under an internationally recognized and ICROA-approved standard by an independent, third-party auditor.
No, there are two types of carbon markets: compliance markets, where transactions are mandated by some governmental entity, and the voluntary carbon market, where buyers make voluntary purchases. Sky Harvest operates in the voluntary carbon market. There are no tax credits involved.
While anyone can buy a True Credit to offset their emissions, the majority of Sky Harvest’s customers are companies seeking to fulfill their climate targets by offsetting their existing emissions.
There are six primary motivators for companies (and individuals) participating in the voluntary carbon market:

Anticipation of future regulatory action

Access to capital in debt markets

Alignment with investors and/or shareholders

Brand alignment with customers to boost sales

Employee attraction and retention

Values and principles – i.e., it is the right thing to do
In 2024, Sky Harvest signed a cooperative agreement with the US Forest Service to fund and expand its operation for the benefit of more US-based landowners.