This page explains the core terms and object relationships you will encounter throughout the ekko Climate API. Read this before diving into integration guides or the API reference.

Footprints

ekko estimates two kinds of environmental footprint for a transaction:

• Carbon footprint: the estimated greenhouse gas emissions, in CO₂e.
• Nature footprint: the estimated biodiversity impact, in Mean Species Abundance (MSA).

The two are independent dimensions, and each quote covers one of them. For what each footprint measures and how it's calculated, see Footprinting.

Contributions and credits

The ekko Climate API uses two terms when referring to how funds reach environmental projects: contributions and credits.

Contributions

A contribution funds high-quality environmental projects that deliver positive outcomes, for example reforestation, biodiversity conservation or ocean plastic prevention. Contributions aren't tied to the estimated emissions of a single transaction. They support broader sustainability goals instead.

In contexts where you don't need to distinguish between the two, "contribution" is used as the general term for any funds directed to environmental projects.

Credits

A credit is a unit of verified carbon reduction or removal, measured in CO₂e. Consumers can purchase carbon credits to address the estimated greenhouse gas emissions associated with a transaction.

Credits fund independently verified climate projects, such as those that prevent emissions through renewable energy or remove emissions through reforestation. The goal is to let consumers and businesses take credible action on their footprint without suggesting that emissions are "cancelled out".

How ekko is structured

The ekko Climate API organises entities into a hierarchy. Understanding this hierarchy helps you map your own business structure to the API.

Organisations

An organisation represents a real-world business using ekko, such as a bank, payment provider, orchestrator or merchant.

Organisations can be nested to reflect how your business operates in practice. A parent organisation can create and manage child organisations, for example to represent different regions, entities or merchants, while keeping everything connected under a single structure.

Your top-level organisation is onboarded by ekko. From there, you can onboard and manage any child organisations you need. This keeps access, configuration and reporting consistent.

📘

Inherited settings

Child organisations inherit a number of settings from their parent by default. You can override these by providing specific details during onboarding.

Impact partners and projects

An impact partner is a verified organisation that delivers environmental projects. When a consumer makes a contribution or purchases credits, the funds are directed to projects run by one or more impact partners. The allocation depends on how the commercial partner has configured their integration.

Each impact partner runs one or more projects, typically focused on a specific type of environmental impact. Some operate across multiple countries, while others concentrate on a single region.

For a full list of current impact partners and details on their projects, see Impact projects.

Consumers

A consumer is the end user whose transactions interact with ekko. Consumers can view the estimated environmental footprint of their purchases and choose to purchase credits or make contributions to verified projects.