<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*ORd0MOoemjS8vDsY25Vz5g.png"></figure>We are excited to announce a new partnership with GreenFeet to offer a streamlined experience that marries GreenFeet’s powerful carbon accounting tools with Nori’s proprietary access to carbon removal projects! With this partnership, businesses of any size can now measure their company’s footprint and reverse unavoidable emissions through one intuitive product that greatly simplifies the journey to net-zero carbon.
Everyday we see a growing number of companies setting ambitious environmental targets, almost all of which include emission reductions coupled with offsetting what cannot yet be avoided. Since we launched our carbon removal marketplace, many organizations come to Nori looking to purchase carbon removal credits to meet their carbon-footprint goal.
However, Nori is often asked if we can help in estimating their carbon footprints to determine how much carbon removal to buy from Nori projects. While we have a partnership with Joro.tech that helps individuals estimate their carbon footprints, we hadn’t solved the problem for our business customers… until today. We’ve explored many options and are very glad to announce our partnership with GreenFeet to support our business customers.
It can be difficult for an organization to know where to begin offsetting their carbon footprint. We see leaders at organizations struggle with knowing how to approach this process. “What is my organization’s carbon footprint? How do we even begin to measure it? What are emission scopes? What tools can help us with this?” These are the questions Nori has struggled to answer for many companies looking to invest in carbon removal.
Nori’s core business is focused on providing a supply of carbon removal projects and building the crucial financial infrastructure that gets people paid for taking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. We also felt it to be a conflict of interest in some ways to tell people how much carbon removal they should buy, while selling them that very supply.
To solve this problem, we found an amazing partner that can easily, affordably, and accurately help businesses of any size measure, visualize and understand the carbon emissions generated from their operations.
Enter <a href="https://greenfeet.com/">GreenFeet</a>! A company on an incredible mission to drive corporate sustainability by giving companies easy to configure and accurate visibility into their CO2e emissions, along with a viable range of options as to how to go about reducing them. It’s worth mentioning that their platform incorporates hundreds of calculators (and growing!) to measure carbon output across many industries and countless business activities, all while following the ever important <a href="https://ghgprotocol.org/">Greenhouse Gas Protocol</a>.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*iodDmsW9xkk2nr32"></figure>So how does the partnership work?
<ol>
<li>Simply sign up at <a href="http://go.nori.com/greenfeet">go.nori.com/greenfeet</a>. Based on your company’s size, you’ll be set up with the proper GreenFeet account. Should you need it, you can schedule time with us for a live demo and to better understand how Nori and GreenFeet operate.</li>
<li>Calculate your business footprint in a matter of minutes. GreenFeet is there to help you through the intricacies of carbon accounting.</li>
<li>Offset those unavoidable emissions right from your GreenFeet account using the new Nori integration! You can view all the Nori carbon supplier details, your certifications, and track your progress in one place.</li>
</ol>
<blockquote>“At GreenFeet our goal is to make sustainability easy for organizations of all sizes. We are really excited to partner with Nori as it gives our customers an ability to easily and quickly offset their emissions with ‘best in class’ &amp; verified carbon removals which we believe are so important in the fight against climate change. The Nori-GreenFeet integration makes this process super simple for our customers by allowing organizations to calculate their emissions and offset them in minutes rather than days, weeks or months.”</blockquote>
<blockquote>— Lisa Mckelvey, founder of GreenFeet</blockquote>
Combating climate change is going to take immense amounts of collaboration across countries, industries, companies, and individuals. It’s been a privilege to develop this relationship and partnership with the team at GreenFeet. We’re thrilled to be able to guide companies of all sizes in a more comprehensive manner through their environmental impact journey.
Curious to learn more? <a href="https://meetings.hubspot.com/giovanni46/nori-greenfeet-info-call">Schedule a call</a> with Nori and GreenFeet, or sign up for our upcoming webinar: <a href="https://nori.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_k6TrbVWISyKE528C9YvlcA">Getting to Net-Zero: Calculate &amp; negating emissions</a>. In this webinar, we will discuss how an individual or organization can acheive net-zero or carbon-neutral climate impacts. Nori has partnered with <a href="http://joro.tech/">Joro</a> and <a href="http://greenfeet.com/">GreenFeet</a> who provide emissions calculations for individuals and organizations respectively to provide an all-in-one solution.
View GreenFeet’s announcement <a href="https://greenfeet.com/blog/nori-greenfeet-carbon-removal-made-easy/">here</a>.
<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSource=full_rss&amp;postId=7b8696883a51" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr>
<a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/nori-partners-with-greenfeet-to-help-businesses-easily-calculate-and-reverse-their-carbon-emissions-7b8696883a51">Nori Partners with GreenFeet to Help Businesses Easily Calculate and Reverse their Carbon Emissions</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal">Nori</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nori Partners with GreenFeet to Help Businesses Easily Calculate and Reverse their Carbon Emissions

<h3>Four Years, Six Farmers, and 50,000 NRTs Later, We’ve Taken Our First Steps in Reversing Climate Change</h3>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*dHhJ0nGT_2a4HZntER0gnA.png"></figure>Summary:
<ul>
<li>To date, Nori has paid six different farmers a total of $747,730 USD for carbon removal.</li>
<li>We’ve recently sold our 50,000th Nori Carbon Removal Tonne (NRT) in our marketplace. As a company, Nori’s mission continues to be reversing climate change. Reaching this milestone brings us one step closer.</li>
<li>When carbon removal is purchased, the farmer gets paid. We’re not interested in selling products to farmers — just paying them.</li>
<li>Regenerative agriculture is but the first methodology that Nori supports, and carbon farming is the base upon which we will grow.</li>
</ul>
When my co-founders and I first started Nori, it was with the intention of answering the question, “how do we make climate change just go away?” Four years later, we’ve worked hard to make Nori the most transparent and accessible carbon removal marketplace in existence.
I am proud to announce that as of today, Nori has sold our 50,000th NRT and paid six different farmers a total of $747,730 dollars for carbon removal.
