Climate change still isn’t the sexiest topic to engage in at a party, but Nihar Neelakanti, co-founder and chief executive officer of Ecosapiens, plans to change that. As the leader of the world’s first carbon-backed collectible company that’s using nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to support carbon sequestering, Neelakanti is tasked with inserting climate change into the culture in a way that makes people want to engage with it. 

“The best climate-conscious brands out there make climate change really fucking cool,” Neelakanti said in an interview. “If you look at Tesla – the leading reason why people buy Teslas has less to do with zero emissions and more to do with being part of Elon Musk’s vision for the future, while also signaling something to the world that you’re doing something positive.”

That got Neelakanti thinking about how he could create a company to allows anyone to fight climate change. “That’s why we call it Ecosapiens,” he said. “We want to build a platform that empowers everyday people to make a difference on the planet.”

But how do you make the concept of carbon credits – typically something large corporations purchase to offset the pollutants they spew into the atmosphere – something interactive and more mainstream?

“We knew we had to make it easy, make it economical, and make it fun. Something that’s part of culture,” Neelakanti said. “We thought about carbon credits and NFTs and using digital art as a hook to get people to make a difference.”

To accomplish the task, Neelakanti needed a great  artist who could also tell a story, build a world and populate that world with a taxonomy and characters. His co-founder Garrett Kane fit the bill and together they set out to turn homosapiens into ecosapiens.

“We just want to empower homosapiens to be ecosapiens,” he said, to “save the world and be the hero.”

Nihar Neelakanti

So far, sales of Ecosapiens have reached about $100,000 and offset more than 2,500 tons of carbon dioxide, the equivalent of about 100,000 trees planted. The community around the project also has impressive numbers, with more than 16,000 members in its Discord server with follower counts on Instagram of about 37,000 and 22,000 on Twitter.

The Ecosapien NFTs grow into different stages as the owner sequesters more carbon, Neelakanti explained. The first stage, called minting, is initiated with a connection between the NFT and a carbon brokerage that’s working for a soil-regeneration project in Kenya, he said.  

While an average person may be unaware of carbon credits and how they function, Neelakanti said the greenhouse gas acts as a bridge between the NFT on the Ethereum blockchain. “The carbon credits are an asset,” he said. “They’re actually a commodity for which there’s intrinsic value, and we’re just disguising those credits as art.”

Carbon credits haven’t been historically easy to purchase and they can’t compete with recent investment returns like the 18 percent to 20 percent seen in recent yield farming DeFi apps, Neelakanti said. “But we need consumers to actually participate in that market because it’s a world-positive commodity,” he said. “Flipping the narrative around carbon credits and turning them into digital art allows people to derive community and culture from it.”

Neelakanti then showed me his Ecosapien character, which has an ID, the amount of carbon that’s been sequestered (almost two years’ worth) and the certificate of proof. It’s been issued to his digital wallet by Ecosapiens, which includes a verification standard and type of project which altogether comprises the carbon credit.

“What you’re doing [with your Ecosapien] is financing a particular project—[in this case] a northern soil carbon project that’s improving soil management,” Neelakanti said. “They’re actually seeping more carbon into the soil, making it richer for both plants and animals.”

An evolved Ecosapien

Beyond soil, Ecosapiens are planning a jellyfish project that will help finance growing seagrass.

But make no mistake, Ecosapiens aren’t charity. You’re buying an asset. It just so happens to be one that’s hoping to help change the world for the better. One way the company is making that asset more accessible is by partnering with corporations that are already purchasing carbon.

“Tom’s is buying carbon, Patagonia is buying carbon, Tesla gets to issue carbon credits, but I actually don’t think people understand what 28 tons of carbon means,” Neelakanti said. “What does 100 tons of carbon mean? If you abstract that away to a very fine piece of art that people recognize as a standard, then perhaps it improves your brand’s ability to signal you’re doing something positive. We have two pilots that we’ll be announcing soon, and it’s a pretty exciting area for us in corporate sustainability.”

He continued, “Companies make sustainability pages, but oftentimes it’s just, ‘Hey, we have a sustainability page.’ We’re saying, make it a point of pride. We’re commissioning you an art piece that’s sequestered real-world carbon that you can then put in front of your customers. You can put it in your stores, you can put it on your walls, and you can put it in your offices so your employees can see it.”

The company also envisions its corporate, co-branded integrations as a way to build community. “I was walking by Adidas the other day in Soho and their entire wall right now is plastic-free shoes,” Neelakanti said. “Nike’s whole thing right now is they want to be the net zero shoe company. Imagine if you got your net-zero Nike shoe and it came with an Ecosapien digital art piece as well. In that way, not only is Nike offsetting its carbon footprint, they’re actually able to give their customers a piece of that impact, too. We can commission the piece for the brand, but then they can fractionalize it or open-edition it for their customers.”

Ecosapien’s co-branded community building isn’t just limited to the real world. They’re also actively pursuing metaverse tie-ins, with the hopes of bridging the gap between the digital and physical realms through eco-friendly initiatives.

“We’re currently evaluating in-game carbon sequestering assets,” Neelakanti said. “Roblox has an audience of 60 percent teenage girls. That segment also has the highest climate anxiety and the most climate awareness. If we can make $1 or $2 skins, packs, or instruments that offset carbon really easily and symbolize you’re making a difference, that could be a really exciting play for us. You could just be adding flowers to your digital house and also growing flowers in the real world. In-game assets, along with corporate integrations, are the two big things we’re exploring this year.”