Who Is Carbon Title?

Miles Haladay and Trevor Dryer came to us the way most tech startups do: with a product idea they needed help turning into a reality. That idea was the world’s first building decarbonization platform. Through an easy-to-interpret dashboard, contractors, developers, and building owners can understand their buildings’ CO2 emissions, and through the platform’s marketplace, they can buy and apply carbon credits to achieve carbon neutrality. Blockchain technology is then used to enforce transparent, verifiable, and traceable decarbonization.

Uncovering Priorities & Reducing Risk

We had worked with both of Carbon Title’s co-founders before (on separate projects) and were excited to be their technology partner again. The first step to getting their platform built was to conduct a discovery phase, in order to clarify requirements and use cases. Lightweight solution wireframing, a technical design proposal, and a deployment plan followed. Through this process, we learned we could deliver the product using a phased approach, which would allow us to start with the highest priorities and test technical assumptions. Our goal was to get an MVP in front of the Carbon Title team as quickly as possible, in order to get their feedback and encourage questions.

Getting to MVP

One of the first things we built for the MVP was the carbon calculator, which was designed to estimate the embodied and operational carbon of individual buildings. Once we had that in place, we enabled users to add buildings, which includes entering attributes like building materials, usage, square footage, and landscaping.

This data is then recorded on a public blockchain database—creating a permanent record for each particular building. As we built the MVP, the Carbon Title team realized this necessitated a workflow where the user could first create a “draft” building, allowing them to try different attributes and carbon estimates before “publishing” it to their portfolio and making a permanent record on the blockchain.

Beginning Beta

Once the MVP was up and running, we helped Carbon Title iterate on the feature set and added the ability to use data from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) reports, which are reports produced by a third party company about a building’s environmental impact, and which some users may prefer to use over the proprietary carbon calculator. So now, there are two paths for adding a building: using Carbon Title’s calculator or using LCA report data.

We also built out the marketplace, where users can buy and apply carbon credits to their buildings. Once the core concept was in place and proven to work, we began introducing the features users expect from any polished SaaS application, such as user onboarding, a welcome tour, and the ability to invite team members.

Beta & Beyond

After we completed the beta version, Carbon Title was not only able to launch the product, but also open it up to a wide set of users for testing and feedback. We’re continuing to work with their team on future releases to extend and enhance the platform.

Overall, this has been a rewarding project. We appreciated the level of trust Carbon Title had in us and the freedom they gave us to run the development process as we saw fit. The founders said, “We were most impressed with Olio Apps’ flexibility and prototyping skills. They also demonstrated a keen understanding of what it’s like to build a new product.” It’s been great to work on a project that has the potential to impact the planet in a tangible, meaningful way.