Polygon today announced its “Green Manifesto: A Smart Contract with Planet Earth”, a commitment to go carbon negative this year. They also pledged $20 million to implement a multi-layered sustainable development strategy to build a more sustainable future for their ecosystem, customers and the planet, Coin Journal learned in a press release.
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First collaboration is with KlimaDAO
The first initiative will be in collaboration with KlimaDAO, the most prominent proponent to facilitate the nascent on-chain carbon market. KlimaDAO, in partnership with Offsetra, provided Polygon with a carbon footprint analysis to assess the carbon intensity of the network and, in turn, inform the emissions management and mitigation strategy. The completed analysis includes emissions from the staking node hardware, emissions from the energy consumption of its operations, and emissions from contracts that interact directly with the Ethereum Mainnet.
Ethereum responsible for 99% of emissions
The analysis showed that checkpoint and bridge activities involving transactions on the Ethereum Mainnet are responsible for over 99% of Polygon’s emissions. Since the network was created, checkpointing has resulted in over 16,000 tonnes of emissions and the bridge has resulted in nearly 74,000 tonnes. As of February 2022, Polygon’s total emissions since the network’s inception were 90,654 tonnes of carbon.
Polygon will buy carbon credits
To offset the carbon impact of its ecosystem, Polygon will purchase high-quality, traceable BCT and MCO2 carbon credits through KlimaDAO’s on-chain carbon market, Klima Infinity, to offset 90,654 tonnes of carbon. Polygon commissioned the Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) to perform a secondary audit of its carbon footprint to substantiate this data and ensure validity.
Committing $20 million to offset emissions
Polygon pledged $20 million to offset carbon emissions and implement a range of community initiatives. They will fund projects using technology to combat or solve climate change to maintain their focus on sustainable practices. Polygon improves the usability and ecological viability of Ethereum through scaling solutions such as Polygon PoS, Polygon Edge, Polygon Avail, Polygon Nightfall and Polygon Hermez. The promise of ecosystem sustainability precedes the transition from Ethereum to PoS, which will reduce grid power consumption by nearly 99%. Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, commented: We have reached a turning point in human history. The actions we take over the next decade will determine the fate of the entire planet. Our described measures can eliminate emissions from the Polygon ecosystem, but that is not enough to effect the kind of change needed to tackle the climate crisis at scale. Along with Polygon, the broader blockchain industry needs to form a united front to fund, support and leverage technology that helps heal the Earth rather than destroy it.
