To assess your project, we need two things — no Portal account required:
1. Engineering report
IPMVP-certified or requivalent, covering the retrofit equipment installed, baseline (pre-project) utility performance, and projected post-project performance. A 10-year forecast is ideal; if one isn't available, we'll assume constant performance.
2. Project financials
Capital costs, estimated O&M savings, and any grants or direct utility/government incentives received. Spreadsheets or existing financial reports are fine as-is — we'll extract what we need. (We calculate your energy savings for you, from projected utility performance.)
From there, we check emissions performance and run the financial analysis — free, with no obligation. If your project qualifies, we'll walk you through next steps, starting with listing it on the Ontoly Portal.
Ontoly turns greenhouse gas reductions from building retrofits into revenue for building owners. Through the Building Emissions Reduction Standard (BERS), eligible retrofit projects in Canada and the U.S. earn Building Emissions Reduction Units (BERUs) — tradeable carbon credits backed by real, metered utility data, not estimates. Ontoly manages the entire process on your behalf: assessment, validation, verification, issuance, and finding your buyer.
Every BERU has to prove "additionality" — that the emissions reduction wouldn't have happened without carbon credit revenue. We run two tests, so every credit we issue can withstand scrutiny from buyers, auditors, and regulators.
1. Regulatory Surplus Test: does the retrofit go beyond what's already required by law?
Your project must exceed existing legally binding requirements, or represent an approved compliance mechanism in an approved jurisdiction. If your building faces Building Performance Standard (BPS) fines — like NYC's Local Law 97, or similar programs in Vancouver, Toronto, and other cities — those fines don't automatically disqualify your project. Per the BERS Standard, BPS compliance fees are treated as a financial input in the test below, not as an automatic pass or fail on their own.
2. Financial Additionality Test: would the retrofit make financial sense without carbon revenue?
We run a standardized Net Present Value (NPV) analysis of your project — capital costs, incentives, energy savings, operating costs, and any avoided BPS compliance fees — over the 10-year crediting period. Your project passes if that NPV is negative without carbon revenue: in other words, the retrofit wouldn't pencil out on its own. Projects that pass are rated 1–5 based on payback period, from Lower Additionality (a fast payback the project could likely fund on its own) to Very High Additionality (deep financial barriers that carbon revenue is essential to clearing).
This assessment is run once, at your free eligibility check, and stays fixed for your entire 10-year crediting period. Only the pass/fail result and rating are ever shown on the public Registry — your underlying financial data stays confidential.
Credit value: typically $75–150 per tonne CO₂e, depending on market conditions and project co-benefits.
Crediting period: 10 years of annual credit issuance following retrofit completion.
Example: 500 tonnes CO₂e/year × $150/tonne × 10 years = $750,000 in potential revenue over the crediting period.
Send your engineering report and project financials — no account needed. We check emissions performance and run the financial analysis, free of charge.
Once your project is eligible, create your Ontoly Portal account and list it. Buyers can find and pre-commit to it immediately.
Ontoly hires an independent validator to confirm your project's eligibility, emissions calculations, and financial additionality — the checks behind every credit we issue.
Once the retrofit is complete, submit post-retrofit utility data annually. An independent third-party verifier audits it each year for 10 years.
Once verified, your BERUs are issued to your Portal account — a serialized instrument tracked by year and quantity.
Credits are reserved, sold, and transferred to buyers through the Portal. Unsold credits can be retired toward your own reporting.
Baseline criteria below — additional eligibility and project-specific conditions may apply, confirmed during your free assessment.
1. Send your engineering report and project financials for a free eligibility assessment — no account or commitment required.
2. Once your project qualifies, create your Ontoly Portal account and list it to start buyer matching.
A Building Emissions Reduction Unit is a carbon credit representing one tonne of CO2e reduced through a certified building retrofit — issued, tracked, and retired on the Ontoly Registry.
Every BERU is quantified from measured utility data, not models or estimates, and traces to a specific building and retrofit — no mega-project aggregation.
Building owners, managers, retrofit engineering firms, and consultants with eligible retrofit projects under the BERS Program. Check eligibility on the program page.
Voluntary offsetting, green building certification offsets (LEED v5, Zero Carbon Standard), and — subject to jurisdictional approval — compliance under emerging Building Performance Standards.
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