There are two main reasons why Nori has reached this significant milestone:
<ol>
<li>our values-driven approach to interactions with stakeholders, and</li>
<li>Our marketplace experience.</li>
</ol>
<h3>How did we get here?</h3>
Nori is a farmer-forward company. As an open marketplace, we’re focused on keeping our process simple. When a buyer purchases carbon removal via Nori, a farmer gets paid. (In that order.) I will also point out that during our pilot phase, farmers set the price of their NRTs, and they received 100% of that price for their carbon removals.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Qr5ZpOr_Wjr4ViSbn1F1Sg.png"><figcaption>A simplified view of how Nori works. <a href="https://nori.com/generate-nrts">Get more details</a>.</figcaption></figure>One thing Nori is not, is an agricultural company. We’re not interested in selling products to farmers, and we never want to hold farmers back with bureaucratic red tape. And in the future, we’ll be selling carbon removed by more than just farming practices.
We believe the easier the enrollment process is, the more suppliers will participate in our marketplace. More participation means more sequestered carbon. More sequestered carbon brings us closer to our ultimate goal of restoring the atmosphere to 300ppm and reversing climate change.
<h3>Nori’s marketplace experience</h3>
<h4>Farmers</h4>
We value the experiences and feedback of farmers in our marketplace. Whether it is the operational logistics of buying and selling credits in our marketplace:
<blockquote>“With the development of Nori’s carbon program and verification process, our certification and data validation has been streamlined for our carbon credit buyers.”</blockquote>
<blockquote>— <a href="https://nori.com/supplier/4">Kyle Mehmen, MBS Family Farms</a>
</blockquote>
Or working to foster a relationship between buyers and farmers that results in tangible impact:
<blockquote>“On the ground, your purchase of carbon credits is a tangible investment that provides my team at Harborview with the tools and technology we need to maintain the way we farm. The extra budget might buy extra seeds for a new, pollinator-friendly cover crop mix, plating attachments or other innovative equipment. . . . Thanks to our Nori supporters, we’ve been able to show other farmers that carbon smart farming — with the incentive of carbon credits — can be good for your bottom line AND the environment.”</blockquote>
<blockquote>— <a href="https://nori.com/supplier/1">Trey Hill, Harborview Farms</a>
</blockquote>
Hear from our other farmers who’ve sold their carbon credits: <a href="https://nori.com/supplier/6">Adam + Levi Ullrich</a>, <a href="https://nori.com/supplier/2">Kelly Garrett</a>, <a href="https://nori.com/supplier/3">Bruce Johnson</a> and <a href="https://nori.com/supplier/5">John Nergenah</a>.
<h4>Buyers</h4>
Nori was designed to be an<a href="https://nori.com/credible-carbon-removal"> alternative to existing markets </a>after careful observations and direct experiences with legacy carbon offsetting schemes.
Buyers play a major part in providing necessary rewards to early adopters of regenerative farming. Reaching soil sequestration’s maximum potential means we must scale regenerative farming operations. The best way to make changes in farming communities is to show that something works. Buyers in Nori’s marketplace are investing in the opportunity of regenerative practices becoming the norm.
<blockquote>“Nori plays a key role in enabling OnePak to offer our customers carbon-neutral logistics through our Emissions Management Program. We chose to partner with Nori because of the value of verifiable carbon removal offsets documented on blockchain.”  — <a href="https://www.onepak.com/">OnePak</a>, a Nori partner</blockquote>
Everyone has access to be a buyer in our marketplace. Nori has taken an innovative product-focused approach that enables individual consumers at home and Fortune 500 companies to fund carbon removal projects.
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*NPPCDGaYQmf96yot5Jad3Q.png"></figure>At Nori, we endeavor to continuously improve across all aspects of our business. As a company, we cannot grow without soliciting feedback, learning, and challenging our assumptions.
While building and running a carbon removal marketplace is never a straightforward process, we’ve learned from every one of our farmers. Using this feedback, we’ve worked to continuously refine Nori’s marketplace. Our hope is that the end result is that you, the consumer, can fully trust that purchasing NRTs will directly support farmers in sequestering more carbon in their soil.
At the end of the day, I’m proud to say that Nori has successfully paid six farmers a total of $747,730 USD for carbon removal so far. We couldn’t have done it without the amazing community behind us, supporting us.
Help support farmers <a href="http://nori.com/remove-carbon">by purchasing their NRTs</a>. Or, <a href="https://share.hsforms.com/1in-i93QvRUuO86IGnGBzHA3rvhm">become one of our farmers</a> and get paid!
<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSource=full_rss&amp;postId=e2bf50b02bc7" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr>
<a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/four-years-six-farmers-and-50-000-nrts-later-weve-taken-first-steps-in-reversing-climate-change-e2bf50b02bc7">Four Years, Six Farmers, and 50,000 NRTs Later, We’ve Taken First Steps in Reversing Climate Change</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal">Nori</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Four Years, Six Farmers, and 50,000 NRTs Later, We’ve Taken First Steps in Reversing Climate Change

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*OVc3Wa0CG4YJmWzEHLH-_A.png"><figcaption>Nori is a carbon removal marketplace on a mission to reverse climate change.</figcaption></figure>Last week, we described how <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/how-nori-guarantees-soil-carbon-persistence-caf3526aebe4">Nori guarantees soil carbon persistence</a>. This week, we’re providing a closer look at how Nori protects the landowners and farmers in our marketplace.
When you care about something, you take steps to protect it. At Nori, we believe creating a better future means not only caring about the well-being of the land being farmed, but the people who own and farm it. As a result, we’ve taken extra steps to protect the landowners and farmers in our marketplace.
Landowners in Nori’s marketplace agree to an assignment of authority. By signing an assignment of authority, the landowner transfers control to a Primary Contact, who is responsible for the upkeep of land management records. The agreement ensures that deals aren’t occurring without the landowner’s consent. Additionally, because a third party must verify that a parcel of land hasn’t been listed in any other registries, Nori has the legal certainty that land enrolled in our marketplace will not be double-counted.
Only the Primary Contact is responsible for removing and sequestering carbon for a minimum of ten years. No financial obligation is placed upon landowners for entering Nori’s marketplace.
Verified land management records and verification of regenerative agriculture practices provide landowners with an asset that will increase in value over time. Verified land records may also provide landowners with value in other ecosystem markets outside of carbon as those markets continue to develop.
Enrollment in our marketplace also <a href="https://noricarbonremoval.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/69000337142">provides landowners with multiple environmental benefits</a> including, retention of topsoil, increased drought tolerance, increased biodiversity, and more resilient soil health.
