ERS (Future 40) raises €5M to develop high-integrity restoration standards for Voluntary Carbon Markets

Created in 2020 by Thibault Sorret (CEO) and Priscille Raynaud (Director of Operations), the Ecosystem Restoration Standard (ERS), just announced a €5M raise led by LocalGlobe and RAISE Seed for Good. Part of Schoolab program at STATION F and selected in STATION F’s Future 40 in 2021, ERS (ex-Wildsense) is a certification for nature-based restoration projects on the Voluntary Carbon Markets.

The investment will support the ongoing development of digital measurement, reporting, and verification (dMRV) technologies ahead of the standard’s first certifications later this year. ERS is investing heavily in satellite data, artificial intelligence, and mobile-native tools to streamline certification and improve the traceability of certified projects. The company’s team includes experts and PhDs in remote sensing and deep learning. With the development of modern certification processes, ERS aims to reduce barriers to entry that have historically stifled access to the Voluntary Carbon Markets for smaller-scale restoration projects.

“Less than 5% of credits on the voluntary carbon markets come from reforestation projects, and of those, most are industrial plantations of non-native species. We strongly believe that more financing needs to go to smaller-scale restoration projects. That starts with building a standard designed to assess and monitor projects’ impact on climate, biodiversity, and local livelihoods”, says Thibault Sorret, co-founder and CEO of ERS.

The company’s founders believe that the Ecosystem Restoration Standard will enable more financing to reach restoration sites. The standard, which will be released for public consultation later this month, stipulates that at least 70% of the financing needs to go to the project. In doing so, the company hopes that its upcoming standard will enable restoration projects to play a critical role in meeting global climate and biodiversity objectives.

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