Open Earth Foundation
Open Earth Foundation is a nonprofit that builds open-source digital infrastructure for climate action, including AI-assisted city GHG inventories, nested climate accounting platforms, and blockchain-based carbon pricing tools, serving cities, governments, and international climate organizations.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- HeadquartersMarina Del Rey, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Open Earth Foundation does
Open Earth Foundation is a nonprofit research and deployment organization incorporated as a California public benefit corporation in 2020 (with origins in Yale's Open Innovation Lab) that builds open-source digital infrastructure for climate action and accountability. Its portfolio includes CityCatalyst, an AI-assisted platform that helps cities build GPC-compliant greenhouse gas inventories and prioritize mitigation and adaptation actions using XGBoost models and geospatial data; OpenClimate, a nested accounting platform designed to enable interoperability across climate accounting systems and support the Paris Agreement's independent Global Stocktake; CarbonPricing, which provides a calculator, API, and Chainlink oracle delivering the social price of carbon to blockchains (developed with UC Berkeley); OpenSolar, a decentralized solar financing platform; and the Ocean Program and Nature Based Currencies initiatives for marine and ecosystem conservation finance. The foundation's underlying technology stack combines AI/ML, blockchain and distributed ledger technology, IoT devices, remote sensing, verifiable credentials (Hyperledger Indy/Aries), and LLM-based data harmonization.
The organization is funded primarily through charitable donations, philanthropic grants (Carnegie Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Patrick J. McGovern Foundation), NFT-based fundraising (the $6.6M CarbonDrop auction in March 2021), and research grants from Chainlink and Regen Network. It distributes its products through open-source licensing, direct partnerships with governments and international bodies (UNFCCC, Government of British Columbia, Global Covenant of Mayors), and pilots with consulting and technology partners (PwC, IBM, Microsoft). Its primary customer segments are city and regional governments seeking to build GHG inventories, UN agencies and international climate organizations, corporations requiring verifiable climate credentials and carbon pricing tools, and the broader Climate Action Data 2.0 (CAD2.0) community of 60+ organizations co-founded by OpenEarth.
Open Earth Foundation firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Open Earth Foundation
- Legal name
- Open Earth Foundation
- Website
- https://openearth.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Open Earth Foundation is a nonprofit that builds open-source digital infrastructure for climate action, including AI-assisted city GHG inventories, nested climate accounting platforms, and blockchain-based carbon pricing tools, serving cities, governments, and international climate organizations.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Open Earth Foundation industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Climate Technology Software (Open Source Climate Accounting Platforms)
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Climate Target-Setting, Transition Planning & Performance Management Platforms (EUABAEAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Climate Finance Funds & Green Investment Facilities (BPADACAH), Emissions Factors, LCA & Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) Platforms (EUABAEAD)
Keywords
Where Open Earth Foundation is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Marina Del Rey
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Open Earth Foundation business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Donations and Grants: The organization raises funds through charitable donations and grant foundations. The CarbonDrop NFT auction raised $6.6M, and grants from Carnegie Foundation ($500,000), Hewlett Foundation, and research grants from Chainlink and Regen Network support operations.
- Donations: Public donations through the website for supporting open source research and climate projects.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Open Earth Foundation product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Open Earth Foundation builds and distributes open-source digital platforms that enable climate accounting, GHG inventory management, and carbon pricing for cities, subnational governments, and international organizations. Its core products include CityCatalyst (AI-assisted GHG inventory platform for cities), OpenClimate (nested climate accounting platform), CarbonPricing (digital carbon pricing tools with API and Chainlink oracle), Open Solar (DeFi-based solar crowdfunding), the Ocean Program, Nature Based Currencies, and the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub (UGIH). All platforms are offered as open-source software at no cost, funded by grants, donations, and NFT-based fundraising.