Under our assignment of authority, farmers benefit from the perks of implementing regenerative agriculture practices. As a farmer-forward company, we want to provide recognition and value to the people who are doing the work of removing carbon. We also want to provide a long-term benefit to the land itself, beyond just issuing carbon credits to farmers. By protecting both farmers and landowners in our marketplace, we hope to engender sustainable practices and good land stewardship, which we know provides a whole host of ecosystem services and profitability.
Suppliers in our marketplace are the individuals who work to remove carbon, and they are presented with multiple ways to diversify their assets, including <a href="https://nori.com/token">regulating their cash flow</a> by using our NORI tokens.
Nori doesn’t hold landowners and Suppliers accountable for unforeseen and unavoidable reversals in soil carbon permanence. Examples of such events include national public health emergencies, earthquakes, droughts, flooding or other acts of God.
Our goal is to provide a fair and equitable marketplace for all parties involved, while being transparent and upfront with our stakeholders.
We recognize that landowners and farmers <a href="https://nori.com/marketplace-values">have diverse relationships with their land</a>. Whether we are serving farmers who rent their land, farmers who have an informal agreement with friends or family, or multi-generational farmers, we aim to benefit all kinds of farmers.
Nori is a blockchain-based carbon removal marketplace on a mission to reverse climate change. If you’d like to purchase carbon removals, visit <a href="http://nori.com/">Nori.com</a>. If you’d like to partner with Nori, reach out to hello@nori.com.
<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSource=full_rss&amp;postId=26da5c2871ff" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr>
<a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/how-nori-protects-landowners-26da5c2871ff">How Nori Protects Landowners</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal">Nori</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How Nori Protects Landowners

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*KWzSumHiiR6_0ZTvx1tTyg.png"></figure>As a company, Nori is in the carbon removal business. As such, we’re a bit bookish when it comes to soil carbon persistence — because getting it right matters. In fact, Nori was created because we want to work with you to help rectify the issues present in some other carbon markets. Central to that effort is issuing high-quality carbon credits for soil carbon persistence. In order to meet the requirements for high-quality carbon credits, <a href="https://www.icroa.org/The-ICROA-Code-of-Best-Practice">Nori adheres to the ICROA standards</a>.
Nori takes the issue of soil carbon persistence seriously. We are a farmer-forward and science-forward company, and one of the ways Nori ensures the persistence of soil carbon is through <a href="https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/USDATB1939_07072014.pdf">USDA bluebook approved process-based modeling</a>.
Within our marketplace, <a href="https://nori.com/modeling-soil-carbon">process-based modeling provides several benefits</a> including the flexibility to create an appropriate ten-year trend line, lower verification costs, and the ability to model various outcomes without negatively impacting a farmer’s daily operations by requiring them to set aside land.
Another way Nori ensures soil carbon persistence <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NuXKVevucRwcBe1F5fDyPzC3OG4qaLCg/edit">is through our NRT agreement</a>. As part of the agreement, Suppliers make commercially reasonable best efforts to retain the carbon (represented by the NRT) in the soil for at least ten years after issuance. Additionally, Suppliers must provide Nori with annual project data that complies with the applicable methodology.
Instead of burdening farmers with a financially unsustainable multi-decade contract, Nori settled on a ten-year contract for two key reasons: 1) to maintain a fair and equitable marketplace, and 2) farmers, who are making a long term investment in their future, are primarily interested in restoring their soil, making subsequent reversals in soil health unlikely. However, we also recognize the desire for certainty from carbon removal purchases. Consequently, for buyers interested in <a href="https://nori.com/credible-carbon-removal">purchasing the equivalent of 100 years of carbon removal</a>, Nori recommends purchasing 10 NRTs.
If a project suffers from a reversal in soil carbon persistence due to a natural disaster or a broken contract, or Nori over issues NRTs, <a href="https://nori.com/token">our insurance policy guarantees the original value</a> of a carbon removal purchase. If a Supplier purposefully releases carbon before the end of the ten years, we reserve the right to recover the value of the released carbon from the Supplier. After quantifying the lost carbon into NRTs, we will recover the equivalent value <a href="https://nori.com/faq">by drawing from the Supplier’s restricted NORI</a>. Additionally,​​ Nori will continue to monitor projects after the end of the contract term and publicly report any significant reversal in carbon retention as well as future mitigation strategies.
Nori is a blockchain-based carbon removal marketplace on a mission to reverse climate change. If you’d like to purchase carbon removals, visit <a href="http://nori.com/">Nori.com</a>. If you’d like to partner with Nori, reach out to hello@nori.com.
<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSource=full_rss&amp;postId=caf3526aebe4" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr>
<a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/how-nori-guarantees-soil-carbon-persistence-caf3526aebe4">How Nori Guarantees Soil Carbon Persistence</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal">Nori</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How Nori Guarantees Soil Carbon Persistence

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*eRH1pgCzt5_I9Vue3k_uYw.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@dtopkin1?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Dayne Topkin</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><a href="https://nori.com/for-growers">Nori is a farmer-forward company</a>. As a farmer-forward company, Nori respects the rights of farmers as individuals and landowners. Nori will not infringe on those rights. We want farmers to retain complete control over all of their valuable assets, whether those assets are regenerative planting methods, cryptocurrency tokens, or their plant growth, and land management data.
The primary way Nori respects farmers’ privacy is <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hP4LHTCnuPxdXKY51lNasDlEeVl7iM5XKCwpeVMk9-w/edit?usp=sharing">through our privacy policy</a>. Through our privacy policy, Nori asserts that: we will not use a Supplier’s Confidential Information except for the express purpose of establishing a project’s carbon baseline, calculating carbon removal claims, and including projects on the blockchain. In every case, Suppliers retain ownership of their data and determine the breadth and scope of data that Nori is authorized to use or disclose.
Nori will not sell your data to third-party companies.
Nori will not aggregate farmer data for the purpose of selling such data to third-party companies.
Nori will not disclose your data without your express written consent.
Nori only uses your data for quantifying carbon credits. The anonymized data helps us develop internal trends to guide farmers when enrolling in the marketplace.
Nori has a licensing agreement with <a href="https://soilmetrics.eco/">the carbon quantification tool, Soil Metrics</a>. As part of our agreement, they agree only to use your data to calculate the project’s carbon baseline. Soil Metrics does not store your data internally in perpetuity, instead only retaining data for 30 days. By working with Nori, Soil Metrics also agrees not to sell or disclose your data to unaffiliated third parties.
Some people might say that privacy is dead.
We disagree.
