FAQ

Puro is derived from the latin purus, meaning to cleanse or purify.

In Finnish, Puro means a stream, which serves as a metaphor for the marketplace to enable new revenue streams towards carbon net-negative operations and the exchange of value between sellers and suppliers.

Most carbon offset schemes are trading emission reductions and absolute climate effect is difficult to measure. Emission reductions are very important but after possible reductions have been done, it’s essential to remove at least the same amount of CO₂ your organization produces.

At Puro.earth we only focus on measurable carbon removal. We require removal methods that can be scientifically verified, capture and store CO₂ for at least 50 years and have industrial scaling potential.

It is a way to get CO₂ away from the atmosphere and stored for the long term, in a stable form.

A CORC is an independently verified document that confirms that 1 metric ton of CO₂ has been removed from the atmosphere by one of the removal methods certified by the Puro Standard. Our removal methods capture more CO₂ than they emit in manufacturing, with the net effect of removing carbon from the atmosphere. 

The carbon capture is measured taking into consideration cradle-to-gate emissions and only the extra carbon absorbed is turned into CORCs.

CORCs are issued based on CO₂ removal actions that have already been completed prior to issuing the CORC. It is issued by the Puro registry to the supplier, purchased by the buyer and retired once the buyer has reported its usage.

There are two ways to buy CORCs: in the online shop, and via a Pre-Purchase Agreement.

In the online shop you can easily buy up to 1.000 CORCs using a credit card. CORCs bought in the online shop are cancelled immediately to one beneficiary. If you need to cancel CORCs for more than one beneficiary, or would like to resell CORCs, then you must buy via Pre-Purchase Agreement.

In a Pre-Purchase Agreement buyers can secure availability and price by agreeing with one or more suppliers to buy a pre-determined amount at a set price. To arrange a Pre-Purchase Agreement please contact us at contact@puro.earth.

After the payment is received the CORCs are either cancelled to a beneficiary or delivered to the buyer's registry account.

CORCs can be utilized to neutralize carbon emissions and reported in a sustainability or annual report, or they can be resold. If you want to use them to neutralize emissions then the certificates need to be immobilized so their ownership cannot be changed anymore. In our rules, this is called “cancelling” and means the same as retiring or activating the CORC. These CORCs are no longer tradable and onward sale of the indicated certificate numbers is prohibited.

In order to activate your CORCs you need to tell us the beneficiary of the CORCs, purpose, and the emissions period and location. You will receive an official diploma stating you have neutralized your emissions with carbon removal and the following information:

• name of the beneficiary
• amount of tonnes that were neutralized
• name of the carbon removal supplier
• carbon removal method
• date of payment
• tracking numbers of the CORCs
• a public link to the registry cancellation statement

You can use the diploma in your sustainability reporting and corporate communications. You may activate CORCs in your account for different beneficiaries.

Most importantly, companies who buy CORCs neutralize their carbon emissions with carbon removal.

Other benefits include:

• Being part of the solution - buyers accelerate the carbon removal economy. As volumes of carbon net-negative processes grow, more carbon is removed from the atmosphere.
• Telling the world - communicating your climate action delights customers, inspires employees and influences peers.
• Creating carbon neutral products or services - Once you calculate the carbon footprint of your product or service, you can bundle CORCs to each unit to make them carbon neutral.
• Ease of reporting - As CORCs are scientifically measured they can be used to match Scope 1 (Direct), Scope 2 (Indirect) and Scope 3 (Indirect value-chain) emissions and reported in ESG, sustainability and annual reports.
• Credibility - When creating the CORC we considered the requirements of companies who are looking to fulfill ambitious climate commitments and want to avoid reputational risks associated with low-quality carbon offsets.

Trading on Puro.earth marketplace creates economic drivers to accelerate the development of carbon removal today. Carbon removal suppliers receive a new revenue stream which allows them to invest in R&D, operations and sales. CORC buyers neutralize their CO₂ emissions and create carbon-neutral products and services for their customers.

At the moment we have three CO₂removal methods:

• Biochar – a very stable and dense form of carbon that can remain in soil for centuries. Its main commercial uses are agriculture, city landscaping, drainage water systems and in landfills as a filter.
• Carbonated building elements – it’s basically concrete but without any cement. The process sequesters more CO₂ than the production causes.
• Bio-based construction materials – sustainably grown wood that is used in the construction of buildings keeps the sequestered CO₂ in a stable form and away from circulation for a long time.
  
