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Today’s interview is with Antti Vihavainen, Co-founder and Vice Chairman, Puro.Earth
What is Puro.Earth?
For those unfamiliar, what is Puro.earth, and how does it uniquely contribute to the CDR ecosystem?
Think of us as the “quality-control nerds” for durable carbon removal. We write the rules - the Puro Standard and carbon removal methodologies - together with our independent Advisory Board, send third-party auditors to verify that projects are genuinely carbon net-negative, and issue CO₂ Removal Certificates (CORCs) that buyers can trust. Because we’ve done the hard due-diligence work up-front, we give the project developers - for example, the farmer making biochar or the DAC startup pumping CO₂ underground - access to a market that rewards real climate impact. It means they t get paid because the carbon was removed, and buyers can sleep at night knowing the one tonne really does mean one tonne removed.
Frontier Recognition
Puro.earth has been designated as a Leading Credit Issuer by Frontier, recognizing your exemplary standards for credit quality, scientific rigor, and governance. How does this designation influence your role in the CDR market and your collaborations with carbon removal suppliers?
Frontier is one of the most selective buyers on the planet—so their thumbs-up signals that Puro.earth meets the requirements for credit issuer quality that Frontier has set out Practically, it means that suppliers certifying under the Puro Standard gets you in front of many of the world’s most committed buyers.
Sponsoring Carbon Unbound
Puro.earth recently sponsored Carbon Unbound East Coast 2025 as a Gold Partner. What value do you derive from participating in such events, and how do they align with your mission to scale high-integrity CDR solutions?
It’s the one week a year when you can grab coffee with a biochar producer, a VC, and a Fortune 500 buyer in the same hallway. That density lets us:
- Identify and assess new tech pathways.
- Explain, face-to-face, what CORC quality means.
- Leave with half a year’s worth of supplier leads and buyer intel—no endless Zooms required.
Methodologies
The Puro Standard focuses on engineered carbon removal methods that durably store carbon for over 100 years. Could you elaborate on the types of methodologies you certify and how they contribute to long-term climate goals?
We focus on pathways that lock carbon away for 100–1 000+ years and can scale without trashing the planet:
Every one of these has a public methodology that we revise regularly based on new science or field data. If a brand-new pathway shows real promise (and sound safeguards) we’ll develop a fresh methodology.
Transparancy and Trust
Transparency is crucial in the voluntary carbon market. How does Puro.earth ensure transparency and trust in its certification processes, particularly through the Puro Registry and CO₂ Removal Certificates (CORCs)?
At Puro.earth our carbon crediting infrastructure is designed to provide buyers and suppliers with visibility into every tonne of CO2 removed.
Audit trail, not marketing: Every issuance of a CORC is supported by third-party verification to validate life-cycle analysis, monitoring data and audit findings - openly linked in each registry entry.
Puro Registry: Every CORC issuance and retirement is public. You can trace the project, auditor’s report, tonnage, buyer, and retirement statement—exactly what the verifier reviewed. See for yourself here: registry.puro.earth
Traceable climate claims: Any beneficiary can prove the exact project, method and issuance vintage behind their retirement in one click.
Best Practices
With the evolving landscape of carbon credit methodologies, how does Puro.earth ensure that its standards remain rigorous and aligned with the latest scientific and environmental best practices?
Scientific integrity is foundational to our work and we’ve built multiple layers of accountability to ensure our methodologies evolve with the science, are evidence-based and aligned with the highest standards.
Independent Advisory Board: Our methodologies are reviewed and strengthened through expert input through the Puro Advisory Board, an independent body of scientists, ensuring our methodologies reflect the highest standards of carbon quantification and environmental integrity.
Transparent version control & public input: We run open consultations for methodology updates where anyone can comment. We publicly archive old versions ensuring we can never “quietly” water things down.
Feedback loop from the field: Real-world data from operating projects feeds directly into our methodology updates. If monitoring shows a parameter is off, the necessary update will happen.
Red-team mindset – We pressure-test our own methodologies, preferring to catch flaws ourselves rather than read about it in a watchdog blog. Continuous improvement is a key part of our operation manual.
Collaboration
As the demand for high-quality carbon removal credits grows, how is Puro.earth collaborating with corporate buyers and suppliers to scale the CDR market effectively?
Scaling durable carbon removal requires more than just certification—it takes collaboration across the value chain. At Puro.earth, we work closely with both suppliers and corporate buyers to accelerate understanding, readiness, and market access:
Preliminary Assessment – For early-stage suppliers, our expert-led Preliminary Assessment provides project-specific feedback, confirms eligibility and de-risks the path to certification - helping suppliers empower offtake negotiations.
CORC Connect API – Marketplaces and brokers plug in to execute trading seamlessly and pull live certificate data and retirements.
Teach the teachers – We train marketplaces and other intermediaries on what “Puro-certified” means so they represent projects accurately.
Pre-issuance guidance – Prospective suppliers get early feedback on tech, MRV, and financing models, shortening the road to first issuance.
Corporate-buyer deep dives – We can educate corporate sustainability teams so they understand permanence, safeguards, and carbon accounting - supporting confident procurement and long-term demand.
Challenges
Looking ahead, what are the primary challenges and opportunities Puro.earth anticipates in scaling durable, verifiable CDR solutions globally, and how do you plan to address them?
- Challenge – Capital gap. Many removal projects are still capex-heavy. We’re working with financiers to let CORC offtake agreements secure equity injection and loans.
- Challenge – MRV at scale. Sensor and AI tools have to catch up so verification stays rigorous as the market grows 1000x.
- Opportunity – Policy tailwinds. EU’s carbon-removal certification framework and continued US 45Q support are taking durable CDR mainstream.
- Opportunity – Resilient demand. Even with 2025’s policy whiplash, principled buyers keep purchasing—our registry shows a 10 % rise in suppliers and 13 % more beneficiaries in the first five months of 2025 alone.
- How we’ll tackle it – Lean on our Nasdaq backing for stability, keep methodologies nimble, and expand strategic partnerships so high-quality tonnes outcompete lower-integrity options.
Bottom line: We exist to ensure every tonne called “carbon removal” actually is carbon removal - it’s real, sticks around for centuries, and is easy for a buyer to verify. No fluff, just rigorous science and a clear path to help real projects get paid—that’s Puro.earth.
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