Companies are beginning to embrace the practice of ‘insetting’, that is, embedding sustainability activities, such as agroforestry, directly into their supply chains.

An article in The Guardian’s Sustainable Business section looks at how sustainability standards Plan Vivo and Pur Projet are promoting carbon insetting, where trees are planted to support agroforestry within a business’s direct supply chain.

Many big businesses have in the past, and continue to, opt for carbon offsetting through planting trees, but insetting is gaining popularity as companies realize that this may be a more strategic investment.

“Insetting is a way to help companies to regenerate the ecosystem that they depend upon … to make the offsetting strategy more legitimate, more linked with the business,” said Tristan Lecomte, co-founder and president of Pur Projet

One example is a partnership between Pur Projet and the Lisu communities of Yunnan region, China where herbal agroforestry gardens are planted to help preserve traditional Chinese medicine culture and protect China’s threatened biodiversity.

Another example is from the Accor hotel group which is supporting local projects committed to sustainable water and agriculture. Together with Pur Projet, Accor is supporting the planting of olive groves in Morocco and has helped to set up a female-run olive oil business. Some of this olive oil is sold back to Accor’s hotels.

Nespresso too has embraced the concept of insetting, committing to plant 10 million trees by 2020 among its suppliers’ farms and surrounding ecosystems. The company also has a direct relationship with its 60,000 suppliers through its own AAA sustainable quality programme, in partnership with Rainforest Alliance.

Read the full story: Forget carbon offsetting, insetting is the future