Buildings as C-sinks

Because it matters

OPENLY sees buildings as CO2 storage facilities and is launching the first global marketplace for carbon sinks from buildings in 2024.

The OPENLY VALLEY WIDNAU pilot project has generated around 750 tons of CO2 certificates.

From the pilot project are now available for sale:

  • 70 tons from biochar (existing CSI standard)

  • 180t made of hempcrete (new standard OPENLY via CSI)

  • 500 tons of construction timber (new VERRA standard)

You can see how a carbon marketplace works using the example of Carbonfuture with biochar. This is also based on CSI 's C-Registry, which OPENLY AG will also work with as C-Sink Manager and C-Sink Trader.

IMPORTANT:
A) The primary goal of OPENLY buildings is the avoidance of CO2 emissions and only secondarily CCS (carbon capturing and storage). New buildings with the OPENLY construction system reduce emissions by around 70% compared to conventional buildings. In the OPENLY Valley Widnau project it was >1000 tons!

B) If certificates from C sinks in their buildings are sold on the market or used for their own insetting, they can no longer include them in their CO2 balance for the construction of the building. (i.e. your building is then no longer net zero, see green part of graphic)

C) If you are building with biochar concrete, hempcrete or structural timber without OPENLY, make sure that your supplier of these building materials has not already sold the corresponding CO2 certificates on the market. If this is the case, the C sink can no longer be included in the C02 balance of your building construction. (cf. e.g. sink made of biochar from INEGA that was sold to Swiss Post)

INSETTING

Using the OPENLY construction system, you can "inset" your CO2 emissions for your operational business.

The OPENLY CO2 certificates from its own new buildings and renovations can be used for this purpose.

In essence, it is completely simple: you issue instructions to all construction sites, for example, that structural timber construction is to be used (at least 300m3 per project) or that room partition walls must be made of hempcrete blocks, for example. This is practically cost-neutral and can be implemented immediately.

OPENLY then supplies you with the CO2 certificates which you can then "delete" for the neutralization of your core business.

Find out more about our consulting services.

OPENLY is the ideal story for your company to present your CO2 neutralization in a credible, regional, verifiable, visitable and tangible way.

Alternatively, the state, canton or city could (should?) act as the buyer of the certificates, because a C-sink has been reached locally which today has no price (tax).

Furthermore - since OPENLYs are plus energy - you can improve your operational CO2 balance annually by calculating the grid energy savings. This is based on the local electricity mix and its CO2 content. (Switzerland 30g/KwH, see FOEN) For OPENLY Valley Widnau this would be 2.5 tons per year. No certificates are available for this "avoidance" (as avoidance and no C-sink).

The potential of buildings as C-SINKS

From the end of 2024, you can sell or purchase CO2 certificates from construction projects. Worldwide.

With Carbon Standard International (CSI), we work with the leading Swiss company that writes, audits and tracks global standards. CSI also operates a C registry on which a number of marketplaces are based.

The potential is gigantic.

We expect 10,000 tons of CO2 certificates per year as early as 2025

Negative emission technology explained by Swiss Timber Finance:

For some time now, negative negative emission technologies (NET, see FOEN) or CO2 storage technologies have been gaining in importance (cf. e.g. Climeworks). These are solutions that remove CO2 from the atmosphere and store it long-term in materials or soil. Since 2022, timber construction, for example, has been recognized internationally and in Switzerland as a CO2 storage solution.

The construction industry is responsible for 25% of Switzerland's CO2 emissions and will release over 150 million tons of CO2 through new buildings by 2030. OPENLY can contribute to the decarbonization of the construction industry by using biogenic building materials to store the CO2 absorbed in plants and bound in building materials for a long time, while at the same time replacing emission-intensive materials such as concrete and steel.

Compared to other solutions, building storage certificates are inexpensive, scalable and quick to implement.

To achieve net zero by 2050, CO2 storage technologies are indispensable, as residual emissions cannot be reduced with traditional CO2 avoidance strategies.