Getting started as an individual buyer

All quality assessments on CarbSet are currently provisional. This means scores have not yet been independently verified by an external assessor. A Provisional badge is shown wherever a grade appears.

What you will learn

This article walks you through your first purchase on CarbSet, from finding a credit you trust to sharing proof of your offset. By the end you will know how to browse listings, estimate your own emissions, complete a purchase, and download a certificate you can publish.

CarbSet is built for people who want to look closely before they buy. Every listing carries a quality signal, and every purchase produces a certificate that shows exactly what you bought.

Steps

1. Browse the marketplace. Open the marketplace and use the search bar to describe what you want in plain language, for example "reforestation in East Africa with community benefits". You can also narrow results with the filter panel on the side: quality grade, price, vintage year, country, and registry.

2. Read the Trust Card on each listing. Every credit shows a compact Trust Card with a grade badge and a composite score. Open a listing to see the full Trust Card, which breaks the score into five dimensions and links to the evidence behind each one. Take your time here. The grade is the whole point of CarbSet, so learn to read it before you spend. See Reading Trust Cards.

3. Estimate your footprint (optional but recommended). Open the calculator and enter your Scope 1 and Scope 2 activity, such as fuel use and electricity. The calculator returns an estimate in tonnes of CO2e and suggests credits that match your result. Your estimate is saved to your carbon profile so you can track how much you have offset over time.

4. Choose a quantity and buy. On a listing detail page, set the quantity you want and select Buy. You will move to a checkout page showing an order summary and the price in the listed currency. Confirm the terms and complete payment. CarbSet processes card payments through Stripe.

5. Download your certificate. Once your payment settles, CarbSet issues a certificate with a unique code and emails it to you. Open your purchases to download the PDF at any time. The certificate states whether your credits are purchased and held or retired, so your claim is always accurate.

6. Share it on LinkedIn. Each certificate has a public share page with rich preview metadata. When you post the link on LinkedIn or X, it renders as a card showing the project, the quantity, and the grade badge. This is an honest, verifiable way to show the impact you have funded.

Key concepts

• Purchased vs retired. A credit is purchased when you buy and hold it. It is retired when it is permanently cancelled so you can make an offset claim. Your certificate always shows the current state, so never describe held credits as retired.

• Quality grade. Credits are graded on a financial-style scale from AAA (best) down to D (worst). The grade comes from five equally weighted dimensions. A higher grade means stronger evidence that the credit does what it claims.

• Provisional scores. During this phase of CarbSet, quality scores are marked provisional wherever a grade appears. Read the grade as a considered estimate, not an independently verified rating.

• Your carbon profile. The calculator builds a running picture of your emissions and how much you have offset, so CarbSet works as an ongoing dashboard rather than a one-off tool.

Related articles

• Reading Trust Cards
• Understanding quality scoring