Commodity Discovery Engine? What is that?
Basis Point Earth is an environmental commodity discovery engine on climate tech startups. By scoring 300+ climate tech startups through my own BPE-CRI methodology, I identify which technologies can successfully transition into high-quality high-integrity tradeable assets.
How do I know these startups? I have spent the last 6+ years at a US DoE national research lab, a philanthropy backed startup accelerator, a large climate tech accelerator, and running Scope 123 decarbonization at a VC-backed climate tech startup. I worked directly with/at some of these startups, helped select and onboard some into accelerators, some of them are my peers, and many that I have admired from close quarters. Every room taught me the same thing: the gap between a startup’s projected environmental impact and one that can actually generate a tradeable commodity is enormous. And almost nobody is tracking it over a long period of time.
So I built the instrument: a scored, structured, API-queryable dataset. Startup by startup, query by query.
Over the last few months, I monitored the signals, flagged methodology changes, and updated the scores as markets evolved. I mapped each startup’s methodology strength and data infrastructure against shifting compliance cycles.
Today I got help. My AI agent, Alphie, learns from the corpus and markdowns, tracks relevant alt data on environmental commodities and indexes forward-looking alpha signals. The dataset will keep growing. So will the methodology. That's the whole point.
This dataset is built for anyone trying to close that gap between potential and tradeable. Startups working to unlock their first commodities and understand which markets they can access. Accelerators and advisory firms helping them get there. Investors screening for commodity revenue readiness before committing capital. Brokers and trading desks positioning across voluntary and compliance markets. And corporations sourcing verified assets they can actually defend.
The first tier is free; the signal is not.
Methodology Teaser
Basis Point Earth - Commodity Readiness Index (BPE-CRI) measures a climate tech startup's readiness to generate monetizable environmental commodities. Key performance indicators: Environmental Commodity Potential, Data Readiness, Methodology Strength, Impact Scale, and Market Access Complexity.
Scores auto-classify startups into three readiness tiers, from Tier 1 (credit-ready) to Tier 3 (early stage). BPE-CRI scores evolve over time based on company, market, and methodology events. Importantly, BPE-CRI assesses commodities monetization readiness specifically. It does NOT measure general company quality, pure environmental impact, or investment returns.
What the BPE-CRI is NOT:
It is NOT a climate tech startup quality score or investment rating. A Tier 3 company might be an excellent investment but a commodities poor play. It is also NOT an environmental impact score. Blue Frontier has one of the highest impact potential in the cohort but was Tier 3 in 2021 because it was pre-revenue with no data. Also, it does not predict financial returns. It is a forward-looking signal for commodities monetization readiness, which is just one revenue stream among many for these climate tech startups.
Market events the dataset tracks across 2021-2025:
CA LCFS Price Trajectory, IRA Passage, 45Q Expansion, IRA 45Z, Article 6 Rules, VCM Integrity Crisis, WCI Price Rise, RGGI Price Rise, EU ETS, CORSIA Pilot Phase, VM0042 Update, LCFS Pathway Expansion, Kigali Amendment HFC Phase-Down, Buy Clean Policies and Building Performance Standards
Forward looking for Alphie to index watchdog:
EU CBAM, New York Cap-and-Invest Program Launch, California Cap-and-Invest Extended, Canada Federal Benchmark Review, Canada Oil and Gas Emissions Cap, OBBBA, EPA GHGRP Reconsideration, DOE Emissions Intensity Study, VCM Convergence/ICVCM CCP Expansion, LCFS 2026 Regulatory Reform, SBTi Scope 3
