How Digital Art Can Help the Earth

November 15, 2022

Check out our video (2:42) to hear how CO2ign is helping both artists and the environment, or read on below!

Art: Xin Ling Teng
Video: Elizabeth Veeneman
Music: TOMAS SKYLDEBERG / Summer Vibe / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Update Nov 15, 2022: we’ve updated the percentage of each sale that goes directly to the artist. Some numbers relating to carbon credits have not been updated yet in the video.

Q: Could buying digital art benefit the climate?

In 2021, people spent $41B buying NFTs


If that money had been spent on CO2ign Art, it would have done the work of 2.5 billion trees, reducing the entire world’s CO2 emissions by almost 7%.

…Not to mention the hardworking artists that would’ve gotten paid for their creations

CO2ign kid working on tablet

Q: What is CO2ign Art?

person enjoying artwork purchased on CO2ign Art

Like other online marketplaces, CO2ign gives visitors the ability to buy artwork from their favorite digital artists.

Unlike other marketplaces, there’s no physical product. Instead, the buyer gets a digital image file with a digital signature, making their purchased image file uniquely theirs – and, of course, their purchase helps supports an artist.

But that’s not all


Every sale makes a positive impact on the environment


How? We use 30% of every purchase to buy carbon credits, and that adds up fast!

For example

one carbon credit represents
one ton of CO2

a typical car
emits 4.6 tons of CO2 per year

that’s equal to
one $125 purchase
from a CO2ign artist

…and with digital art, there’s no energy cost from shipping; a double win for the environment!

Q: What makes an image unique?

When an image is purchased on the site, we use our (patent-pending!) process to add an encrypted signature into the image file’s metadata. The signature is specific to each sale, and acts as proof of purchase.

The signature contains the name of the artist, the buyer, and the specific CO2 reduction project your purchase helped fund.


Speaking of proof: signatures can be verified by anyone with the image file by uploading to our validation tool.

(We also use standard digital signing technologies and will provide our APIs to anyone who wants to decrypt and verify the signature themselves.)

The carbon credits are also retired on Verra’s public directory, so you can see a record of every project supported. (We’re big fans of transparency.)

CO2ign Art person and cat watching their potted plant


And while the signature doesn’t prevent an image from being downloaded or copied, it does verify that the signed image was purchased from our site. Why does that matter?

We know art theft is a big concern in the online art community

we review every artist on signup, to confirm that any image we sign was uploaded by the same person it was created by.

and no bots allowed.



Q: Did the NFT boom actually generate $41B?

Debatable.

but even a small portion
of that amount could make

a big difference

CO2ign is for everyone who creates art, loves art, and loves the earth – and we’d love to have you!

Sign up today
to join the community, and
collect art like there is a tomorrow

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