How and when do I get paid?

You have two options for payment - you can choose to receive VCUs (credits) (see What are carbon credits and VCUs?) or you can choose to have Arbonics sell VCUs on your behalf and pay you in cash.

The VCU (credits) option

• VCUs are issued based on proven carbon removal on your land.

• VCUs will be transferred to you at the end of each monitoring period, once Verra has verified your carbon removals and issued VCUs.

• In the case of Afforestation:
• VCUs are likely to be issued every five years, while tree growth is relatively slow. Once tree growth accelerates you are likely to receive VCUs every year.
• You will continue to receive VCUs until the total number of VCUs issued equals the long-term carbon storage potential of your afforestation activities. The long-term storage potential will vary from plot to plot, however, it is normally reached approximately halfway through the harvest cycle (e.g. a plot with a harvest cycle of 50 years will reach its long-term storage potential between 25-30 years).
• Once you receive the maximum number of VCUs for a plot, you won’t receive any further VCUs until the Arbonics Agreement ends.
• At the end of the Arbonics Agreement, you will receive your share of any VCUs released from the Verra buffer account.
• VCU issuances are front-end-loaded over the first half of your afforestation activities, however, to realise the maximum value of your afforestation activities, you are required to manage each plot over the life of the Arbonics Agreement in accordance to the Grouped Project’s description.

The cash payment option

• Arbonics can help sell your credits when they are issued by Verra and pay you in cash.

• We are exploring ways to annually pre-sell the carbon your land has sequestered (but which is not yet validated by Verra). While this might mean a discount on the carbon price, you would receive payments more frequently. If this is of interest, let us know.

• In the case of Afforestation:
• Given that cash payments will be based on actual VCUs issued, the same front-end-loaded logic as above applies. That means cash payments are likely to stop before the end of the contract but the land under contract needs to stay under management until the end of the contract.