At Nori, we’re committed to providing you with a carbon removal marketplace you can trust. Your data is a virtual extension of your person, and we want to assure you that we value your data (and you) the same way you might treat a close family friend.
Nori is a blockchain-based carbon removal marketplace on a mission to reverse climate change. If you’re interested in partnering with Nori, reach out to us at hello@nori.com.
<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSource=full_rss&amp;postId=a3ee34f10d2c" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr>
<a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/nori-protects-farmers-data-privacy-a3ee34f10d2c">Nori Protects Farmers’ Data Privacy</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal">Nori</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nori Protects Farmers’ Data Privacy

On June 21, 2021, Nori submitted an open letter response to the <a href="https://www.iif.com/tsvcm">Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets</a>. The letter is published below in full.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*e8n7BPnwXaEs-v-ZVcpjiw.png"><figcaption><a href="https://www.iif.com/tsvcm">https://www.iif.com/tsvcm</a></figcaption></figure>June 21, 2021
To the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets:
I write this letter as the CEO and cofounder of the Seattle-based carbon removal marketplace, <a href="https://nori.com/">Nori</a>. We were founded in 2017, and are a marketplace that connects purchasers of verified carbon removals with suppliers who credibly remove and retain carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Our company’s mission is nothing short of reversing climate change. Our work will not be complete until the atmospheric carbon balance has been restored to 300ppm.
We are building on the shoulders of giants. Much of our business model design is based directly on observations and experiences with legacy carbon offsetting schemes. As we came together in 2017, we took a first-principles approach and asked ourselves: if we were going to build a scalable carbon removal marketplace to reverse climate change, how would we do it today, knowing what has been tried in the past?
There are two components to this that drive Nori’s focus and progress: Nori’s core values as an organization, and Nori’s chief design principles in developing a marketplace. In this letter, I will first briefly address Nori’s core values as a means of level-setting, and then address the chief design principles of our marketplace in greater detail.
<h3>Core Values</h3>
At Nori we are intentional about the values we share and observe as they shape not only our culture, but also our business strategy. They are:
<ul>
<li>
Honesty above all else. We value transparency in everything we do, from internal to external communications. We state things how they are, with radical candor (a style of communication that is both caring and direct). We will be honest about both what we are capable of doing, and what we are not.</li>
<li>
Assume best intentions. We enjoy working together on a joint goal with internal and external partners. We agree to always assume the best intentions of another and ask clarifying questions to troubleshoot and define problems.</li>
<li>
Limit work in progress. We continuously strive to limit the work in progress we have at any given time. We aim to do one or two things at a time. This means we will commit to deliver a set of developments that we believe are achievable and have the highest impact.</li>
<li>
Act with the end with mind. Anything that we do must be aligned with our end goal: enabling global reversal of climate change and climate restoration.</li>
<li>
Continuous improvement. We endeavor to continuously improve across all aspects of our business, from marketplace design, to team collaborations and communications. Feedback and continuous learning are key aspects to this. We will continue to challenge ourselves and the status quo in order to offer the world the best carbon removal marketplace we can.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Chief Design Principles</h3>
In order to achieve our mission, we’ve designed a marketplace specifically for:
<ol>
<li>
Enabling climate change reversal by focusing exclusively on the removal of excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.</li>
<li>
Scaling carbon removal to the gigatonnes scale by building a marketplace that makes it affordable and as simple as possible for suppliers of carbon removal to get paid for credible carbon removal by buyers.</li>
<li>
Ensuring that projects are providing real, additional, and credible carbon removals using science-backed and innovative quantification methods and methodology requirements.</li>
</ol>
We described the initial design for the Nori marketplace in the <a href="https://nori.com/documents">Nori White Paper</a>, originally published in early 2018. Since then, like any nascent company, we have iterated and achieved several important milestones:
<ul>
<li>In 2019 we published our first (of many to come) methodology for measurement and verification of carbon removed in the form of our <a href="http://nori.com/resources/croplands-methodology">US Croplands Methodology</a>.</li>
<li>Also in 2019, we launched our marketplace for the first time with sales of Nori Carbon Removal Tonnes (NRTs) from the <a href="https://nori.com/supplier/1">first farm project</a> that completed quantification and verification with our methodology.</li>
<li>In the summer of 2020, <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/nori-raises-4m-funding-round-from-some-fantastic-investors-to-scale-up-the-carbon-removal-dc41c2a96f44">Nori raised a $4 million funding round</a> from venture investors, providing us the needed resources to expand our team and grow our marketplace.</li>
</ul>
As of publication date of June 21, 2021, we have accounted for over 60,000 tCO₂ removed and verified, and have sold over 28,000 of those NRTs. This data is publicly available at <a href="https://nori.com/registry">nori.com/registry</a>.
The Taskforce is doing important work. I am especially interested and curious in the outcomes defining corporate ESG approaches and in what cases enterprises should be allowed to purchase carbon offsets or carbon removals with respect to their own decarbonization efforts. Nori takes no official stance on this issue other than to share that our company tagline is “Emit less, remove the rest.” We simply supply carbon removals to buyers who wish to purchase them. We leave certification of statements like “net zero carbon,” “carbon neutral,” and similar to other parties.
In the remainder of this letter, I would like to expand on those core beliefs above to describe the distinctions Nori takes with respect to scaling a global carbon market.
<h3>1. Enabling climate change reversal</h3>
If humanity were to somehow wave a magic wand and decarbonize the entire world to the point where no new human-caused carbon emissions occurred, there would still be far too much CO₂ in the air. We believe the UN’s 1.5 degree target is not ambitious enough. We want to restore the carbon balance to 300ppm. Doing so requires removing a massively large amount of CO₂ (over 1.5 trillion tonnes) from the atmosphere, in addition to all of the decarbonization efforts that are underway around the world.
In the past, many influential figures did not want to embrace carbon removal and sequestration because of the potential moral hazard of enabling large emitters in avoiding their own decarbonization efforts. The sentiment here is correct, and this is why I look forward to the results from the Taskforce’s work on corporate offsetting.
But as the 2018 IPCC report acknowledges, it is now too late to solve this problem entirely through decarbonization. Carbon removal is necessary.
As Steve Jobs once said, focusing is about saying no. Nori focuses exclusively on carbon removals, and does not allow carbon avoidance or reduction projects to be sold in our marketplace. We leave those to others.
