How to remove carbon emissions from NFTs
A few weeks ago I wrote an article about how carbon removal NFTs from Nori are the perfect solution to carbon emissions from NFTs minted on blockchains like Ethereum. This followup is a quick and easy guide on how to turn your NFTs from carbon emitters into carbon removers. We piloted this with Imogen Heap for her first NFT drop, so we know this method works!
Step 1: Figure out the carbon footprint of your NFT drop
Fortunately, this can be a lot easier than you think. IMO, people spend way too much time trying to analyze so precisely what their carbon footprint is. It’s a better use of time to look at well-researched benchmarks, adjust upward to account for error, and then go with that.
Here is a very reasonable guide that estimates a typical NFT on Ethereum—including minting, bidding, sale, and transfer—is responsible for ~0.2 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
Step 2: Remove your emissions
Once you know how much carbon is going in the air as a result of the NFT drop, then you can remove your carbon emissions. Notice that I said “remove” and not “offset.” I want to distinguish for you that not all offsets are the same. Reductions are projects that produce fewer future emissions and Avoidances are projects that entirely avoid future emissions. Removals, however, are projects that actually pull CO2 back out of the atmosphere and sequester it safely in the earth. Carbon removal is the only way to undo emissions that have gone up into the air. And to reverse climate change, we need to remove much more carbon than we emit.
At Nori, we work with farmers who sequester carbon in their croplands by adopting regenerative practices like no-till, cover cropping, and implementing more complex crop rotations. For example, check out a current farmer selling carbon through Nori.
We even show you the exact fields where the carbon is being stored, as well as information about how this was verified:
Once you purchase Nori Removal Tonnes (NRTs), you get a certificate that is recorded on Ethereum with data proving that you and you alone paid for the carbon removals. That’s right, the carbon removals are NFTs themselves.
That’s all it takes! To recap, first you figure out your approximate carbon footprint, and then you go to https://nori.com and put in that number and check out.
In the future, we’re building an API so that this can be connected more automatically into different platforms. So if you want to see carbon removal be automatically taken care of in NFT marketplaces, ask those companies to integrate Nori’s API into their products!
And if you’re interested in partnering with Nori on a big NFT project, please reach out to us at hello@nori.com.
