Forget about price. What’s the true cost of Non-Fungible Tokens?

Today, proof-of-work blockchain networks consume enormous amounts of energy, resulting in large amounts of carbon emission. NFTs currently rely on this technology. A typical NFT has a footprint of 200 Kgs of CO2, the equivalent of a two-hour flight. The more an NFT is traded, the more blockchain transactions are created, the higher price we all pay - a vicious blockchain reaction.

The David Suzuki Foundation, a Canadian non-profit environmental organization, partnered with us to create a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork designed to help preserve our one-of-a-kind planet: “The Nature Friendly Token”, a multibillion-dollar subversive NFT designed never to be sold.

We infiltrated the NFT marketplace, intercepting our target right at the source. Our NFT showed creators, buyers and sellers that digital actions still have real world consequences, prompting them to seek lower-emission crypto alternatives and proof of stake platforms.

In March of 2021, the press were fixated on the outrageous prices of NFTs, fuelling their popularity and usage. From a $387,000 virtual Lebron James highlight on NBA Top Shot to a $70 million ‘digital masterpiece’ by digital artist Beeple, people fixated on the prices while ignoring the true cost.

To reach our target right at the source, we minted and registered the "Nature Friendly Token" on Rarible, an NFT marketplace. This Ethereum-based platform facilitates the creation, sale, and purchase of ownership rights to digital works of art.

We integrated ourselves directly into the community of creators, buyers, and resellers in order to target and intercept them to generate awareness of the environmental impact. By consciously investing carbon, we took a measured risk to reach them and explain that their digital actions have real world consequences.

This NFT shows the flip side of the digital coin. With the help of Canadian visual artist MCPHERSO, the design of the Nature Friendly Token offers a bold commentary on the value of blockchain technology, juxtaposed against the incredible cost of our most precious natural resources, like Canada’s Boreal forest (which represents $50.9 billion per year in natural benefits). This informed the exorbitant pricing of 25,000,000 ETH which was approximately $50 billion CAD at the time of minting - a large enough number to draw attention and curiosity on the platform and in the press.

After it went live on the platform, we used PR and social media to launch the effort to the media who so eagerly were highlighting and fuelling the behaviour in the first place.

The David Suzuki Foundation's core belief is preservation, and by subversively utilizing NFT technology, we utilized a platform in a way that had never been done before, and doing it for the good of the planet.