The Isometric Registry officially launches today. The first credits on the Registry are the most scientifically rigorous, highest quality carbon removal credits to ever exist, marking a new era for carbon dioxide removal (CDR).
Today’s credits were delivered to key members of Frontier, the world’s leading consortium of CDR buyers. This follows Isometric's recent approval as a qualified organization for verifying and issuing credits to Frontier buyers.
The carbon removal for these credits was conducted by Vaulted Deep, a biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS) company. Vaulted secures end-of-life organic wastes through sustainable sourcing practices. They take this waste and deploy slurry injection technology to geologically sequester it for storage, resulting in durable carbon removal.
Stripe and Shopify’s credits are visible on the Isometric Registry, which sets a new standard for transparency in CDR, providing a permanent audit trail for all carbon removal credits issued by Isometric.
This level of scientific rigor and transparency is required to fix the voluntary carbon market. For years, traditional carbon registries have issued millions of low-quality carbon credits ranging from questionable climate impact to—in the worst cases—outright fraud. Investigations have concluded that more than 90% of all credits issued to date are worthless.
Companies that have spent millions of dollars on such questionable credits have opened themselves up to legal and reputational risks related to greenwashing. By making all the underlying information behind every Isometric credit public, the data can be reviewed and scrutinized to prevent the issues that have plagued earlier carbon registries.
There are three things that make Isometric carbon removal credits the highest quality to ever exist.
1. They are grounded in scientific rigor
Isometric credits are verified against the Isometric Standard, which ensures that one credit equals one tonne of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere and safely stored. The protocols that dictate measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) criteria are developed by over a dozen Isometric carbon removal scientists and peer reviewed by the independent Isometric Science Network, made up of more than 200 climate experts.
2. They are transparent
Isometric credits have a publicly available life cycle assessment that accounts for every step of the carbon removal process—all the way down to each truckload of material transported. This underlying detail is audited by a wide variety of independent experts and the results of this MRV are published online in a permanent record.
3. Aligned incentives
Previously, registries were paid by suppliers on a per-credit-issued basis, creating an incentive to overcredit poor quality projects. This led to a breakdown of trust in carbon markets. The MRV and issuance of all Isometric credits is paid for by the buyer of those credits on a flat-fee basis, minimizing the conflict of interest and ensuring all credits represent true carbon removal from the atmosphere.
These credits were assessed according to Isometric’s Biomass Geological Storage Protocol. Vaulted Deep’s technology takes organic, carbon-bearing waste that would have decomposed and injects it underground, where it stays for thousands of years.
This is just the start. In the future, Isometric will issue credits across the other carbon removal pathways for which we have published protocols: enhanced weathering, direct air capture, and ocean alkalinity enhancement—with more coming soon.
Carbon markets require trust to operate effectively and that’s exactly what Isometric’s new carbon removal credits deliver.
This marks a new era for this industry, where buyers can purchase with confidence.
This is a critical step towards creating quality in carbon markets, helping carbon removal reach the gigatonne scale that the planet needs.
This is what Isometric was founded to do.
Cover image by Joshua Sortino
