Yes, green-washing is definitely a problem. There is an incredibly wide variance of quality among carbon offsets, from dubious avoidance offsets priced at $2 per ton of CO2-equivalent emissions (tCo2e) to actually sucking carbon out of the atmosphere and sequestering it below the earth for $600-1000 per tCo2e.

At Bend, we are trying to really apply pressure on the market to be real about going "net-zero." Our offsets package is priced at $100 per ton, which is still surprisingly affordable for a lot of small companies. We blend that package across reforestation projects (low-cost) and true carbon removal project (high-cost) to offset a company's emissions, in order to funnel investment towards those more expensive operations. This is important so that companies like Charm Industrial and Climeworks can increase their efficiency and bring the price-point of carbon removal down.

And while $100/tCo2e might sound expensive, our thesis is that it's still remarkably affordable, especially for small companies who factor it in early on. This program is also opt-in, so you can start out with Bend just to measure your emissions and then decide about offsetting later... but for us, for example, our "Carbon Bill" hovers between just $25 to a $100 per month. Barely doubles the cost of the base subscription!

Ya I hear you, our goal is to combat greenwashing in a few ways. We cover total emissions (vs. cherry-picking categories of emissions). We incentivize companies to take action today (vs. vague 2040 or 2050 goals). And to the degree that carbon credits are part of your strategy, we push for very high cost-per-tCO2e removal credits ($100 / tCO2e) vs. low quality $5-$10 cost-per-tCO2e avoidance credits.