NFTrees — Climate Tech NFTs
An overview of this budding ecosystem and why Sādu finds them interesting. (http://sadu.app/)
Sādu is an app that unites personal well-being with the health of the planet by rewarding health and fitness commitments with trees. We believe that investment into personal well-being is a form of untapped capital that can be used to efficiently steward the earth’s ecosystem. Sādu is the first step towards leveraging this capital for a healthy planet and personal financial gain. With this goal in mind we started to explore the various ways in which Sādu can create this future.
A few months ago, curiosity and a lust for efficient capital markets naturally led us to the intersection of blockchain and sustainability. Many applications exist in this area, particularly within the energy sector. Additionally, carbon markets, due to their inherent need for multilateral cooperation and time sensitive transactional data are gaining popularity. At this rate it appears decentralized carbon markets will soon exist alongside formal state-run markets. Within the sphere of crypto carbon trading lies an emerging trend to tokenize nature-based solutions to climate change like tree planting.
Given that Sādu rewards a healthy lifestyle with trees we naturally found an affinity for this niche. Below is a quick compilation of projects we found at the intersection of tree planting and crypto.
Generally, the projects aim to increase the funding for forest makers and verify the progress of these projects with satellite imagery or pictures from the ground. Some projects focus on the use of NFTs to represent physical trees. They plan to list these NFTrees, as we like to call them, on an existing marketplace or one created specifically for the purpose of the project itself. By acquiring an NFTrees the holder maintains the assumption that funding is then passed on to forest makers. The funding from the sale of the NFTs are either given to a forest maker on a one to one match or the funding from one NFT is distributed to many forest makers. Some but not all of these projects use blockchain infrastructure.
In addition to NFTrees, other projects have launched initial coin offerings on the premise that funding will be allocated to forest makers. Single.earth offers to integrate the forest data into a carbon market. In the case of Seeds, token holders will be offered the chance to participate in the project’s governance. They will also be incentivized to make use of or earn tokens according to eco-conscious behaviors deemed valuable by the community. Further research is needed to determine how each project employs the technical advantages of distributed ledger technology, particularly towards the objective of increasing capital for forest makers and increasing the overall equilibrium of living trees.
Over the past year sustainability and the mitigation of climate change has come to the forefront of personal and institutional agendas. Apps that help individuals manage and offset their carbon footprint are gaining popularity among investors. Two solid examples include, Pachama, headquartered in the US, which raised over 20M in venture funding, complemented by up and coming German app, Klima which raised over 5M. On an institutional level the European Union, for example, is pushing to raise emissions reduction targets from 43%, of 1990 levels, to 61% by 2030. Corporations are reacting to policy signals with many tools. They include climate investment funds, the purchase of carbon credits, the creation of services that measure supply chain emissions and even selling offsetting services to end customers (Stripe is a neat example here). The point is, a lot of people have decided to spend money on the climate.
In a scenario where funding for climate tech is bountiful the next step is to determine how capital can be used for the fundamental evolution of an economy that values ecological restoration. NFTrees could be one means by which there is a global economic transition to a capitalist model that is ecologically restorative.
We believe it is possible to tip economic incentive in favor of restoration over deforestation and that Sādu can be used to make this happen. NFTrees could be a viable method of reordering capital for this purpose. We look forward to exploring the periphery of this solution and would like to onboard tree planting projects that are doing the same.
Sādu used its winning project in the Sovereign Nature Hackathon to begin the implementation of features that make use of NFTrees. We also joined the Crypto Climate Accord as a supporter to reinforce Sādu’s operational commitment to sustainability. If you are working on NFTrees, download the app and reach out to us.
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About the author:
A native Californian and yogi, Brittany is making it easy for everyone to live an active and eco-conscious lifestyle by linking sustainable finance to health and fitness. In addition to being the co-founder and CEO of Sādu, she is also a Founding Board Member of the donation based running app, Active Giving. Previously, she established Plug and Play’s European Sustainability program, supporting venture capital funds and innovation departments in their search for investment opportunities.
Brittany has been active in the Climate Tech startup ecosystem since 2015 where she began her work at a Smart City consultancy in New York. She received a Master’s in Global Energy Policy from New York University and Bachelor’s in International Political Economy, all of which formed the foundation of her career and a fascination with the interlinking of economics and environmental sustainability.
