FAQs

Puro.earth is the first carbon crediting program focused exclusively on carbon removals. It’s a pioneering initiative to make carbon removal robust and verifiable.

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 flow of capital towards carbon net-negative companies.

Most carbon offset schemes focus primarily on emission reductions. Puro.earth focuses exclusively on carbon removal and pioneered several of the world's first crediting methodologies for engineered carbon removal. We require removal methods that can be scientifically verified, that capture and store CO2 durably for a minimum of 100 years, and have industrial scaling potential.

A CO2 removal method removes CO2 from the atmosphere and stores it for the long-term, in a stable form. All of the Puro Standard methodologies guarantee durable storage of 100+ years, some even thousands of years.

A CORC is an independently verified document that confirms that 1 metric ton of CO2 has been removed and durably sequestered from the atmosphere using one of the removal methods certified under the Puro Standard. Our suppliers sequester more CO2 than they emit with only net negative emissions being credited. 
 
CORCs are issued ex-post based on CO2 removal activities that have been independently verified prior to issuing the CORC. It is issued in the Puro Registry to the supplier, purchased by the buyer, and retired once the buyer has reported its usage.

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.

You can negotiate a bilateral agreement directly with an accredited CORC supplier or purchase CORCs through a third-party marketplace. Puro.earth has discontinued its online marketplace in 2022 and does not act as a counterparty to transactions. 

CORCs are available as spot purchases as well as through advance market commitments where the buyer agrees to buy CORCs from a future issuance at a pre-agreed price. 

Take a look at the Puro.earth supplier listing to contact suppliers directly. 

Review our partners page if you’d like to arrange the transaction through a marketplace.

CORCs can be utilized to neutralize residual emissions 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 retired in the Puro Registry so their ownership cannot be changed anymore. These CORCs are no longer tradable and onward sale of the indicated certificate numbers is prohibited. 

To retire your CORCs you need to identify the beneficiary of the CORCs, purpose, the emissions period, and the location. You will receive an official certificate stating that you have neutralized your emissions with carbon removal with 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 certificate in your sustainability reporting and corporate communications. You may activate CORCs in your account for different beneficiaries.

Most importantly, companies who buy CORCs can neutralize their carbon emissions with carbon removal if they retire the credits. 
 
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 as reported in ESG, sustainability, and annual reports. 
• Credibility - In the development of CORC, we meticulously catered to the needs of companies aspiring to meet ambitious climate commitments. Our focus is on providing high-quality carbon offsets to mitigate reputational risks associated with subpar alternatives.
  

No. The priority should always be to reduce your own emissions. Carbon removal credits should only be used for hard-to-abate emissions.

We work with independent third parties who verify all production net-negativity claims for removal certificates. At the moment our partners include DNV GL, a global leader in ISO certification, Bio Inspecta, and Energy Link Services, the full list can be found on our partners page.

The price of the CORC is determined entirely by the supplier. The CORC Carbon Removal Indexes  tracks the price of removing carbon from the atmosphere based on Puro Standard methodologies.

#Puroearth #PuroCO2removal #PuroCarbonRemoval . Please don't forget to tag Puro.earth on LinkedIn so we can help amplify the post. 

There are many carbon footprint consultants in our ecosystem. Please check our sales channel partners on our Partners page!

Yes, you can choose a specific methodology and check the country of origin via our supplier listing. A CORC is always equivalent to one metric ton of CO2, no matter the method used or what the country of origin is. 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.

Offtakes, otherwise known as advanced market commitments enable you to secure future CORCs from projects in development. You can view current projects in development here. Simply contact the supplier to arrange your commitment.

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.

Buying CORCs from our suppliers or partner marketplaces creates an economic driver to accelerate the development of the carbon removal ecosystem 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.

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

Once initially qualified by the Puro Team, there are three steps to making 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 the 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. Send the EPD or LCA document to your account manager. 
3. When we have this information, we will start a verification process by contacting you within the coming days. 
   
   
   

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.
  

CORCs are issued based on the production output from registered suppliers' production facilities. The number of credits issued to the project’s account in the Puro Registry is the number verified by the third-party auditor. 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 the product is not burned)
  

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.  

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 old Service Fee had a perceived conflict of interest issue by basing our fee with the number of issued credits. The new model decouples the link as the basis is the Reported Output, regardless of how many credits will be issued.

It is very unlikely to be more expensive to anybody as it provides similar volume discounts as earlier models.

12 months

The new fee model will be operational at the beginning of October 2024. For existing customers, the fees will be based on the cumulative volume over the last 364 days from the date of issuance of their CORCs.

Pooling is requested in the MyPuro portal at the time of Reporting the Output.

This is the output volume that a CO2 removal supplier reports to the issuing body when submitting their production output report.

Yes, it will be operationalized in the beginning of October, 2024

The Puro Registry is used for tracking the entire lifecycle of the credit. As we discontinued the secondary trading fee which would incur costs for each transaction, but was not welcomed by some commodity traders, we decided to move to single fixed cost at the end of the lifecycle to cover some of the costs of maintaining the system.