Pachama: Meaning and Mission in Latin America
2026
| Case No.
E948
| Length
11 pgs.
Diego Saez Gil founded Pachama in 2019 to bring technology-driven trust to voluntary carbon markets, building a two-sided marketplace connecting forest projects with corporate buyers like Microsoft and Netflix. Rapid growth through 2022 gave way to a sharp market downturn: demand collapsed amid fraud scandals and political backlash from both left and right, forcing a 30 percent workforce reduction in 2024. By early 2025, Saez Gil and Pachama’s board faced a strategic crossroads with no clearly superior option: hold the marketplace model, double down on originating projects, pivot to pure technology licensing, or sell. Underlying the strategic choice was a personal one about mission versus survival.
Learning Objective
- Evaluate how shifts in market legitimacy and stakeholder trust (regulatory, reputational, political) can undermine a business model even when the underlying product quality and customer relationships remain strong.
- Analyze the strategic tradeoffs among four distinct paths for a mission-driven company facing a demand downturn: maintaining the status quo, vertical integration (Pachama Originals), business model pivot (technology licensing), and exit (sale/acquisition).
- Examine the tension between founder identity and organizational stewardship, specifically how a leader’s personal mission can both drive early success and complicate objective strategic decision-making during a crisis. Assess the mechanics and credibility challenges of carbon credit markets, including what makes offsets “real,” “additional,” and “permanent,” and why verification technology alone cannot resolve a market’s trust problem.
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