Secure Solutions: The Importance of Quality in Carbon Markets

Carbon credit markets are among the fastest-growing financial markets in the world. More and more companies are trading within the voluntary carbon market to offset their emissions, meet their climate goals and catalyze new climate solutions. 

But not all carbon credits are alike—and increasingly, companies are seeking high-quality carbon credits that represent permanent carbon reductions and removals to maximize their climate impact. 

This month, CarbonCure celebrated our carbon removal credit buyers and their contributions to our growth and innovation. We asked these buyers to weigh in on what they’re looking for in carbon credits, and why they chose CarbonCure to meet their climate goals.

What Our Buyers Have To Say

As carbon removal and reduction pathways have scaled and become more sophisticated, there’s a diversity of carbon credit sources available. Carbon credit buyers, too, have become more sophisticated, and are often prioritizing credit quality. “As a removals marketplace, Patch sees that customers are eager to invest in innovative and long-lived storage solutions,” said Ariel Hayward, Patch’s sustainability business development lead.

Carbon storage via mineralization—what we do at CarbonCure—offers a distinct permanence advantage. The mineralization process transforms CO₂ into rock, never to be returned to the atmosphere. For concrete, that means even if a building is destroyed, its carbon savings are preserved.

“Storing carbon dioxide in concrete is essentially irreversible,” says Stacy Kauk, director of Shopify’s sustainability fund. “With CarbonCure's credits, you can have confidence that your credits are helping to reverse climate change over the long term.”

Carbon utilization in concrete has the added benefit of its potential to scale globally, with the world’s building stock expected to double by 2060. That’s equivalent to building another New York City each month. “CarbonCure’s technology enables the decarbonization of [the concrete industry] at scale,” says Matthew Borghi, Carbon Partnerships Manager at Pledge. “This is vital to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”

That’s an important part of CarbonCure’s climate strategy. We share earnings from carbon credit purchases with the concrete producers who use our technologies to reduce cement in their concrete mixes, and thus cut their carbon emissions. “CarbonCure’s credits are well-designed as they create a real incentive for manufacturers to increase adoption of the technology,” says Abatable co-founder Maria Eugenia Filmanovic. “Through its carbon credits, CarbonCure allows us, and the corporate buyers we represent, to directly contribute to decarbonization efforts.”

Pursuing High Quality and Catalytic Investments

Many companies are also seeking to broaden their carbon credit portfolio, and they see purchasing credits as a way to invest in innovation. “Mapbox has committed to net zero emissions from our operations since 2016,” says Mikel Maron, the company’s community team lead. “CarbonCure is an exciting new addition to our offset investments portfolio, which we diversify between traditional forest-based offsets and emerging technologies with high impact potential.”

Carbon removal credit buyers are seeking opportunities to help solve big challenges and drive sustainability. While credits from different carbon storage pathways have different advantages, the greatest challenge in the fight against climate change is time, and a thriving, growing carbon market helps catalyze a diversity of climate solutions. 

As we saw in the latest IPCC report, we need all of the tools in our climate and carbon removal toolbox - and CarbonCure is proud to be building a global system for permanent and immediate carbon removal with real impact.

Want to join the effort? Get in touch with us about making your next carbon credit purchase from CarbonCure.