Sustainability Report

1. Introduction

Sustainability is at the core of Speedy Staking’s strategy and purpose. This means we choose the most sustainable option whenever possible and over-compensate whenever a service is not carbon-neutral. Additionally, we support initiatives that reduce the global carbon footprint and help improve people’s lives in vulnerable communities by supporting sustainable development.

We do this by:

1. Minimising our footprint or the impact on the environment of human activity in terms of pollution, damage to ecosystems, and the depletion of natural resources¹;
2. Maximising our handprint or the actions one takes to positively impact the climate, over and above reducing one’s own carbon footprint².

One speaks about climate positive or net-positive if a handprint is larger than a footprint.

This report will continuously be updated, providing proof in the form of reporting of our sustainability efforts. If you want to look at our general sustainability efforts and what projects we support, you can look here.

2. Our servers

Speedy Staking operates a total of 7 servers. All of our servers run on 100% renewable energy³.

The servers’ manufacturing, transportation and end-of-life carbon contributions(for a typical server) come to a carbon footprint of approximately 8358 kgCO2e over their expected lifetime of 4 years⁴.

This equates to a monthly carbon footprint of 8358 / 48 = 174.125 kgCO2e.

3. Other

3.1 General / Office

Home office and general business operations amount to circa 200 kgCO2e per month.

3.2 Web hosting

Speedy Staking’s website is hosted on servers that use 100% renewable energy, and the hosting provider uses 100% renewable energy for its offices. Additionally, they support green initiatives⁵.

3.3 Travel

3.3.1 Next Block Expo 2023

Carbon emissions for Speedy Staking’s visit to Next Block Expo in Warsaw come to a total of approximately 1573 kgCO2e. This consists of the following aspects:

• Travel (plane): 1323 kgCO2e
  • Base numbers of 410 kgCO2e(LIS < – > WAW) and 80 kgCO2e (BUD < – > WAW) have been used⁶.
  • An RFI(Radiative Forcing Index) of 2.7 has been used⁷.
• Other (taxi/hotel/etc.): ~250 kgCO2e

4. Gold Standard projects

Because of our dedication to a sustainable world, we have chosen to offset through Gold Standard projects specifically. These projects not only help protect the planet from the effects of climate change but also help improve the lives of people in vulnerable communities by supporting sustainable development.

The project we support helps achieve the following UN Sustainable Development Goals⁸:

5. Footprint / Handprint

5.1 Footprint

Speedy staking has a fixed total measurable footprint of approximately 374.125 kgCO2e per month. The carbon footprint of the hardware required for web hosting is unknown but expected to be minimal compared to the dedicated servers used for running validator nodes.

5.2 Handprint

Speedy Staking retires 2 tonnes of CO2e monthly by supporting a Gold Standard project. This number will increase as Speedy Staking’s operations increase in size. This document will be updated with a link to the retiring of carbon credits every month.

1 tonne per month

• November 2022 retiring
• December 2022 retiring
• January 2023 retiring
• February 2023 retiring
• March 2023 retiring
• April 2023 retiring

2 tonnes per month

• May 2023 retiring
• June 2023 retiring
• July 2023 retiring
• August 2023 retiring

5.3 Net Positive

Speedy Staking currently has a Carbon Net Positive of 2000 – 374.125 = 1625.875 kgCO2e per month, based on its fixed carbon footprint. This is equivalent to approximately 15000km driven in a new car⁹.

6. Sources

1. OxfordLanguages, "Oxford Languages and Google", accessed on November 17, 2022, https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en.

2. Go Climate Positive, "What Is a Carbon Handprint?", accessed on November 17, 2022, https://go-positive.co.uk/what-is-a-carbon-handprint.

3. Worldstream, "Our Data Centers", accessed on November 17, 2022, https://www.worldstream.com/en/about-worldstream/our-data-centers.

4. Dell, "PowerEdge R240", February, 2019, https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/CorpComm_Docs/en/carbon-footprint-poweredge-r240.pdf.

5. Vimexx, "Maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen", accessed on November 17, 2022, https://www.vimexx.eu/maatschappelijk-verantwoord-ondernemen.

6. Carbon Footprint, "Flight carbon footprint calculator", accessed on May 2, 2023, https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3.

7. IPCC, "Aviation and the Global Atmosphere", accessed on May 2, 2023, https://archive.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/sres/aviation/index.php?idp=64.

8. Gold Standard, "20 MW BIOMASS POWER PROJECT AT GODAWARI POWER AND ISPAT LIMITED, CHHATTISGARH", accessed on November 17, 2022, https://registry.goldstandard.org/projects/details/621.

9. European Environment Agency, "CO2 performance of new passenger cars in Europe", September 26, 2022, https://www.eea.europa.eu/ims/co2-performance-of-new-passenger.