  Additionally, we have co-created a first-of-its kind Geologically Stored Carbon methodology that will begin to get CORCs soon.  
  
  Carbon capture processes such as DACCS, BECCS and Bio-CCS combined with geological storage, such as direct injection of CO₂ into deep geological formations and oil and gas reservoirs as part of EOR+, offer a permanent carbon removal pathway. Puro.earth's Geologically Stored Carbon methodology does not cover capturing CO2 from fossil fuels, only from biogenic sources. 

We used the following criteria:

• Has to be easy to measure scientifically
• Has to remove carbon from the atmosphere for a long time (at least 50 years)
• Has to be mature enough for scaling (out of the laboratory and have no unsolved challenges that would prevent large scale industrial deployment)

CORCs are issued based on the production output from registered supplier production facilities. A buffer is set by default at 10% for all removal methods unless otherwise specified in the relevant audits or removal method methodology. This means that for every 100 tons of CO2 Removal Output, 90 CORCs are Issued, i.e. Issuance = Output*(100%-Buffer). To determine the number of certificates for a volume of production output we require:

• A scientific report or a certificate that states the net emissions of the product (i.e. Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) or Environmental Product Declaration (EPD))
• Production volume of said product
• Usage of the product (e.g. to ensure product is not burned)

Yes. If you know about a process that fulfills the criteria in the previous questions and have independent evidence to back it up, please let us know. If you are a supplier you can make a claim to Puro.earth for the amount of tons of CO₂ that your production sequestered retrospectively in the last 12 months. Once we have this information then we start a verification process. If you don’t have an LCA, we can put you in contact with companies who can do it for you.

The priority is obviously to minimize emissions first. For all companies there are multiple cost effective ways to reduce emissions. Once the easy ones have been done and you are facing increasing costs per reduced ton of CO₂, you should remove your unavoided emissions with CO₂ Removal Certificates (CORCs).

We work with an independent third party who verifies all production net-negativity claims for removal certificates. At the moment our partners are DNV GL, a global leader in ISO certification, Bio Inspecta and Energy Link Services.

The price of the CORC is determined entirely by the supplier.

#Puroearth #PuroCO2removal #PuroCarbonRemoval

There are many carbon footprint consultants in our ecosystem. Check our Partners section or drop us an email (contact@puro.earth).

Yes, you can choose a specific methodology and check the country of origin. We have made a ton of CO₂ be equal to a ton of CO₂, no matter where it is stored. The most important thing is the climate benefit of the removal. If you would like, you can negotiate a pre- purchase agreement for a specific supplier.

You can sign a Pre-Purchase Agreement with one or many current suppliers to ensure volume availability. Just contact us to arrange it. You can also ensure future carbon removal by agreeing to buy CORCs from early-stage carbon removal projects who need an offtaker. Visit the Pre-CORC projects page to browse projects and make your commitment.

To fulfill a climate claim, you can either cancel the CORCs as a beneficiary, or resell them to other beneficiaries. For example, CORCs may be retired prior to your annual reporting, or just in time to communicate that you have offsetted a specific event, store, flights, office branch, etc.

Yes, you can. First you need to calculate what is the carbon footprint of your product or service, then you can bundle the amount of CORCs to each unit that will make them carbon neutral.

Fortum, the leading clean energy company in the Nordics, encourages new startups to be developed within its Innovation and Venturing incubation process. Puro.earth was one of them and the costs of setting up the venture were covered by Fortum. In June 2021, Nasdaq acquired a majority stake in Puro.earth.

For Nasdaq, Puro.earth will be a cornerstone in its ESG offering. Nasdaq will offer its current and potential clients access to Puro.earth´s services to provide them with an opportunity to reach a beyond-zero carbon footprint.