Product overview
Open Earth Foundation operates as a research and deployment nonprofit offering a portfolio of interconnected digital climate platforms. The core products include CityCatalyst (AI-assisted GHG inventory platform for cities), OpenClimate (nested climate accounting platform for Paris Agreement tracking), CarbonPricing (digital carbon pricing tools with API and blockchain oracle), Open Solar (decentralized solar financing), Ocean Program (marine conservation finance tools), Nature Based Currencies (ecosystem-linked financial instruments), and the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub. These products are designed to work together as an integrated digital climate infrastructure system, with CityCatalyst collecting city-level data that feeds into OpenClimate's nested accounting architecture, while CarbonPricing and OpenSolar enable climate finance mechanisms that connect to the broader climate accountability framework.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- CityCatalyst AI-assisted, open-source platform that empowers cities to build complete, GPC-compliant greenhouse gas inventories and prioritize mitigation and adaptation actions based on city-specific characteristics including emission sources, climate hazards, timelines, costs, and co-benefits. Built for city governments and the consultants who support them, deployed across 50+ cities in Brazil through the CHAMP initiative.
- OpenClimate An open source and digitally integrated climate accounting system designed to help the world achieve the emission reduction targets set in the Paris Agreement by creating interoperability between different standards, reducing double counting, and catalyzing coordination towards climate goals. Built for governments, international climate bodies, and the CAD2.0 community of 60+ organizations.
- CarbonPricing Digital carbon pricing tools including a carbon pricing calculator, educational resources, an API, and a Chainlink oracle that delivers the social price of carbon to blockchains. Designed to help companies implement internal carbon prices and improve sustainability investment decisions.
- Open Solar An open source crowd-investment platform for solar energy powered by DeFi, originally developed with MIT Media Lab to enable decentralized solar financing through crowdfunding, IoT devices connected to blockchain for energy certification, and smart contracts for finance automation. Built for project developers, investors, and communities seeking to finance distributed solar.
- Ocean Program A program focused on developing innovative tools to scale ocean conservation finance through blockchain-based solutions, including marine ecosystem credits to scale conservation of ocean ecosystems. Built for conservation funders, ocean-project developers, and government partners (e.g., Costa Rican government).
- Nature Based Currencies A program developing instruments to scale financing for nature conservation and ecosystem protection, including currencies linked to ecosystem health. Designed for conservation funders, ecosystem-project developers, and governments seeking market mechanisms for nature.
- UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub (UGIH) A platform developed in partnership with UNFCCC to promote transformative innovations for a low-emission and climate-resilient future, shifting from an incremental problem-oriented approach to transformative, need-based solutions. Built for member states, climate innovation hubs, and partner organizations.
Quantifiable outcome
- CityCatalyst enables cities to build complete, GPC-compliant GHG inventories in weeks rather than months
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Open Earth Foundation
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Open Earth Foundation technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
AI capability7 records
Feature6 records
Open Earth Foundation partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Linux Foundation's OS-ClimatecoreOpenEarth joined Linux Foundation's OS-Climate open source collaboration to further develop data commons that enable nested accounting of climate data and alignment with Paris Agreement goals. First action involves adding subnational data harmonized by Data-Driven EnviroLab into OS-Climate data commons.
- UNFCCCcoreUnited Nations Climate Change partnered with OpenEarth to leverage emerging technologies in advancing innovation and transparency for climate action. OpenEarth provides expertise to support the UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub (UGIH), promoting transformative innovations for a low-emission and climate-resilient future.
- Government of British ColumbiacoreBCGov partnered with OpenEarth to develop a digital trust marketplace for climate accounting through the Mines Digital Trust initiative. Companies can share GHG emissions credentials via verifiable credentials on the OpenClimate platform, integrated into BC's subnational climate inventory.
- UC BerkeleyminorCollaboration with UC Berkeley students to develop carbon dioxide atmospheric concentration oracle and digital carbon pricing tools.
- ChainlinkminorReceived research grant from Chainlink for developing carbon pricing oracle that delivers social price of carbon to blockchains.
- Climate Action Data 2.0 (CAD2.0)coreCo-founded by OpenEarth alongside Camda and Data-Driven EnviroLab. Working group of 60+ organizations developing digitally-enabled independent Global Stocktake (DIGS) with three workstreams: data harmonization, policy, and digital infrastructure.
- Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM)corePartnership for urban climate action events at New York Climate Week, showcasing CityCatalyst and pioneering solutions for city climate action through data and AI.
- World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC)minorCo-host of 'Unlocking City Climate Action with AI and Advanced Data' event at New York Climate Week.
- PwCcoreIssues Scope 1 greenhouse gas Verifiable Credentials to companies in BC's mining sector as part of the Mines Digital Trust pilot.
- UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub (UGIH)coreOpenEarth collaborated on launch of the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub at COP26, developing and presenting the prototype of the digital UGIH platform as well as the urban/cities pilot program.