<h3>2. Scaling carbon removal to the gigatonne scale</h3>
The carbon removal industry is fundamentally supply-constrained. If we wish to draw down over one trillion tonnes of CO₂ from the air, we must design systems that make it as affordable and simple as possible for carbon removers to do business. Thus, we must commoditize carbon removal by providing more accessible market-based pricing and a global commodities industry for carbon removals.
The original designers of the Clean Development Mechanism and carbon trading in general had the best of motivations. In order to build a robust economy of carbon trading, it is important that there be a tradable commodity asset. The obvious choice at the time was to set the carbon credit itself as this asset.
By our observations this is the lifecycle of a typical carbon credit:
<ol>
<li>A project developer does some sort of carbon offset project that adheres to a protocol standard developed by one of the existing carbon registries.</li>
<li>The registry issues carbon credits to the project developer.</li>
<li>The developer typically sells those credits to a broker.</li>
<li>Then the broker resells them, often to another broker.</li>
<li>The carbon credits trade hands many times over.</li>
<li>Some of the time — but unfortunately not very often — the credits are purchased by an end-user who chooses to “retire them.”</li>
</ol>
After this lifecycle, very little of the total amount of money spent on that carbon credit has ended up in the hands of the original project developer. Liquidity and derivatives products and so on are important for commodities markets, but just imagine how much faster we could be solving this atmospheric carbon problem if all purchases of carbon resulted in new carbon coming out of the air!
This has also exacerbated some well-known issues, particularly the enforcement of Article 6 of the Paris agreement. It is still the case today that if a credit is developed in Country A, and sold to a buyer in Country B, then both Countries A and B count the credit as an emissions reduction. And what then if the credit is sold to a buyer in Country C, and D, and so on? How will this be accounted for? The answer is double-entry bookkeeping, but thus far the nations of the world have not been able to agree on a common ledger.
Nori takes a more systematic approach to solving these problems. In our marketplace design, we have separated the carbon certificate (the NRT) from the tradable commodity asset. We have introduced a second asset called the <a href="https://nori.com/token">NORI token</a>, where the cost of one NRT will always be one NORI. The price of NORI will fluctuate based on supply and demand.
When a supplier sells an NRT to a buyer, the NRT is immediately retired, and the NRT can never be resold. Simultaneously, the buyer is required to inform Nori in what national jurisdiction that NRT will be retired. Reporting for Article 6 from the Nori marketplace is trivially easy, and the double-entry bookkeeping is automatically enforced. We publicly share a <a href="https://go.nori.com/pricediscovery">dashboard and map</a> of global retirements of NRTs on our registry page.
We introduced the NORI token because we believe there still needs to be a tradable commodity in order to get the benefits of commodities markets, such as price discovery and forecasting. It is our intention that the floating price of NORI become a reference price for the value of 1 tonne of CO₂ removed and retained from the atmosphere.
In our current pilot phase of our go-to-market strategy, the price of NRTs has been set arbitrarily by the suppliers, and the buyers have paid in cash. Later in 2021 we will be launching the NORI token into circulation and transition to NRT price being determined by the prevailing price of the NORI.
<h3>3. Ensure that projects are providing real, additional, and credible carbon removals.</h3>
<h3>Additionality and its different forms</h3>
Historically there have been two types of additionality tests applied to carbon offsets: baseline and financial additionality. The baseline test is to ask, relative to the counterfactual, would CO₂ have been emitted if not for this offset project? Or in the case of removal projects, has CO₂ been removed and sequestered relative to a starting baseline?
The financial test asks: would this project have happened if not for the payments received from selling the carbon credits associated with the project?
We completely agree with the baseline test, and we reject the financial test as counterproductive to scaling a global carbon commodities market. By definition, the financial additionality test precludes projects that would be otherwise profitable. In a world that is constrained on supply, it seems absurd that we would restrict ourselves to only unprofitable projects. That cannot possibly scale to meet the demand that exists already, let alone future carbon removal demand.
Nori is committed to only supporting real and credible projects that are measured as carbon net removed from the atmosphere relative to a baseline established during project enrollment. We have written more about this at <a href="https://nori.com/credible-carbon-removal">https://nori.com/credible-carbon-removal</a>.
<h3>On permanence, and how best to achieve it</h3>
Established carbon offset markets, consistent with ISO 14000-series guidelines, introduced the concept of carbon sequestration “permanence.” The life of a CO₂ molecule in the atmosphere is roughly 100 years. So, the concept goes, for removing one tonne CO₂ from the atmosphere and storing it in a natural or man-made reservoir to be equal to avoiding one tonne of CO₂ discharge, the captured carbon must be retained (not released back to the atmosphere) for at least 100 years.
The key problem is that, whether recovered carbon is retained in trees, lumber, soil, or deep saline reservoirs, there are continuing monitoring, reporting, and management costs associated with ensuring that the solid (organic or mineral) carbon will not return to the atmosphere before the end of the 100-year permanence term. Without continued revenue to pay for these services, projects will eventually result in carbon reversal before the 100 year term is complete.
Thus, if permanence for these 100-year terms are dependent on these services, the costs of these services through the 100 years must be paid. That is to say, the only way to truly achieve permanence is for carbon markets to generate repeated payments to land and building stock managers who deliver recovered carbon retention services.
Upon inspection, it does not appear likely that claims made by project developers and carbon offset registries of 100 years of permanence are likely to be met. We elected to take an alternative approach that we believe will be more successful in keeping that carbon in the ground.
Nori NRTs are based on 10 year requirements of permanence. Suppliers must re-verify their continued carbon retention every three years, and at each verification, they may elect to sell new NRTs that have been removed in the preceding three years. That then triggers 10 more years of permanence requirements, so what was originally 10 years becomes 13 years, then 16, then 19, and so on. In this way, the supplier is receiving continued operating income, and is far more likely to retain that carbon in the ground on a long-term basis.
We have written more on this at <a href="https://nori.com/achieving-permanence">https://nori.com/achieving-permanence</a>.
<h3>The tonne-year as a standard unit of account</h3>
We view it as important to accomplish two goals while creating a global commodities market for carbon removal:
<ol>
<li>Create standard units of account so that capital may move freely and create new and increasing investment into the space.</li>
<li>Account for the difference in value to buyers and Earth between methods of removal that are more easily stored for longer periods of time.</li>
</ol>
Nori’s standard unit of account is the NRT. One NRT is one tonne of CO₂ removed and sequestered for a guaranteed period of 10 years. We say guaranteed because we actually offer a 100% warranty to buyers that if there is some sort of carbon loss in those 10 years of maintenance requirements, we will purchase new NRTs on behalf of the buyer from a new supplier.