To support Puro.earth´s growth, Nasdaq will leverage its unique position in the intersection of the financial, corporate and regulatory communities, where it assists its clients with navigating the global ESG landscape. The support from Nasdaq means quicker market creation, accessibility for more carbon removal suppliers, liquidity, growth in the demand of negative emissions and visibility for the suppliers that are doing the actual carbon removal. We remain a separate entity and our principles have not changed. From the beginning, Puro.earth recognized that the carbon markets must be transparent. A separate governance from the business was established to oversee methodology development and marketplace rules and it continues to be separate also after the investment.

The design of the Puro Standard was initiated in the Innovation and Venturing department of Fortum, the Finnish state-owned utility as an independent concept study and experiment. Early in the project, the team met with more than 100 scientists, researchers, potential buyers and suppliers of negative emissions. Some of these organizations expressed interest in joining the experiment, which resulted in the establishment of the Puro Standard and ecosystem team members. This group of 22 companies from 6 different countries created the framework between March and May 2019. There were 3 workgroups: one working on the rules for the marketplace, one for methodologies and one for publicity. This group of organizations is called the Original Signatories. Puro.earth has been carved out from Fortum so that it is now a separate legal entity. Puro.earth has two separate governance bodies consisting of a Board of Directors that oversees Puro.earth’s operations and an Independent External Advisory Board. The External Advisory Board’s exclusive mandate is to ensure high carbon credit integrity and robust principles for a science-based carbon removal verification by hosting and curating the Puro Standard and crediting rules for carbon removals. New methodologies and updates to the existing Puro Standard and methodologies still follow a process of co-creation involving industry experts and public consultation with the External Advisory Board having final discretionary power over all new developments and proposed changes.

As stated in the Puro Standard General Rules: “[Puro Standard] rules are governed by the Advisory Board.” The Advisory Board is an independent and external entity, consisting of non-executive members with a mix of skills and experience. Puro.earth has arms-length standard business relationships with the suppliers of negative emissions. Puro.earth holds no equity in any members of the ecosystem and we have not established any non-standard revenue sharing arrangements. We require each project to be verified by an independent third-party auditor. The number of credits to be issued is the number reported by the auditor. Suppliers of negative emissions are free to sell their CORCs at any venue, marketplace, broker or directly. Puro.earth does have a credit listing service. To maintain the independence of this service from the Puro Standard, there is no requirement that suppliers of negative emissions use this service nor does Puro.earth charge a commission for it. The marketplace is a free service. In addition, as explained earlier, the organizational governance of the marketplace is independent from the governance of the Puro Standard, which are overseen by different governance bodies: the Board of Directors and an External Advisory Board, respectively. Puro.earth charges a standard service fee that covers all the costs associated with the registration, certification, issuance and transfer of credits. Puro.earth also charges an annual fee from all CORC Account Holders (Projects and buyers) for a Puro Registry account.

The Advisory Board shall comprise at least three members and a maximum of seven, all of whom shall be independent, non-executive members with a mix of skills and experience. The Advisory Board can nominate new members for the purposes of succession planning. The Advisory Board will evaluate candidate members and, only following a majority vote, will the candidate be presented to the Board of Directors who will confirm the appointment in their capacity as the legal representatives of Puro.earth Oy. The Board of Directors shall respect the independence of the Advisory Board and shall not unreasonably withhold the confirmation of a selected Advisory Board member. The Advisory Board shall review membership and succession planning annually and, if needed, propose changes to the Board of Directors. Conflicts of interest shall be brought to the attention of the Board of Directors, the Chair of the Advisory Group as well as the Puro.earth management.

You can buy CORCs online or arrange pre-purchase agreements with our current suppliers. Please send your contact details to contact@puro.earth. You can also commit to buy the future CORCs of Pre-CORC projects who need a corporate offtaker. Visit the Pre-CORC projects page to browse projects and make your commitment. 

Register your interest here. In order for a supplier to be issued CO₂ Removal Certificates (CORCs) the product that sequesters carbon and the production facility must be verified.

There are three steps to make a claim that your production is carbon net-negative:

1. You must have documented evidence of the carbon footprint of your production: an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) or a Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) for cradle-to-gate carbon footprint of your production. If you don’t have an LCA or EPD , we can put you in contact with companies who can do it for you.
2. Please, send the EPD or LCA document to contact@puro.earth.
3. When we have this information then we will start a verification process by contacting you within the coming days.

If you don’t have an LCA, we can put you in contact with companies who can do it for you.