Separating Carbon Accounting and Offsets
Ryan Miller, VP & GM of Private Markets at Persefoni, on building an ERP for carbon
This shows Persefoni wanted to be the system of record for emissions, not a broker getting paid when customers choose to neutralize them. In practice, that means one product calculates a company’s footprint and reduction path, while a separate partner handles sourcing and purchasing credits. That separation matters because the accounting tool is the place where a company decides how much to reduce, how much remains, and whether any residual emissions should be offset at all.
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Persefoni positions its core job as turning messy operating data, fuel, electricity, shipping, materials, into an auditable CO2 ledger for CFOs and sustainability teams. Offsets sit later in the workflow, after measurement, target setting, and reduction planning, so keeping them outside the core revenue model reinforces the company’s accounting first identity.
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Patch is built for the opposite side of the workflow. It aggregates project supply, lets buyers build credit portfolios, handles contracting, and adds monitoring and legal protections around the underlying credits. Patch itself makes the same structural argument in reverse, that an exchange should not also be the verifier or the party deciding how much a buyer ought to offset.
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The broader market was already splitting this stack into specialist layers. Nori described Persefoni as complementary to carbon removal providers, while competing more directly with Patch. That is the emerging shape of the category, accounting platforms estimate the footprint, marketplaces and suppliers fulfill the residual demand for removals or credits.
This points toward a more modular carbon software stack. The long term winners are likely to be trusted systems of record on one side, and trusted transaction and project quality networks on the other. As climate disclosure gets more audit driven, the separation between measuring emissions and selling compensation should become a feature customers expect, not just a partnership choice.