Thus, we think it important to introduce a time element into the unit of account itself, and the NRT in fact represents 10 tonne-years.
This method of assigning 10 years permanence to the NRT has worked well for our US Croplands Methodology. In the future, as we add support for additional methodologies, there are likely to be carbon removal methods that more easily store sequestered CO₂ for longer periods of time, e.g. mineralization.
In those cases, the methodology will define the expected permanence of that method, and for every 10 years of permanence, one NRT will be issued per ton. For example, assume a hypothetical methodology is acknowledged as having 100 years of permanence. For every one tonne of CO₂ removed, that supplier will generate 10 NRTs. 10 NRTs multiplied by 10 tonne-years is 100 tonne-years.
Since the price of one NRT will always be one NORI token, it can then be inferred that the reference price of the NORI token will represent the value of 10 tonne-years removed and sequestered.
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
In this letter I laid out Nori’s design choices we have made in building our carbon removal marketplace and the core principles that have guided them. We offer these ideas to the Taskforce in the interest of collaboration and improving the ability to quickly and credibly scale up voluntary carbon markets. We welcome your feedback and look forward to continuing this conversation.
Sincerely,
Paul Gambill, CEO of Nori
<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSource=full_rss&amp;postId=7475c486905d" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr>
<a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/noris-open-letter-to-the-taskforce-on-scaling-voluntary-carbon-markets-7475c486905d">Nori’s open letter to the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal">Nori</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nori’s open letter to the Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*insYm0QHDGDMmZM0V_-QGw.png"></figure>A few weeks ago I wrote <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/carbon-removal-nfts-are-the-solution-to-energy-usage-and-carbon-emissions-from-blockchain-crypto-a13e4d521245">an article about how carbon removal NFTs</a> from <a href="https://nori.com/">Nori</a> 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!
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-align="center" data-dnt="true"> — <a href="https://twitter.com/imogenheap/status/1387474356771692546">@imogenheap</a></blockquote>
<h3>Step 1: Figure out the carbon footprint of your NFT drop</h3>
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 <a href="https://memoakten.medium.com/the-unreasonable-ecological-cost-of-cryptoart-2221d3eb2053">very reasonable guide</a> that estimates a typical NFT on Ethereum—including minting, bidding, sale, and transfer—is responsible for ~0.2 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/552/1*-PufjdLAzk0mdMEdNCdyNw.png"><figcaption>cryptoart.wtf</figcaption></figure><h3>Step 2: Remove your emissions</h3>
Once you know how much carbon is going in the air as a result of the NFT drop, then you can <a href="https://nori.com/remove-carbon">remove your carbon emissions</a>. 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.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Seg_owMLKlyzYcrYZrfTqw.png"></figure>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, <a href="https://nori.com/supplier/2">check out a current farmer</a> selling carbon through Nori.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*gvY4CNs_WrbMyqzslyRcJw.png"></figure>We even show you the exact fields where the carbon is being stored, as well as information about how this was verified:
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*KZVh9UVnXP4oIPDOr77SEg.png"></figure>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.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*QdwDEsZ2PDbeik5rdH1Qag.png"></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*EUDbVt76_1uxkUCwCGOBCA.png"></figure>That’s all it takes! To recap, first you figure out your approximate carbon footprint, and then you go to <a href="https://nori.com/">https://nori.com</a> 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.
<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSource=full_rss&amp;postId=9d1a854ed033" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr>
<a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/how-to-remove-carbon-emissions-from-nfts-9d1a854ed033">How to remove carbon emissions from NFTs</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal">Nori</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How to remove carbon emissions from NFTs

<h3>Carbon removal NFTs are the solution to energy usage and carbon emissions from blockchain, crypto, and NFTs</h3>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/0*7pK6NbeQgNqeCj5Z"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@nanadua11?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Nana Dua</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=medium&amp;utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure>Cryptocurrency and NFTs are the talk of the town now. And there are two key storylines that I keep seeing brought up:
<ol>
<li>NFTs and the eye-popping amounts of money being paid for them</li>
<li>The energy usage and carbon emissions of blockchain networks</li>
</ol>
What are non-fungible tokens (NFTs)? I’ll point you to Linda Xie’s <a href="https://linda.mirror.xyz/df649d61efb92c910464a4e74ae213c4cab150b9cbcc4b7fb6090fc77881a95d">excellent primer</a> on what they are, and why they have value. The short version is they are digital representations of something that is provably unique. Non-fungible means it is unique and not equivalent to anything else. Proving something is unique in real-life is trivially easy. Obviously your iPhone is different from my iPhone because they are different objects. That’s harder to do in the digital world, because if you capture an image of something, it’s trivial to make a duplicate of the file. NFTs use some aspects of blockchain and cryptocurrency to prove with math that a particular digital file is “original” and “unique” relative to any potential copies of it. For example, artists and creators are using this to create all sorts of new digital art as the earliest use case.
At <a href="https://nori.com/">Nori</a>, we use NFTs to represent unique certificates of carbon removal. We actually call ours NRTs (Nori Removal Tonnes), and it’s sort of a happy coincidence that the initialisms are only one letter apart. All NRTs are NFTs but obviously not all NFTs are NRTs, as the syllogism goes. For more on why Nori is using blockchain and crypto for carbon removal, start <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/how-to-save-the-planet-and-make-climate-change-just-go-away-using-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency-f6e33917089d">here</a>.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*PMWoVlCAcId-Fja9VAHwlA.png"><figcaption><a href="http://nori.com/">nori.com</a></figcaption></figure>The other major storyline around NFTs and cryptocurrency right now is about the large amount of carbon emissions resulting from operating blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. I was quoted in this <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2021/worries-spark-carbon-impacts-nfts-unexpected-boosters-come-defense/">Geekwire piece</a> about it, and there are countless other articles out there covering the issue.
For context, the website <a href="https://digiconomist.net/">Digiconimist</a> tracks how much energy and associated carbon emissions result from operating both Bitcoin and Ethereum. The estimates are enormous, and growing.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*KgkjBS0Wsbaf2rFsbS8Rfg.png"></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*fYImgut0l3F0u6GcytNIPw.png"><figcaption>Found at <a href="https://digiconomist.net/">https://digiconomist.net</a></figcaption></figure>Right now, both blockchains operate using Proof of Work as the consensus mechanism, which really just means that there is an ever growing financial incentive for miners to throw more and more energy into the networks in order to make money.
