Brighter Planet

What is the Portfolio Promise?

The Brighter Planet portfolio is made up of multiple renewable energy projects, all of which can be generating more or less carbon offsets than were estimated for them in a certain period of time.

• > 100% of estimate: overperformance
• < 100% of estimate: underperformance

Since we use a conservative estimation methodology, our portfolio performance is usually more than 100% across all projects. This means that more carbon offsets (and therefore more environmental benefits) are being generated than are being sold.

In the unlikely event that our portfolio does underperform, this is when our industry-first Portfolio Promise comes in: we will make up for shortfalls from one project with surplus from another.

Here’s the relevant section from our terms and conditions:

NativeEnergy guarantees that if any project from which it sources carbon offsets on an up-front, long-term, share-of-project basis fails, by the end of the project’s “Delivery Term” specified above, to achieve the performance level NativeEnergy estimated, NativeEnergy will donate to Clean Air-Cool Planet, for retirement on Brighter Planet’s behalf, additional offsets from: (i) that project’s performance following the end of its Delivery Term, if available (by extending the Delivery Term until the estimate performance level is achieved); or (ii) the output of other projects in NativeEnergy’s portfolio that are supplying offsets on an up-front, long-term basis, to the extent that their performance during their Delivery Terms exceeds NativeEnergy’s estimates, including only: (a) those projects that first entered NativeEnergy’s portfolio after November 28, 2007; and (b) generating capacity of projects not allocated to existing customers as of November 28, 2007.

From the Brighter Planet Carbon Offset Terms and Conditions (PDF, 3 pages).