Volunteering is a great way to give back to your local community and have a positive impact on the environment. Volunteering can also bring huge benefits to your business such as improving brand image, enhancing team relations, helping employees to learn and develop new skills as well as retaining and attracting new talent.

Yes, we encourage companies to add previous volunteer projects to help to keep a record and promote ideas for future projects.

After completing a project you should update the volunteering section with details of the volunteering. This will then contribute to improving your Zellar score. Don't forget to share your volunteering day on your socials and tag us.

To understand your legal rights please speak directly with the charity running your volunteering activity.

Certain charities require payment to achieve full-cost recovery for the services provided. The costs covered usually include supervision, equipment, admin and/or a small donation. Please speak to the charity directly to find out exactly what the figure covers.

No, anyone can volunteer!

Unless the volunteering has been organised by your organisation or is happening on company time, this should not be logged under your Zellar profile.

Specific volunteering projects typically last a day but there are often lots of different opportunities, depending on what you are looking for. For exact timings, please speak with the charity directly.

We tend to showcase environmental volunteering projects which focus on protecting our planet and its inhabitants. However, it is not limited to this and we encourage any giving back to your community.

Carbon offsetting allows businesses or individuals to invest in climate change solutions. When you purchase a carbon credit, you are funding the removal of 1 tonne of carbon emissions that could not have occurred without your investment.

We recommend you do everything you can to reduce your emissions before looking at offset solutions. Through Zellar you can:

Carbon offset projects go through a strict verification process to demonstrate that the credit you are buying has lead to the removal of carbon emissions. Our biodiversity projects purely focus on the outcome of their work. Many biodiversity projects have a positive carbon impact but don't go through the verification process - often as the verification is too expensive or simply doesn't exist for their project type.

Our offset projects are selected against the following criteria:

MAXIMUM FUNDING TO THE PROJECTS – We work with suppliers that can guarantee at least 80% of your funding is reaching the suppliers. This typically means that the project owner is selling the credits themselves, or is closely linked to the intermediary selling the credits.

VERIFIED BY SELECTED STANDARDS – Zellar currently works with projects that are verified by VCS, the Gold standard, the UK Woodland Carbon Code and the IUCN UK Peatland Carbon Code. These standards provide the rules of the game and ensure projects are delivering a measurable and additional benefit.

WIDER SOCIAL & ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT - We choose projects that deliver wider benefits. For both UK and international projects, it is key that activities are happening in the right place and the local community is sharing the benefit.

LOCATION – We support both UK and international projects, giving businesses the opportunity to support a project in their region, and to support high impact projects many miles away.

Carbon offset projects are units of carbon that have already been verified, i.e. the trees have already grown. Future carbon offset (technically called PIUs - pending issuance unites) are units of carbon that will be reduced or sequestered over time, i.e. the trees have just been planted.

Buying carbon credits has a positive impact on the environment and it demonstrates your commitment to sustainability. Sharing your business taking action will help improve brand image, allow you to connect with local sustainable projects and attract customers, employees and investors.

Zellar's biodiversity projects are handpicked schemes that allow animals to thrive - often via habitat creation or protection. Whether it's supporting a wetland, woodland or marine environment, these projects bring a host of social and environmental benefits. Many help remove carbon from the air but cannot be called carbon offsetting as that carbon is not measured and verified.

Our projects are selected against the following criteria:

PURPOSE – We only work with projects that are motivated by a clear purpose. The majority of projects are provided by well-known environmental charities.

MAXIMUM IMPACT – We select the most effective projects. This means evaluating the actions and outcomes that are delivered for every pound spent.

LOCATION – We are steadily increasing our coverage across the UK so that we can help all businesses find projects in their region. We also work with international projects to help deliver maximum impact.

DIVERSITY – We want to find a project that inspires every business. Our current projects cover tree planting, farming practices, river pollution, rainforest protection and much more.

All businesses have some impact on the Earth's land, both through their own sites and their supply chains. This land use has some level of habitat impact and therefore some net biodiversity loss. Unfortunately, it's very difficult to measure!

This means there is no right answer to how much you should invest. Each business should do what feels right for them, knowing that the more you give the bigger the impact on the planet and the greater the story you can share.