- CamdacoreCo-conveners of Climate Action Data 2.0 community, launching CAMDA declaration at COP26 to solidify climate data accounting principles.
- Data-Driven EnviroLab (DDL)coreCo-conveners of CAD2.0 community, providing data harmonization expertise and ClimActor tools for subnational actor data.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Open Earth Foundation competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project): Global disclosure system for companies, cities, states, and regions to manage environmental impacts; it is the incumbent whose reporting standards CityCatalyst and OpenClimate interoperate with.
Direct peers
- Watershed: Enterprise carbon accounting and climate disclosure platform serving large corporates on Scope 1-3 emissions, the same buyer problem OpenEarth's CarbonPricing and OpenClimate target.
- Normative: Carbon accounting software focused on Scope 3 emissions and science-based targets, competing for the same corporate climate accounting buyer that OpenClimate and CarbonPricing serve.
- Sweep: Carbon data platform for enterprises and financial institutions, comparable to OpenClimate on GHG inventorying and Scope 3 supply chain engagement workflows.
- Persefoni: Climate management and carbon accounting SaaS for enterprises and financial institutions, directly overlapping with OpenClimate and CarbonPricing on emissions data, reporting, and climate target setting.
- Patch: Carbon credit API and marketplace embedding offsets into digital products, directly comparable to OpenEarth's CarbonPricing oracle and API layer for embedding climate data into applications.
- Greenly: Carbon accounting platform for SMBs and mid-market companies, addressing a similar GHG inventory and reporting use case as CityCatalyst but for corporate rather than city buyers.
- OS-Climate (Linux Foundation): Open-source climate data initiative under the Linux Foundation building shared data commons for climate accounting; OpenEarth is a member partner, and both target the same open climate-accounting infrastructure opportunity.
Emerging players
- Climate TRACE: Nonprofit coalition using satellite and remote sensing to inventory global GHG emissions, overlapping with OpenEarth's remote-sensing and AI-driven emissions detection approach in CityCatalyst.
- Climatiq: Emissions intelligence and data API providing emission factors and carbon calculation infrastructure, comparable to the data layer that underpins OpenEarth's CarbonPricing and OpenClimate products.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks1 record
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Open Earth Foundation social profiles
Digital presenceOpen Earth Foundation financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Open Earth Foundation leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles17 records
Open Earth Foundation funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Open Earth Foundation M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Open Earth Foundation
What does Open Earth Foundation do?
Open Earth Foundation builds and distributes open-source digital platforms that enable climate accounting, GHG inventory management, and carbon pricing for cities, subnational governments, and international organizations. Its core products include CityCatalyst (AI-assisted GHG inventory platform for cities), OpenClimate (nested climate accounting platform), CarbonPricing (digital carbon pricing tools with API and Chainlink oracle), Open Solar (DeFi-based solar crowdfunding), the Ocean Program, Nature Based Currencies, and the UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub (UGIH). All platforms are offered as open-source software at no cost, funded by grants, donations, and NFT-based fundraising.
Is Open Earth Foundation a public or private company?
Open Earth Foundation is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was Open Earth Foundation founded?
Open Earth Foundation was founded in 2020. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Open Earth Foundation based?
Open Earth Foundation is headquartered in Marina Del Rey, United States, in the North America region.
How does Open Earth Foundation make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Donations and Grants are the primary driver. The others are donations.
Who are Open Earth Foundation's main competitors?
CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) is listed as a broad incumbent. Direct peers are Watershed, Normative, Sweep, Persefoni, Patch, Greenly and OS-Climate (Linux Foundation). Emerging players are Climate TRACE and Climatiq.
Does Open Earth Foundation have an API?
Yes. The CarbonPricing tool includes an API that provides access to carbon pricing data and tools, working alongside a carbon pricing calculator, educational resources, and a Chainlink oracle that delivers the social price of carbon to blockchains.
What industry is Open Earth Foundation in?
Open Earth Foundation's product category is Climate Technology Software (Open Source Climate Accounting Platforms). Its primary akta.pro industry code is EUABAEAF, Climate Target-Setting, Transition Planning & Performance Management Platforms, with a secondary code of BPADACAH, Climate Finance Funds & Green Investment Facilities. Its NAICS code is 5132 and its SIC code is 7372.