Cool Effect
US nonprofit that sells carbon offsets and passes the money to carbon reduction and removal projects, from cookstoves to biochar and direct air capture. Launched in 2015 and led by CEO Jodi Manning.
Industry: Carbon offsets and carbon project finance | Location: United States | Founded: 2015
About Cool Effect
Cool Effect is a nonprofit registered in the United States as a 501(c)(3), operating as Cool Effect, Inc. and described in its own press releases as a Bay Area organisation. It channels money from carbon credit sales to projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gases around the world. Individuals can buy offsets, including for flights, or donate through its website.
Cool Effect says it launched at the Paris COP climate conference in 2015, although Wikipedia gives 2016. Richard Lawrence Jr. and Dee Lawrence co-founded it, drawing on Proyecto Mirador, a Honduran cookstove effort that Richard Lawrence founded in 2004 with Doña Emilia Mendoza. Jodi Manning became chief executive in January 2024. In April 2024 Cool Effect appointed Dr. Johanna Depenthal as director of project research,.
Its portfolio spans several project types. These include clean-burning cookstoves, tree planting in Africa and, since October 2024, a biochar project from the German producer Carbon Cycle. In May 2025 it added Project Juniper, a direct air capture project in Nevada owned and operated by Clairity Technology. In May 2026 it added a rice methane reduction project from Mitti Labs.
In July 2020 American Airlines began offering Cool Effect offsets to its customers. In May 2025 Google announced partnerships with Cool Effect and Recoolit aimed at eliminating more than 25,000 tons of superpollutants by 2030. In September 2025 Cool Effect launched the Cool Effect Catalyst, a $1 million award for carbon projects, and held a New York Climate Week event to mark ten years of work. In April 2026 it announced that Proyecto Mirador had received an AA rating from Calyx Global.
Cool Effect is a nonprofit and has not disclosed any equity rounds. Its first Impact Report, released in March 2025, said more than $66 million in carbon finance from credit sales is supporting projects. That figure describes money sent to projects, not the organisation's own revenue.
A TechScoop article of August 2026 lists Cool Effect among the paying customers of Mitti Labs, which raised a $9.5 million Series A led by Aramco Ventures.
Leadership
- Richard H. Lawrence Jr., Co-founder
- Dee Lawrence, Co-founder and Director
- Jodi Manning, Chief Executive Officer
- Johanna Depenthal, Director of Project Research
- Elsy Alvarado, Director of Project Relations