Is that bad? Yes and no. Yes in that the world needs to emit less carbon. No in that both networks provide enormous value to humanity in the form of monetary freedom and democratization of goods and services. So the question then is, how do we get the benefits while mitigating the downsides?
The answer is:
a) For Ethereum, move over to Proof of Stake consensus mechanism, which will dramatically cut back on emissions from that network
b) Remove the carbon emissions for the entire networks
For a), there is <a href="https://cryptobriefing.com/key-ethereum-researchers-vote-to-ship-proof-of-stake-in-2021/">serious interest from some key people in the Ethereum ecosystem</a> to move to proof of stake this year.
For b), I did some math on this back in January:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-align="center" data-dnt="true"> — <a href="https://twitter.com/paulgambill/status/1353412159925960710">@paulgambill</a></blockquote>
And here I present updated numbers as of April 7th, 2021:
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*M2qPwrtOObBV5EwRMfLSoA.png"></figure>It would cost only $0.56 per Ethereum transaction to make it carbon neutral. To remove all emissions from both BTC and ETH at current carbon prices, it would cost about $1 billion. Bitcoin as a network is worth over $1 trillion! The carbon removal cost is only about 0.1% of the total market caps of both networks. This is not expensive in relative terms.
And in fact, this is the core proposition of what Nori does. We provide verifiable carbon removed in the form of NRTs recorded on Ethereum, and help businesses and consumers go carbon net zero and even beyond to carbon negative. Anyone can go to <a href="http://nori.com/">nori.com</a> right now and purchase NRTs to take their business or blockchain transactions carbon neutral. And if you’re interested in doing some large-scale carbon removal, please get in touch with us at hello@nori.com.
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*-tjlKHzFtXGwpMo-uA994Q.png"><figcaption>Buy NRTs at <a href="http://nori.com/">nori.com</a></figcaption></figure><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSource=full_rss&amp;postId=a13e4d521245" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr>
<a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/carbon-removal-nfts-are-the-solution-to-energy-usage-and-carbon-emissions-from-blockchain-crypto-a13e4d521245">Carbon removal NFTs are the solution to energy usage and carbon emissions from blockchain, crypto…</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal">Nori</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Carbon removal NFTs are the solution to energy usage and carbon emissions from blockchain, crypto…

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/893/0*RfOkX2U0VdatMOEa"><figcaption>Clarifying note: Nori is not a marketmaker in the Nori marketplace. This was an early idea.</figcaption></figure>I think about this conversation I had with Paul a lot. It kicked off what has now been over three years of imaginative, grueling, wonderful, painful, mind-blowing and confounding work — all of which took place alongside the minds of amazing co-founders, teammates, and advisors. But — and this is hard to admit sometimes — I was dead wrong.
I wasn’t wrong about what I said there, at least not about what was written. The idea is simple, and building something like that was straightforward. In fact, we’ve done just that. At the end of 2018 we launched a marketplace using our first carbon sequestration methodology (U.S. agricultural soil-based carbon sequestration), listed the <a href="https://nori.com/supplier/1">first supplier’s</a> 10,000 tonnes of soil carbon, and watched as buyers made their first purchases of a next generation commodity. Rather, what I was wrong about was that you could keep it that simple and expect it to scale without having to roll up your sleeves and dig a bit deeper. And so, for those of us who enjoy the adventure of embarking upon novel and complex problems, I come bearing great news — a list of the hardest and most immediate unsolved engineering problems for carbon markets today!
<h3>Problem #1: Quantification</h3>
In order for us to accurately model annual soil carbon fluctuations we need a lot of data — twenty years of data to be precise. To break down that requirement, for us to run <a href="https://comet-farm.com/">preferred carbon quantification models</a>, we need ten years of historical land-use data and ten years of current and future land-use data. But, this data is oftentimes extremely difficult to gather. If we really want to scale the supply side of a market, we need to get creative about how we provide quantification to suppliers. Or, in lieu of that, we need a way to get farmers excited enough about enrollment such that this grueling data collection effort doesn’t prevent them from wanting to enroll.
<h3>Problem #2: Scaling Enrollment</h3>
Even in the most optimistic case where you have such meticulous records and you get farmers past the enrollment barrier, you will almost never have farmer records in the format or precision needed to run <a href="https://comet-farm.com/">credible quantification models</a>. So, what do you do? You standardize the data, and do the best you can to build transformers to take in data from different sources. But, how can you expect this to scale? Well, you simply can’t. Instead, we need a different approach. One that uses every tool we have available to find, set, and predict land use records to reasonable defaults. At Nori, we’ve begun novel work on this front. We call it <a href="https://support.nori.com/knowledge-base/product/guide/smart-defaults">“Smart Defaults”</a>, but it has a long road ahead of it.
<h3>Problem #3: Data standardization</h3>
Agricultural and crop management data exists in many different forms and in many different places — from publicly available datasets to crop management software used by farmers to manage their practices today. The problem, however, is that this data almost never exists in a way that is consistent across data sources. For instance, one farmer might know a fertilizer by one name, whilst another knows the same composition by a different name. There is <a href="https://gitlab.com/OpenTEAM1/OpenTEAM-Technology/-/issues/40">some work being done already</a> to create open source translation tables, but we’re still a long ways away from having something that works universally.
<h3>Problem #4: Permanence</h3>
How do you deal with changes in land use year over year? What about changes in model inputs like the substitution of real-world weather events for projected ones? How about changes in intended land use plans? Or, if you solve all of those, what do you do when land ownership changes? Right now, the best bet is to issue to farmers on an annual basis so that you minimize over-issuance and make adjustments on an annual basis when given more concrete estimates. In the case that the soil carbon does not achieve permanence, penalties can be applied to balance out the variance. There’s so much more work to be done in this problem space. Getting it right could unlock additional funding mechanisms for sustainable agricultural projects. Getting it wrong could nullify the value of your entire marketplace.
<h3>Problem #5: Verification</h3>
Independent verification of carbon removal is paramount to establishing a credible marketplace. That said, verifying 20+ years of crop management practices is no small feat. For now, the best approach is to require an independent third party to submit an <a href="https://nori.com/verification/VmVyaWZpZXJKb2JSZXBvcnQ6NTcxMDk1NzAzNjY5OTY0OA==">attestation</a> for the project. To make this attestation more credible and scalable, future approaches to verification might include incorporating things like satellite imagery, soil sampling, or even integrations with agricultural data platforms in an effort to create verifiable trails of data.
