Carbon removal methodologies and standards

The Advisory Board must consist of at least three members and a maximum of seven that have to be independent, non-executive, and with a mix of skill and experience. The Advisory Board is responsible for succession planning and nominating and evaluating candidate members. Appointment is decided by a majority vote with only Advisory Board members allowed to vote with the Chair casting the deciding vote in the case of a tie. The Advisory Board is also responsible for appointing a Chair among themselves. Puro.earth can nominate a secretary to support the work of the Advisory Board. The secretary has to be approved by the Chair of the Advisory Board.

The Puro Standard and crediting rules are managed by an independent, external Advisory Board established in October 2021. The Advisory Board governs all changes to Puro Standard as defined in their Terms of Reference. Before the formation of the Advisory Board, when the Puro Standard was first created in 2019, it was designed and managed by a group of 22 companies from 6 countries. This group of organizations was called the Original Signatories. They include: Fortum, IFPEN, AFRY (Pöyry at the time of signing), Compensate Foundation, Nordic Offset, SEB, Skanska, StoraEnso, Yara, South Pole, Fazer Group, TietoEvry, St1, L&T, S-Group, Eurapco, Valio, Carbofex, Orbix, Hirsitaloteollisuus.

A dedicated working group was created by the Original Signatories to develop the Puro Standard and carbon crediting methodologies between March and May 2019. Prior to the design phase, the Puro.earth project group met with and consulted more than 100 scientists, researchers, potential buyers, and projects. Puro.earth has since then been established as a separate legal entity, which resulted in the appointment of the independent, external Advisory Board in October 2021. The Advisory Board was established to house the Puro Standard and oversee the crediting rules.

All changes to Puro Standard are subject to the Advisory Board’s approval. New methodologies are co-created in working groups involving industry experts and are subject to public consultation before being presented to the Advisory Board.

See an overview of carbon removal methods here. Our selection criteria include:

• Scientific measurability
• Long-term carbon removal storage (at least 100 years)
• Maturity for scaling, ensuring methods have transitioned beyond the laboratory and present no unresolved challenges hindering large-scale industrial deployment.