Leading Asia-Pacific carbon offsetting solutions provider Tasman Environmental Markets (TEM) has partnered with biodiversity credit developer Wilderlands to launch a new environmental impact offering, which blends measurable carbon emissions reduction with local impact on native Australian biodiversity, including protecting the habitat of endangered animals and threatened plant species.
Launching ahead of National Threatened Species Day (September 7), the “Extended Impact” solution combines a one square metre Wilderlands Biological Diversity Unit (BDU) with a certified improved forest management carbon credit from TEM’s April Salumei project in Papua New Guinea. Permanently protecting vulnerable biodiversity in Australia, in parallel to funding the largest rainforest conservation project in Papua New Guinea.
The ‘Extended Impact’ solution through TEM Online provides businesses with a simple way to offset their emissions, while also supporting biodiversity projects local to them.
TEM CEO Adrian Enright.
We are excited to be partnering with Wilderlands to broaden the TEM Online offering and enhance customer offset portfolios through the addition of Biodiversity Units
The “Extended Impact” solution is available through TEM’s AFR award-winning environmental credit marketplace, TEM Online. The Wilderlands’ projects complement TEM’s existing Australian projects – enabling businesses of any size to have a local impact in the state they are based.
Wilderlands CEO Ash Knop said the partnership is reflective of the observed behaviour shift in companies beginning to assess and understand their impact on nature and consider biodiversity credits as a part of their broader environmental strategies. The Wilderlands projects also protect 36 threatened plant and animal species.
“We’re thrilled to be partnering with TEM to create a solution that provides companies with a way to reduce emissions while also helping to protect Australia’s biodiversity, forever. One square metre at a time.”
Ash Knop – Wilderlands CEO
Laneway Festival is the first company to purchase the “Extended impact” solution via TEM Online; addressing the carbon emissions of air travel by touring festival personnel to the 2024 Festival.
In addition to the TEM Online “Extended Impact” investment, Laneway Festival undertakes a range of comprehensive activities to reduce its footprint and leave a positive impact, including:
– Partnering with FEAT. Live to add a Solar Slice to all Laneway tickets, with over $200,000 directed to action on climate
– Ongoing support of Yiriman Project, with over $250,000 donated to support youth in the Kimberley to reconnect with their culture in a remote and culturally significant place
– Replacing 53,220 single use plastic water bottles with canned water and encouraging the use of water refill stations to save approximately 13,195 water bottles at Laneway Adelaide in 2024.
Ali Craze, Sustainability Coordinator of Laneway Festival, said that addressing the festival’s carbon footprint alongside supporting Australian biodiversity projects aligns with Laneway’s overall climate goals.
“Laneway Festival are so pleased to have invested in TEM’s ‘Extended Impact’ solution; it not only helps to address carbon emissions but also safeguards Australia’s unique biodiversity.
Ali Craze, Sustainability Coordinator of Laneway Festival
It’s crucial for us to protect the local ecosystems in which Laneway Festival is held while also addressing our global environmental impact, ensuring our efforts create a lasting, positive change for both our community and the planet.”
Among the Wilderlands projects available to support through TEM is the Coorong Lakes; a project co designed and co-managed with the traditional owners of the region the Ngarrindjeri people and home to over 61 native bird species and 222 plant species including the world’s largest known populations (on private land) of the nationally endangered Metallic Sun-orchid.
Other projects include a dedicated conservation reserve in Alleena, NSW, that aims to address the decline of the suite of birds dependent on intact woodland ecosystems, as well as a grasslands in Victoria that spreads across the vast plain alongside the Avoca River and helps protect the Critically Endangered ‘Natural Grasslands of the Murray Valley Plains’.
Laneway Festival are supporting both of these projects via the TEM Online “Extended Impact” solution.
Learn more about the product and projects via the TEM Online website.
About TEM
TEM is a leading Asia-Pacific carbon offsetting solutions provider, across voluntary and compliance markets, including being the largest provider of voluntary Australian carbon credits. TEM supports business goals through a range of end-to-end carbon solutions, including corporate carbon credit portfolios, digital sales and carbon project development and investment options, and its trading desk.
Since 2014, TEM has helped finance more than 300 projects in 30 countries, reducing over 11 million tonnes of carbon emissions, as well as providing community and biodiversity benefits. TEM is trusted by many leading, iconic global brands and located in offices around Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.
About TEM Online
TEM Online is TEM’s newest digital solution – an online marketplace that allows businesses to buy smaller volumes of carbon credits and manage Scope 3 emissions. It’s a one-stop online platform for offsetting between 50 and 10,000 tonnes of carbon emissions. We had smaller customers coming to us wanting to offset but there weren’t really solutions available for them.
TEM Online supports these businesses on their broader decarbonisation and sustainability journey. For example, businesses might offset emissions from their overall business if they’re smaller, or larger businesses might offset their carbon footprint from an event, product, building or trip. TEM Online is unique because of its fast turnaround service.
The marketplace enables a business to offset emissions in just 48 hours, versus the traditional multi-week contracting process – a first-of-its-kind for the Australian carbon credit market. We created a quick, easy and scalable marketplace for this segment of customers to easily access high-integrity Australian and International carbon offset projects. TEM Online marketplace:
About Wilderlands
Wilderlands have developed one of the world’s first voluntary biodiversity credits and launched a platform to make it simple for anyone to start protecting nature today.
The Biological Diversity Unit (BDU) represents a 1sqm plot of permanently-protected and actively managed land in high ecological value projects across Australia.
Wilderlands partners with leading conservation organisations to unitise the impact of their work, with each unit geotagged, independently certified, and underpinned by a proprietary methodology that leverages state conservation covenant regulations to essentially create private national parks that can be sponsored by individuals and organisations through the purchase of these credits.
Wilderlands currently supports four projects across Australia representing over five million square metres to protect in the Coorong Lakes, Crowes Lookout, Alleena, and Budgerum.
Since launching in early August 2022, Wilderlands have protected over 120,000 square metres of vulnerable ecosystems with supporters ranging from individuals through to large organisations, philanthropists and several environmental advisory groups.
Wilderlands became a member of the United Nations Biodiversity Credit Alliance after being invited to attend the UN’s Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal in December 2022.
Wilderlands have also been part of the inaugural Silverstrand Biodiversity Accelerator as well as selected for the Melbourne Accelerator Program and KPMG Nature Positive Challenge.
We have been featured in major publications including the Wall Street Journal, World Economic Forum, Australian Financial Review, Impact Economist, and many more outlets.
About Laneway Festival
What started as a series of weekly shows at a tiny Melbourne bar has blossomed into one of Australasia’s most beloved festival institutions. Over two decades of expansion, Laneway Festival has become an international signifier of essential music.
Held annually across New Zealand and Australia, the festival has an impeccable track-record of hosting breakthrough artists such as Billie Eilish, Fred again.., Lorde, Haim, Dominic Fike, and more.
About FEAT
FEAT. is an artist-led climate solutions agency that mobilises the cultural and financial power of the music industry to better our world. FEAT funds carbon reduction measures via a sustainability ticketing surcharge the ‘Solar Slice’ a ticketing surcharge (1.5% or $1) that is built into the booking fee of partner events, artists and venues as an industry commitment to prioritising sustainability.
This investment is super critical for the industry solutions we need for long-term low- carbon live event operations. From tracking and reducing carbon footprints, powering backstage solar energy setups, decarbonising transport and protecting and restoring local biodiversity and habitat.
Since launching the Solar Slice has been applied on over 400,000 tickets across some of Australia largest music festivals and artists tours.
