Edinburgh-based digital asset platform Zumo has linked with Crypto Carbon Ratings Institute (CCRI) to provide a positive environmental impact on the crypto sector.
CCRI, which provides data on carbon exposure of activities on blockchain, will provide its Oxygen solution to Zumo in a bid to source market instruments such as renewable energy certificates to enable financial institutions to measure and mitigate their carbon footprint on digital asset activities.
Dr. Christian Stoll, Co-Founder of CCRI, said: “Transparency and data is key to measure and manage environmental impacts linked to financial products. Unfortunately, most funds are still not measuring or reporting on the carbon footprint of their crypto activities.
“We are happy that Zumo builds on our dataset and leverages our complementary capabilities to provide an end-to-end solution to help financial institutions to understand and mitigate their crypto-related carbon exposure.”
Zumo has a fundamental goal in being able to provide greener solutions to the crypto market. Last year, the company helped Jacobi Asset Management to deliver Europe’s first ESG-aligned Bitcoin spot ETF, listed on Euronext Amsterdam.
The digital asset firm will now work in partnership with CCRI to help more financial institutions address the carbon footprint of the new wave of Bitcoin ETFs and other financial instruments coming to the global market.
Research from Zumo and CCRI highlighted that as of March 2024, the annualised carbon footprint of all physically backed Bitcoin fund products stood at 4487.93 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide (ktCO2). To put this into context, this is equivalent to a person flying from London to New York and back over 1.5 million times.
Nick Jones, Founder and CEO, Zumo, explained: “As providers’ share of crypto holdings increases, so must their responsibility when it comes to ESG considerations. We’re proud to be partnering with CCRI, which is recognised as the gold standard for sustainability data in our sector.
“Together, we can help responsible financial institutions to embed sustainability at the heart of their digital asset propositions, in line with investors’ growing ESG awareness and new regulations, such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires companies to report Scope 3 emissions.” In line with his beliefs on bringing more sustainable solutions to the sector, Jones spoke to Payment Expert on how he believes Bitcoin miners should consider environmentally friendly alternatives as the world’s largest cryptocurrency begins to break into the mainstream.
