Carbon Title is currently available for buildings in the U.S. only. We have plans to expand around the globe over time. Let us know where you’d like to see Carbon Title Explorer next!
Once you have a Carbon Title account, you can create draft buildings for projects that are in the planning phase or still under construction. To publish completed buildings, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium account. New buildings will not show up on the map until they are published.
If you are a developer, contractor, architect, engineer, commercial tenant, local government, or low-carbon materials supplier, please schedule time with one of our carbon experts to learn more about our enterprise platform.
If you are a developer, contractor, architect, engineer, commercial tenant, local government, or low-carbon materials supplier, please schedule time with one of our carbon experts to learn more about our enterprise platform.
Property owners must verify ownership via public records, and only owners are able to modify data associated with the building. Other interested parties (e.g. employees or tenants) can contribute building data, but the owner must confirm/validate that data for it to be published on Carbon Title.
That said, Carbon Title is an early-stage platform that runs to some extent on the honor system. Verification does matter, and we plan to keep improving on this front as the product matures. But what matters more is creating a shared public record of carbon emissions for every building. We believe, as the saying goes, that “what gets measured gets managed”. Publicly available carbon emissions data will drive radical transparency and influence actions needed to decarbonize the real estate industry.
After you’ve claimed a building, you’ll be able to edit its details in the Carbon Title Manager, and have the option to “save” your changes (in which case they will stay private to you) or “publish” them, at which point they will show up on the map and be written to the blockchain.
When you claim your building, you confirm details which allow us to express the building’s CO2 emissions as a number instead of a range. It also gives you the opportunity to share additional information about the building to further increase accuracy.
Many people think of art when they hear the word “NFT,” but an NFT (“non-fungible token”) is really just a unique digital identifier that cannot be copied, substituted, or subdivided that is recorded on blockchain. We create an NFT when you claim a building on Explorer in order to create a permanent, secure record of the building ownership and emissions.
The NFT is associated with your building and held for you inside of Carbon Title’s systems. If you sell your home or building, you can contact us to have ownership of the NFT transferred to the new owner.
Carbon Title estimates the CO2 emissions for each building based on a variety of high-quality data sources including some publicly available information. Because some data about specific buildings is only available to the building’s owner, we estimate both the worst-case (high-carbon materials and high energy use) and best-case (low-carbon materials, efficient energy use) scenarios, which leads to the range of carbon emissions.
As property owners add more specific data and claim a building, the accuracy of the carbon balance increases and the Explorer starts displaying a single carbon balance number versus an estimated range.
Claimed buildings
These are buildings you or your organization own and have been claimed in the Carbon Title Explorer. New buildings that you’ve added and published from “drafts” (i.e. new construction that’s been completed) will also appear here.
Followed buildings
These are buildings which you have chosen to follow from the Carbon Title Explorer. You cannot manage the buildings or update information on them, but you will be able to see a listing of all the buildings you follow and track how the building’s carbon balance changes over time.
Draft buildings
These are new or under-construction buildings that have been added to the Carbon Title platform. They will not be visible on the Carbon Title Explorer until they are published.
In the event of a legal sale of the property, you’ll be able to transfer the building’s carbon title. Contact us to initiate an ownership change.
The “carbon balance” of a building is made up of its base emissions (both embodied and operational carbon) minus any carbon reduction actions taken, including any offsets purchased and applied to the building. We depreciate embodied carbon over a 60-year timeframe.
The building’s base emissions are estimated using key data points about the building including its structure type (e.g. mass timber, concrete & steel), primary usage (e.g. office, residence), size, and location. Our model is also built based on geography and takes into account regional differences in building materials, the percent of renewable energy on the local electric grid, and other factors.
As property owners add more detailed information about a building, its ongoing energy usage, and any mitigation actions (e.g. solar panels, usage of low-carbon materials), the accuracy of its carbon balance increases.
Learn more about our methodology here.
Carbon Title uses data obtained from a variety of high-quality sources including publicly available data and third-party data providers. Our clients also provide data for projects that are under construction.
Despite aggregating all of these sources, there may still be buildings for which we don’t have the necessary information to calculate carbon emissions. It’s important for property owners and stakeholders to contribute detailed data for their buildings to help build out a more complete and accurate resource.
This is a widely accepted method of carbon accounting developed by Greenhouse Gas Protocol. In a nutshell:
Scope 1 covers direct emissions (e.g. fuel burned on-site)
Scope 2 covers energy used
From a building perspective in Carbon Title, Scopes 1 & 2 are considered operational carbon emissions.
Scope 3 covers indirect emissions, including embodied carbon from materials used in a building and the process of construction.
You can read more about this protocol here.
