Counting Every Tonne: How Planetary Measures Its Net Carbon Removal

In order to understand and quantify its impact on the world, Planetary conducts a lifecycle analysis (LCA) to account for the greenhouse gas emissions that occur as part of its carbon removal activities. Since most of our economy is still based on fossil fuels, it is impossible to avoid emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere. However, Planetary removes much more than it emits and the LCA calculation is what determines how much more.

Using its LCA, Planetary adds up all the emissions for a project, converts them to equivalent amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2e), and subtracts that amount from the amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere resulting from Planetary’s activities. For example: imagine Planetary’s activities remove 120 tonnes of CO2 (tCO2) from the atmosphere but emit 15 tCO2e while doing it. The actual change is 120 – 15 = 105 tCO2 removed.

A foundational piece of an LCA is what is known as the system boundary: a list of all inputs, outputs, and processes that represent the project. The existence of a project has various impacts on the world and the system boundary captures the scope of those impacts. All materials and activities that fall within the system boundary are accounted for, including the emissions embedded in the materials used by the project. For example, while a piece of steel may not actually contain CO2, a certain amount of CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) is required to mine the raw ore, smelt and refine it, then ship it to the location where it will be used. Planetary’s LCA is cradle-to-grave, meaning it accounts for all of the emissions from the raw materials extraction all the way to the use and disposal of those materials.

Planetary tracks its emissions in six different categories: alkalinity production, alkalinity transportation, site operations, waste disposal, personnel travel & accommodations, and the embedded emissions of the project site.

Alkalinity production concerns the preparation and packaging of the alkaline material for transport and use on our site. 

Alkalinity transportation covers the entire journey the alkalinity takes from its origins in Spain to its arrival on site in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.

Site operations and monitoring covers the dosing activity and the MRV activities, which are used to quantify the amount of CO2 removed by the project. All of the material handling, equipment operation, environmental monitoring, and scientific analysis are tracked for emissions.

Waste covers disposal of the leftover packaging and other miscellaneous waste generated on site (garbage, etc). These waste materials are removed from site and either recycled or taken to landfill.

Personnel travel and accommodation covers flights, car rentals, etc required for the project.

Finally, the embedded emissions refer to the emissions required to manufacture and transport the equipment comprising the project site as it is used over the lifetime of the project. For example, the mixing tank, pumps and hoses all required the emission of GHGs.

The following table shows how much each of these categories contributes to Planetary’s overall emissions for the dosing activity from January 30, 2026 to August 15, 2026:

The dosing activity that took place during this same time period, requiring these 374.2 tCO2 of emissions, resulted in approximately 3,478.4 tCO2 being removed from the atmosphere. In other words, Planetary’s Tufts Cove project removes almost nine times more than it emits!