CO2POOL was founded in July 2020 and has been active as a stakepool since the beginning of the staking era at Cardano (Shelley Mainnet, Epoch 208). At that time – there were only around 500 stakepools – we were among the first pools to start using parts of the operator rewards to support meaningful projects that contribute to changing the world in line with the Cardano mission.
From the beginning, our most important project was the climate-neutral Cardano Blockchain – hence the name CO2POOL. Climate change is the outstanding problem of our time – so it was obvious to me and my son (18 years old) to get involved where we can make a difference: we decided to donate the fees (margin) of our pool to climate protection activities.
We have been doing this regularly every 3 months since we started producing blocks, and so in the first half of 2021, over € 1,700 has already been donated to support reforestation projects (e.g. we have created our own Cardano grove in the Scottish Highlands). See also our reports in the blog.
Many pools now make donations – also for tree planting, which we are particularly pleased about. However, this will only have a sustainable effect if we manage to involve the entire Cardano community and ensure that
a) Stakepools are powered by renewable energy.
b) Remaining CO2 emissions are offset
c) The organisations behind Cardano (including IOG and CardanoFoundation) support our goals.
We are pleased to report that significant progress has been made in this regard in recent weeks. The Climate Neutral Cardano Group (formerly CNBG) that we created has become a strong network and we are proud to have achieved so much together with the other wonderful pool operators and climate protectors of this group.
Through the cooperation of the CardanoFoundation with Veritree and the planting of one million trees, the current energy consumption of the Cardano Blockchain is more than offset.
(currently, around 218,000 trees would be sufficient to offset the CO2 emissions of the stakepools, see our calculation here).
At the same time, a forward-looking application for the Cardano Blockchain is created and implemented with a partner that is globally networked with NGOs and global players who want to offset their emissions in a traceable way. This not only has a positive impact on climate protection, but also on the significance and acceptance of the Cardano Blockchain as a whole.
Together with our partner pools, we are currently in contact with international organisations with which further important agreements can be reached that will significantly advance both climate protection and the Cardano Blockchain.
We are very proud to have given significant push to the important project of climate-neutral blockchain technology.
Next, CO2POOL will – in addition to the cooperation as a partner pool with Veritree – intensify the search for further partner NGO that implement ADA as a means of payment. From our Pool Operator Rewards, we will continue to support climate protection projects and, as always, involve our delegators and supporters in the decisions. The more delegators and Active Stake our pool receives, the larger the amounts for climate protection are possible.
Stake Green – support CO2POOL and the Climate Neutral Cardano Group