Dutch energy firm buys stake in forestry project developer

Dutch sustainable energy supplier Greenchoice has acquired a 50% share in forest carbon developer Face the Future, for an undisclosed sum.

Rotterdam-based Greenchoice provides about 250,000 customers in the Netherlands with renewable energy and sells ‘green’ natural gas, the emissions from which are offset by retiring carbon credits.

Face the Future manages projects that reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) in Ecuador, a rainforest rehabilitation project in Malaysia and several reforestation and REDD projects in Uganda, among others. The 15-year-old company says it has established 50,000 hectares of new forests, protected tens of thousands of hectares of existing forest and generated more than 2 million carbon credits from its projects.

“The cooperation with Greenchoice [will] secure existing projects and expand our project portfolio with new forest projects,” said Denis Slieker, Utrecht-based managing director of Face the Future.

“We need to create financial mechanisms to fund the protection and sustainable management of forests. A donor-based model is not sufficient,” he added.

Slieker said the deal does not give Greenchoice exclusivity over offsets that Face the Future generates, and his firm will continue to supply offsets to international buyers.

“Greenchoice also acquires renewable energy credits from the market directly. Face the Future intends to satisfy the forest offset credit needs,” Slieker added.

The deal follows a similar move in February this year by Germany’s Forest Carbon Group, an affiliate of Darmstadt-based utility HEAG Südhessische Energie, which invested C$5.5 million (US$5.5 million) for a 30% stake in ERA Carbon Offsets, a developer of forest carbon projects based in Vancouver, Canada. HEAG also offers renewable energy and ‘green’ natural gas to its customers.