SXSW — Imagining a sustainable Metaverse

Most people won’t know that when I had the idea of CarbonClick over 3 years ago, it was going to be a blockchain/Web3 project. Although we ultimately chose not to build on blockchain from day 1, many of our core concepts and principles were, and are, there — specifically the ability to tokenise certified offsets and transparently facilitate micro-offsets. This alignment to blockchain drew many amazing supporters to CarbonClick, among others Centrality.

Since the very beginning, Centrality have been a key supporter of our venture, and I’m writing to you today from Austin, TX where we are standing alongside Centrality and their ecosystem as a co-sponsor of the FLUF village, part of the SXSW XR experience. I’m beyond excited by the possibilities of what’s being created.

Supporting the ecosystem on a journey to address blockchain emissions

With the rise of NFT’s and a buzz around Metaverse, we are proud to support leaders in this space (shout out to Non-Fungible Labs and Altered State Machine) who are acting as responsible participants, baking sustainability into the fabric of the Metaverse ecosystem. In this ecosystem carbon neutrality isn’t good enough, Climate Positivity is becoming the new normal, addressing ~200% of their projects carbon footprint — and frankly, it’s urgently needed. Ethereum is still on PoW and the “Factory” which is enabling extreme innovation is currently a terrible polluter.

We’ve developed our own methodology which we think is pretty solid. We use the latest data on network hashrates, node locations, smart contract efficiency, transaction batching ratio and emissions sources to calculate the carbon footprint of project activity. We go down to the day-level carbon intensity of the network, looking daily blockchain activity to calculate how much of the “Factory” a project has been responsible for given an event. That then becomes the carbon footprint of a project. We then double the footprint, offset it with the worlds top climate projects and… boom! You’re climate positive!

Imagining a sustainable Metaverse

At SXSW, we will host a panel with some amazing thought-leaders in this space. We’re here to co-create and sign the Open Metaverse Manifesto — making Climate Positivity part of the fabric of the Metaverse, contributing to a regenerated, inspirational future we all want to live in. And this is the going theme in the community — regeneration, stewardship, responsible practices are the new norm. I’m in awe by the inspirational group of businesses and individuals leading the charge. We’re humbled to be here and do our part in creating this better future.

We’re also making the event climate positive!

If NFT projects are taking leadership, we thought we’d throw in some of our own spice and are making the entire FLUF Village a Climate Positive event! Again, using our technology and expertise, we’re calculating the carbon footprint of venue, including all energy, travel, flights, food, waste… even a share of the visitors carbon footprint.

To the people at SXSW — hope you enjoy what we’ve put together and join the movement. To the world — let’s build regeneration into what we’re doing, the planet is suffering and needs urgent attention. Offsetting, if done with the highest quality projects and alongside strong investments into emissions reductions, is a great way to strengthen our sustainability toolkit… we need all tools in play to ensure we, and our planet thrives in the future!