Tracking retirements: the carbon retirement log

The retirement log covers every project on the platform. Foundation and Mission generate carbon credits that are retired at purchase. Nature, Forest Gardens, and Legacy generate documented CO2 impact rather than credits, but each tree is still recorded in the retirement log at the moment it is purchased. This ensures that no tree, and no CO2 impact, can be sold twice regardless of which certification pathway the project sits under.

What retirement means

In Tree-Nation's system, a tree or credit is retired at the moment it is purchased by a user.

This means:

• The carbon impact is claimed
• The corresponding tree or credit is removed from availability
• It cannot be resold or reused

How retirement works

When a user purchases trees from a Foundation or Mission project:

• The corresponding carbon credits are automatically retired

• The retirement is recorded in the public retirement log

• The credits are permanently linked to that action

When a user purchases trees from a Nature, Forest Gardens, or Legacy project:

• The corresponding trees and their documented CO2 impact are automatically retired
• The retirement is recorded in the same public retirement log
• The trees and their CO2 impact are permanently linked to that action

The mechanism is identical across all tiers. What differs is the label on the output (carbon credit for Foundation and Mission, documented CO2 impact for Nature, Forest Gardens, and Legacy), not the transparency of the retirement.

Recorded in the retirement log

The Tree-Nation retirement log ensures:

• Transparency over all retired trees and credits
• A clear record of who retired what and when
• Protection against double counting, whether the output is a carbon credit or a documented CO2 impact
• A single public ledger covering every project on the platform, across all certification tiers