<h3>Problem #6: True Price Discovery</h3>
This problem has roots in so many areas, including those as simple as transparency and accounting or as complex as modern day economics using token models. There’s a lot of work to be done in this space still to get this right. But, I believe <a href="https://jaycen.io/The-Journey-to-a-World-Unknown-Begins-in-a-Vessel-Yet-Built/">modern day tools</a> can get us all the way there. Check out <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/how-to-save-the-planet-and-make-climate-change-just-go-away-using-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency-f6e33917089d">this post</a> for more information on Nori’s approach.
<h3>Problem #7: Additional Carbon Sequestration Methodologies</h3>
There are so many different ways to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The majority of this post however talks solely about soil carbon sequestration. For carbon removal markets to truly have an impact on climate change, we’re going to need to solve these problems using everything we have in our arsenal. This means taking on climate change using things like direct air capture, afforestation, blue carbon, and everything in between. Furthermore, for each approach, we’re going to need to re-engineer solutions for every problem defined in this post.
<h3>Problem #8: Scaling Demand</h3>
Now, imagine it’s the future and you’ve solved all of the problems to scale the supply side of next-generation carbon markets. Fantastic! But what about the demand side? I believe that the only way for a marketplace to have a significant impact on climate change requires a solution on the demand side that is seamless and universal. But how do you do that when the marketplace goods are disconnected from resource consumption, corporate operations, and everyday consumer purchases? You can’t. But, you can achieve success if you come up with a way to bridge the gap using an approach that integrates directly into the background of everyday things. Imagine taking a Lyft and getting a prompt that notifies you that your ride has been offset on behalf of your favorite brand. Or, imagine you’re making a purchase on Amazon and you can check a box that flags that you want to offset the carbon impact of the item you’re buying. The solution space for this problem is vast and ripe for innovation.
<h3>A Call to Action</h3>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1004/1*MT5Rcbr7OgmxqeJ_0DrziQ.png"></figure>Do any of these problems excite you? <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/nori-raises-4m-funding-round-from-some-fantastic-investors-to-scale-up-the-carbon-removal-dc41c2a96f44">Nori recently closed a round of funding</a> that will allow us to hire additional engineers, designers, and supply account managers to assist us in our fight against climate change. <a href="https://nori.com/careers">Check out the job postings today!</a>
<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&amp;referrerSource=full_rss&amp;postId=535938b7832e" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr>
<a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/the-hardest-engineering-problems-for-carbon-markets-535938b7832e">The Hardest Engineering Problems for Carbon Markets</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal">Nori</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Hardest Engineering Problems for Carbon Markets

<h3>Nori raises $4M funding round from some fantastic investors to scale up the carbon removal marketplace!</h3>
<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*AxrLxgfc0sxlMZU3IPGeMw.jpeg"><figcaption>The Nori team and our advisors at Techstars in fall 2019</figcaption></figure>Back in 2015, I decided that I wanted to work on something bigger and more important than the consulting job I was in. Climate change seemed like an obvious choice, because of course more people were going to pay attention to this ever growing issue. Once I made that decision, I started asking the question, “<a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/how-to-save-the-planet-and-make-climate-change-just-go-away-using-blockchain-and-cryptocurrency-f6e33917089d">How do we solve climate change and make it just go away?</a>” It seemed sort of obvious to me that if the problem is that there are too many greenhouse gases in the air, then the solution is to pull those gases back out and store them safely in the earth. Under that framing, solving climate change is just an engineering project. The carbon dioxide is in the wrong location, and we need to move it.
In 2017, after putting together a team of cofounders with deep experience in carbon markets, carbon removal policy, renewable energy, and software development, we launched Nori, the carbon removal marketplace. Since then, we’ve hosted the first <a href="https://nori.com/reversapalooza">Reversapalooza</a> conference, formed some <a href="https://granular.ag/lp/nori/">key partnerships</a>, and gone through the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQmo2MRygwU">Techstars Sustainability program</a>. Last fall, we officially launched with our <a href="https://nori.com/supplier/1">first pilot project</a>, and we are now scaling up our pilot program for carbon farmers.
Today I am thrilled to announce a $4 million investment in Nori by some truly awesome investors! The round was led by <a href="https://twitter.com/cburniske">Chris Burniske</a> at <a href="https://www.placeholder.vc/">Placeholder</a>, a blockchain-focused fund in NY, and followed by North Island Ventures (also blockchain), <a href="https://tenacious.ventures/">Tenacious Ventures</a> (agtech in Australia), <a href="https://twitter.com/Joshmedia">Josh Felser</a>, our past angel investors, and an unnamed large agribusiness.
Our focus for the coming months is two-fold: first, we will be greatly improving our software platform that farmers and their data managers use to enroll their projects. The easier this is to use, the more farm projects will enroll, and the more NRTs (that’s Nori Carbon Removal Tonnes, the brand name for our carbon certificates) we can sell. Second, we will be working towards the next stage in our market design, namely, launching the NORI token and our forward contract auctions (see the <a href="https://nori.com/white-paper">Nori White Paper</a>, page 55).
<blockquote>With this new investment, Nori plans to make several hires, including engineers, a designer, and account managers to work with farmers, so please check out our <a href="https://nori.com/careers">careers page</a>!</blockquote>
Our vision for the future is that there will be millions of NRTs transacting across the Nori platform in sales to individuals and businesses, and most of all via API. Every industry that has moved to ecommerce has inevitably shifted to more automated purchasing of goods, and what Nori is building for is an API that can be dropped into any application or platform so that carbon payments can happen seamlessly in the background.
We believe that emitting CO2 is like throwing away garbage. When you go to a restaurant and produce waste, you don’t get a “garbage offset” line item on your bill. The restaurant just pays for the cost of collecting the garbage and storing it responsibly. Businesses should treat carbon emissions the same way. They’ve just never had the technology or option to do so before now. That is what Nori is making possible.
Paul Gambill, CEO
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<a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal/nori-raises-4m-funding-round-from-some-fantastic-investors-to-scale-up-the-carbon-removal-dc41c2a96f44">Nori raises $4M funding round from some fantastic investors to scale up the carbon removal…</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/nori-carbon-removal">Nori</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

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