NFT or non-fungible tokens are widely notorious for emitting huge amounts of carbon in the air during their minting process. One of the biggest reasons why many people still refuse to buy or invest their money in this industry; despite the many benefits, is due to environmental concerns.
Bitcoin and Ethereum are widely discussed in mainstream media for having a concerningly large carbon footprint almost competing with the big oil industries. Similarly, many blockchains consume a lot of energy to make transactions or perform tasks, especially those that follow the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism.
In 2022, many NFT projects have taken it upon themselves to promote something positive with the emerging blockchain technology. They are actively working towards sustaining the natural ecosystem and environment to show that technology and nature can co-exist in one place without disrupting each other’s systems.
These projects either choose to operate on an eco-friendly blockchain network or use the funds collected to donate or initiate eco-friendly projects. As Web3 emerges into the mainstream, you can be part of the projects that are working for a cause as well, so here are the top 5 eco-friendly NFT projects of 2022 that you show know about:
1. Moss.Earth
Moss.Earth is a climate tech startup that aims to help Web3 projects, blockchain networks, individuals, and companies to offset their carbon footprint. They use blockchain technology to offset the process while maintaining traceability and transparency.
Moss.Earth has introduced Moss Amazon NFT to preserve the Amazon rainforest. The people purchase NFTs and receive one hectare of the Amazon rainforest that they are responsible to preserve with an encrypted digital certificate of ownership. It is a 30-year protection fund with preservation rights only given to the owners.
Moss.Earth is using NFT technology to save deforestation in the Amazon. Currently, the NFT collection is completely sold out on the OpenSea NFT marketplace.
2. Coorest
Coorest is the latest NFT project launched on the Polygon scaling platform with the initiative to plant trees and preserve wildlife.
NFTrees by Coorest is an NFT collection that plants real-life trees in Europe and USA for each NFT minted. NFTrees give carbon tokens to owners based on the CO2 their real-life trees remove from the air. In short, it has both digital and physical utility for NFT holders to protect the environment and restore the ecosystem.
Coorest has also introduced Wildlife Tokenization in which the users can own NFT replicas of endangered species that are part of the African nature reserves. The profits from the NFTs will directly go to fund the staff and food supply for animals.
Coorest is doing something greater than any other NFT project. It is solely built to help sustain the environment through funding. For more information on Coorest, see the official website: coorest.io.
3. Coral Tribe
Coral Tribe is yet another NFT project committed to marine & wildlife conservation by leveraging art and technology. These hand-drawn coral-inspired NFT avatars are sold to plant corals around the world. As of now, over 3,000 corals have been planted across 3 continents as part of their first pledge.
The funds from the projects go to the Impact Fund, a community built to work towards the preservation of the planet. Every decision is taken after the approval of the Impact Fund for the greater good of the environment.
See all the details of this eco-friendly project here: coraltribe.io.
4. Plastiks.io
Plastiks NFT marketplace is dedicated to removing plastic pollution. It aims to build a Web 3.0 ecosystem to unite people around the world fighting against the use of plastic or initiating activities to clean existing plastic from the environment. It also wants to bring plastic recyclers and producers on one platform so that they work together as a team.
Plastiks NFT platform is expanding the utility of NFT by allowing single-use packaging recyclers to mint and sell as NFTs. This will ensure that whatever plastic you are using is tracked by the recyclers and doesn’t end up dumped in the environment. All in all, Plastiks is completely changing the supply chain model with NFTs to reduce excessive plastic wastage.
Visit the official website of Plastiks: plastiks.io/
5. TrashPiles
TrashPiles is a well-known NFT charity project that aims to help clean the ocean trash dump by donating US$100,000 to TeamSeas, an ocean-cleanup organization. According to the Ocean Conservancy, 8.3 million tons of plastic are dumped in the ocean every year, endangering sea life. TrashPiles is making an effort to clean the ocean and preserve the natural ecosystem within the ocean.
TrashPiles sold 8,888 eco-friendly NFTs and set a 5% transaction fee on secondary marketplaces, which would also be donated to the cause. The initial donation removed 100,000 pounds of waste from beaches and waterways worldwide, to prevent them from going into the ocean through the waves.
This NFT project was launched on the Solana blockchain, an eco-friendly network using 1/400,000 of the amount of energy per transaction. For more information visit: trashpiles.io.
Final words
Compared to the usual assumptions that NFTs are only for the sake of entertainment or internet hype, these above-mentioned NFT projects are not only opening doors to new possibilities but also exploring the utility of these tokens.
Additionally, they are also helping other organizations and individuals to adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle for business. The biggest example is blockchains moving from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake to save energy.
Investing in these projects is worth every penny because not only will you be part of the project but also feel happy that you are making a difference in conserving the environment and combating climate change.
