Established in 2019, Apella Advisors, a business advisory firm, are founding members of Pond Foundation, taking immediate, serious, and credible climate action. They transparently report their annual greenhouse gas emissions annually, with the support of Pond Foundation. In 2021, they began their climate action journey by commissioning Pond Foundation to calculate their greenhouse gas emissions, since the inception of their business. At this point, Apella Advisors committed to removing their lifetime GHG emissions by investing in CRCs with a selection of carbon removal projects (Pond Foundation partners). Each subsequent year, Apella Advisors buys more carbon removal credits from Pond Foundation partners, based on the findings of annual their GHG report. This means that Apella Advisors is annual carbon zero every reporting year, and retains their status of lifetime carbon zero. Apella Advisors selects carbon removal credits from a variety of projects that interest them the most, each of which has been carefully selected by Pond Foundation with different carbon removal methods. Carbon removal projects can take the form of biochar, forest restoration, built environment, soil, or blue carbon.

Pond Foundation calculates and reports Apella Advisors’ greenhouse gas emissions according to the ISO 14064-1 standard on Organizational Greenhouse Gas reporting, using internationally recognised emission conversion factors. Apella Advisors reviews the reporting and shares it publicly. Apella Advisors commit to removing an amount of carbon through Pond Foundation projects, equal to the GHG emissions that they have caused in the previous reporting year. Pond Foundation sends an invoice to Apella Advisors for the agreed number of CRCs, for the asking price of CRCs, plus a 12.5% administration fee, and a 6% buffer for foreign exchange and banking charges. Apella Advisors transfer the invoiced amount. Pond Foundation requests an invoice from project partners for the newly sold credits, plus a 3% buffer. Project partners issue an invoice, and Pond Foundation transfers the agreed amount. Project partners create and share carbon removal certificates directly with Apella Advisors.