CarbonZero's Solutions

We are committed to developing innovative, sustainable, and effective solutions. Our mission is to steer the world in the direction of carbon neutrality. Our solutions are currently funded through bootstrapped capital. Going into Q1 of 2024, we will raise capital externally.

Learn more about our solutions to the climate crisis.

Climate Assets, Sectors

In researching solutions, we have partnered with Project Drawdown. Their scientific analysis shows that the world can reach drawdown—the point in time when levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stop climbing and start to steadily decline—by mid-century if we make the best use of all existing climate solutions. Each solution presented here reduces greenhouse gases by avoiding emissions and sequestering carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere. You can sustain our climate assets through re-assessing your own lifestyles or supporting the organization we have identified. More solutions are needed and emerging, but there is no reason—or time—to wait. Now is better than new, and society is well equipped for transformation today.

The Challenge

The challenge is to understand and advance climate solutions; to comprehend the sources of emissions and nature’s means of rebalancing the climate system. Burning fossil fuels for electricity, mobility, heat. Deforesting ecosystems, damaging habitats, and unsustainable economics. All these activities emit heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air. Cattle, rice fields, landfills, and fossil fuel operations release methane—a gas that warms the planet even more. Nitrous oxide and fluorinated gases seep out of agricultural lands, industrial sites, refrigeration systems, and urban areas, adding still more heat-trapping pollutants to Earth’s atmosphere. Most of these gases stay airborne but some natural biological and chemical processes sink these by absorbing or storing carbon.

The Earth’s natural carbon cycle moves a staggering amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) around our planet, says Daniel Rothman, MIT professor of geophysics. Altogether the planet absorbs and emits somewhere on the order of 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide through this natural cycle every year. That total dwarfs humanity’s contribution, amounting to ten times as much CO2 as humans produce through activities such as burning fossil fuels. If people emit only a tenth as much CO2 as nature does, then why are scientists so concerned about our emissions driving climate change? It is because our extra chunk of carbon emissions has tipped out of equilibrium what was once a balanced cycle. “What's being taken out by natural processes is more or less equal to what's being put in—other than the extent to which we've disturbed it,” Rothman says. This is why the atmospheric level of CO2 continues to creep up as humans keep burning fossil fuels: Human activities tip the scales by adding carbon to the air faster than the planet’s sinks can absorb it.

Tipping the Scales

The team at Drawdown has been generous enough to offer us their open-source simulation resources. We use their simulation models to calculate for our scenario in the period 2020–2050: the amount of greenhouse gas that would be reduced, avoided, or stored, the cost of implementation, the operating cost or savings relative to the reference scenario of 2°C. Estimates are deliberately conservative, with costs estimated on the high end and benefits on the low end. Project Drawdown's research models are uniquely valuable tools for quantifying the potential size and economics of different climate solutions. Those that are interested can check out the ongoing work on Github.

Our Methods

We emulate Project Drawdown's efforts to suit our research needs. To be included in the solution set, technologies and practices must meet the following criteria: be currently available, growing in scale, financially viable, and able to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere. They also must have a net positive impact, and there must be sufficient data available to assess their potential. To assess a proposed solution, Project Drawdown research fellows with extensive subject area expertise review existing scientific literature to characterize the solution’s potential with respect to these criteria. At Carbon zero, we are only interested in a relatively conservative estimate where solutions are adopted at a realistically vigorous rate, adjusting for estimated economic and population growth. It roughly corresponds to limiting warming to 2°C.

Simulations

We regularly speak to experts across the industry—from conservation to carbon removal—to understand which projects are most promising.

Pre-selection

01

We pore over everything we can get our hands on, from maps of the location, to plans for how measurement will be conducted, to relevant scientific literature.

Project analysis

02

We assess the project across several criteria, including additionality, risk of reversal, measurement accuracy, community impact, and cost per ton of CO2.

Rigorous screening

03

We request financials and other sensitive documents for review, and evaluate the ethos of the team behind the project.

Team Interviews

04

We speak with industry experts outside the company to get an additional opinion on our analysis and preliminary recommendation.

Due-Dilligence

05

We constantly evaluate the effectiveness of every project, tracking progress and judging if the project is still a highly impactful destination for further funding.

Ongoing review

06

CZero

Those that advertise with us benefit from reaching their targeted demographics, supporting efforts mitigating climate change, and a lower-than-market cost-per-click. Since profit is irrelevant to our model, we can offer lower prices while still sustaining our operations. Our users only view ads they are interested in, achieve change without any financial contribution, and lead a more sustainable life.

Our Solution

CZero is a deep-learning-based ad engine that leverages your time for carbon credits. Here's how it works. Our team identifies products, services, and digital content that, upon consumption, do not increase your carbon footprint by more than that which will be offset. On the user-end, you can choose the topics you are interested in and the ads are directed through the demographics you identify with; the revenue then generated is entirely dedicated to offsetting your carbon. In our pure exchange model, both advertisers and consumers win.