How Wren uses BeZero to inform project selection

This article by Sophie Westover, Head of Climate at Wren, was originally published on Wren's website on 29th July 2026.

Wren is a climate platform that helps individuals, businesses, and philanthropists fund high-quality carbon projects. The team evaluates hundreds of projects each year and selects only those that meet its strict criteria for measurability, additionality, and lasting impact. 

Challenge

In May, we published an open Request for Proposals (RFP), inviting organizations working to advance climate solutions to apply for Wren funding. The response was substantial: over 220 nature‑based solutions and over 65 methane avoidance projects submitted applications. With a small team, we needed a rigorous, efficient way to evaluate this volume while maintaining quality standards.

BeZero's solution

Since 2022, Wren has leveraged BeZero’s rating platform to bring independent research and analytics into every stage of the due diligence process. To help define the scope of Wren’s 2026 RFP process, we met with BeZero analysts, drew on its published research, and relied on the platform’s corporate retirement data. This strong evidence base helped clarify which sectors and methodologies to focus on and provided clear documentation for those choices.

As applications flooded in, we relied on BeZero’s project-level ratings to sort through them quickly and consistently. The team checked whether a proposal appeared among roughly 700 projects with a post-issuance rating or the ~30 with a public pre-issuance rating. Projects that fell below our BBB threshold were deprioritized. For those rated BBB and above, insights from the rating reports guided the next round of due diligence. For example, if an Afforestation, Reforestation, Revegetation (ARR) project rating highlighted carbon accounting risks related to general biomass expansion factors or equations, Wren would ask developers how they planned to tackle those risks in upcoming verification and validation cycles. This sets up a clear, traceable connection between independent analysis and follow-up actions.

For deeper screening, Wren turned to BeZero’s sector-specific scorecards, which provide indicative scores for nearly 700 projects as of July 2026. We could upload Project Design Documents (PDDs) for applicable categories, build on scorecards pre-filled with data from BeZero’s platform, and understand how answers affect individual risk factor scores. For example, the proportion of a landfill project's revenue derived from carbon credit sales can influence its additionality score. These scorecards help identify data gaps, understand which questions to ask, and filter out projects that do not meet essential reporting or quality standards. Since many projects that applied to the RFP follow the same methodologies, the scorecard also helps the team compare similar projects side-by-side and identify which project within a specific sub-sector has the highest chance of achieving 1 tonne of CO₂e avoided or removed.

The Beyond Carbon feature included in select nature-based scorecards provides an additional layer of analysis, allowing us to distinguish between projects based on the anticipated social and ecological benefits of their activities. This is important to Wren because the team considers more than just the credibility of the CO₂e avoidance or removal claim when selecting projects. The Beyond Carbon feature helps the team understand how the project engages with Indigenous Peoples or local communities and how it impacts the surrounding ecosystem. The tool helps surface risks, identify areas for further investigation, and filter out projects that do not meet Wren’s standards for social integrity. 

Lastly, BeZero's embedded AI assistant, which surfaces insights from BeZero’s internal analysis and data, enables us to quickly navigate complex topics, compare similar projects, and identify trends across sector ratings. When technical or nuanced questions arise, the team can use the assistant to explain key concepts and synthesize relevant evidence. For example, the team recently used the tool to better understand different approaches to measuring soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and how the use of default rates can influence the accuracy of carbon accounting depending on the context. By providing rapid, evidence-based insights, the AI assistant accelerates the team's learning curve and streamlines project due diligence.

Impact

Of the 116 projects suitable for in-depth review because the projects held registry identification numbers, project description documents, and public verification and validation reports (note that a large percentage of applicants are pre-registration), Wren found that:

• 18 have post‑issuance ratings

• 4 have pre‑issuance ratings

• 23 have indicative scores

• 26 are suitable for evaluation with BeZero’s scorecards

Overall, BeZero provides valuable insights for approximately 61% of applicable applications. These insights enable Wren to evaluate opportunities more efficiently while maintaining rigorous standards, improving the speed of initial project screening, sharpening due diligence, clarifying project risks and strengths, and supporting more balanced assessments of climate solutions.

As we continue through the RFP process, we will keep using BeZero to inform our project selection, ensuring high-quality standards that maximizes climate impact and mitigates risk.

You can learn more about Wren here.

If you’re active in carbon credit development, due diligence, or procurement, get in touch to see how BeZero’s ratings platform can fit into your workflows.