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 other 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 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 Puro. Puro 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 three ways to buy CORCs: in the online shop, in auctions and via a Pre-Purchase Agreement.

In the online shop you can easily buy up to 150 CORCS using a credit card. The price of CORCs in the online shop is the Weighted Average Price of CORCs in the last auction plus 20%.

In the auctions, registered buyers can place purchase bids for quantity and price of CORCs. Buyers should bid with a price that reflects the business benefits of buying high-quality carbon offsets.

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

After the auction, the buyer will get an invoice due in 14 days. Once payment is received the CORCs are 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 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 does not decompose. Its main commercial uses are 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.
• Wooden building elements – wood that is used in the construction of buildings keeps CO₂ away from circulation for a long time.

We used the following criteria:

• Has to be easy to measure
• 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 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 have an independent third party who verifies all production claims for certificates. At the moment our partner is DNV GL, a global leader in certification.

The price of the CORC is determined entirely based on supply and demand. We will publish the average prices from each auction afterwards.

Buying and selling CO2 Removal Certificates (CORCs), happens in auction form so that the market efficiently finds the right price and not us. Auctions are run every two months for four days, with two auction windows, or rounds, that last 48 hours. Buyers and sellers who have registered here get access to the auction platform. It is very easy to place a bid and get a match in the auctions. The process is the following:

In the first 24-hour window buyers enter their purchase bids by defining how many CORCs they want to buy and at what price. In the next 24 hours sellers, who have been issued CORCs after going through our verification, choose which bids to accept. The matched bids are published after this first round. Another round of bidding goes on for 48 hours. The second round is the same as the first round, but buyers and sellers can adjust their strategies based on learnings from the first round. Please note that no bids are carried over to the second round. CORCs are invoiced and, once payment is received, transferred to the winning bidder, who can use it in sustainability reporting. For transparency, all participants can see the matched deals.

The purpose of the auctions is to find a value-based price for CORCs.

Buyers should bid with a price that reflects the business benefits of buying high-quality carbon offsets. Benefits include offsetting the emissions of the company or a specific activity, lowering financial risk, increasing goodwill, augmenting social responsibility efforts and creating carbon neutral products or services.

Sellers should accept bids that are higher than their production and verification costs and reflect the value of the climate service they are giving. Sellers should also consider the amount, timing and certainty of revenue.

#Puroearth #PuroCO2removal #PuroCarbonRemoval

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

Yes, but we do not encourage this. 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. However, if you would like to you can submit bids for specific methods and country of origin during the auction, for a higher fee.

You can sign a Pre-Purchase Agreement with one or many suppliers to ensure volume availability in the next auction. Just contact us to arrange it.

You can also buy many CORCs at one auction and not activate them until you need them. For example, CORCs may be activated 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 encourages new startups to be developed within its Innovation and Venturing incubation process. Puro is one of them and the costs of setting up the venture are covered by Fortum. This is the fastest way to move forward.

Just register here

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.