At Isometric, we care a lot about pricing. When Eamon, our Founder and CEO, set the founding principles of our company, one was to reduce the conflicts of interest inherent in the old certification business model. We tackle this by working directly for buyers, not suppliers.
Another founding principle was transparency. So after three years of testing this new model in the market I wanted to share what we've learned and how our pricing works today.
Never overcharging—or undercharging
We have always provided our buyers with the same price schedule. Isometric's name comes from the ancient Greek for "equal measure". That's directly applicable to the world of measurement, reporting, and verification. But it is also in our DNA to believe that two different buyers should pay the same total fee for any order of equivalent size and complexity. So we have resisted the temptation of bespoke pricing that could lead to inconsistent outcomes. We want to support the creation of a market for carbon certificates where a diverse range of buyers can participate on an equal footing.
Now that we are publishing our pricing, it will be easier to maintain this principle. This is not our “pre-negotiation price schedule.” It is our price schedule. We will learn more about our costs over time so if we ever need to change the schedule, we will update it here first. If that means prices increase, we won't impose that on a buyer who has already signed a deal. But if they go down, we will ensure any future savings are passed on automatically by linking prices in our Order Forms to the pricing page. Think of this as a self-imposed "most favored nation" (MFN) clause.
I want to be open—there will be some deal sizes where we are more expensive than other registries. Firstly, because our financial model is different—for example, we pay for VVBs and this cost is included in our fee. Secondly, because our product is different—our protocols are more scientifically rigorous, our registry more tech-enabled, our customer service more responsive.
We are confident that our pricing is a fair reflection of our costs. We are committed to supporting the industry through significant up-front investments in science and technology. For example, we have developed many first-of-a-kind protocols—ranging all the way from marine to mining—that are a prerequisite for suppliers in those technologies getting off the ground. For these investments to be sustainable, we need to know that our fees will cover them over the years that follow. We should never overcharge buyers, but we should never undercharge either.
Show me the money
The calculator below sets out our fees. As suppliers scale up, Isometric's cost per tonne certified goes down, so we pass on these savings. Some pathways are more complex to verify, so the starting price is higher. At scale these cost differentials erode, so the price points converge.
A new norm
Our approach is different—charging buyers directly for certification. I am really thankful to all the buyers I've discussed this with over the past three years, both for their patience and openness to doing things differently. Our experience working with CDR buyers, including Microsoft, Boeing, Google, and Stripe, gives us confidence that this model can support the CDR industry in scaling responsibly. We want this to become a new market norm.
In summary, our pricing is designed in line with these key principles:
- Aligned incentives: we strip out bad incentives by working for the buyer, not the supplier
- Transparency: all buyers get these prices—so they don't have to worry about haggling
- Fairness: every buyer pays the same for an equivalent order, and as our costs fall with scale, we pass the savings on
If you're interested to learn more, see our pricing page here. You can get in touch with us here.
