Research
The Institute publishes working papers and framework documents as research progresses — not only when it is complete. Rigour without closure. All outputs are published openly and submitted to SSRN for citation.
Active research threads
Green Economy Standards
Working paper
Green Economy Standards Stack v0.2
Four-layer architecture for structural green economy compliance. SDG-complete across all 17 goals, including those where organisational impact is negative. Deferred liability hardened — designed to identify transition risk that current ESG frameworks miss.
Carbon Accounting
Framework document
Carbon Repair Accounting & Governance Annex
A governance and accounting framework that treats carbon repair as a first-order financial obligation — not an offset, not a target, not a disclosure. Built for integration into capital allocation rules and board-level governance structures.
Supply Chain
Standards document
Supplier Capital Alignment Standard
A framework for assessing whether supplier capital structures are compatible with ecological ceilings — identifying suppliers whose business model depends on continued regulatory non-enforcement.
Capital
Decision tool
Investment Classification Framework
Lane A / Lane B decision tool. Lane A capital is viable under full ecological ceiling enforcement. Lane B capital depends on continued extraction or regulatory arbitrage. The framework identifies the boundary and provides governance rules for each lane.
Macroeconomics
Empirical research
GDP Decoupling Research
Empirical analysis of the conditions under which economic growth and ecological throughput have decoupled historically, the limits of those conditions, and the policy implications for transition planning. Submitted to SSRN on completion.
Publication approach
Working papers are published on this site and submitted to SSRN — free, immediate, and citable before academic peer review. Targeted outreach to specific researchers and policy practitioners follows publication.
Academic journal submission is the long-term destination once empirical grounding is established. The Institute does not rush outputs toward journals prematurely. A working paper that is useful and honest is better than a journal submission that is premature.
Key framework positions
Carbon repair accounting treats the obligation to repair historical carbon damage as a first-order financial liability — comparable to a debt on a balance sheet — rather than a voluntary offset or a disclosure target. Under this framework, an organisation's carbon repair obligation is calculated, accrued, and governed at board level, with independent verification. This is fundamentally different from carbon offsetting, which allows organisations to purchase credits that may represent speculative, double-counted, or abandoned projects. The Kardashev Institute's Carbon Repair Accounting and Governance Annex provides a formal methodology for calculating this obligation and integrating it into capital allocation rules and board governance structures.
The Investment Classification Framework divides capital into two lanes based on a single test: is this investment viable under full ecological ceiling enforcement? Lane A capital is viable under full enforcement — its business model does not depend on continued extraction, pollution, or regulatory arbitrage. Lane B capital depends on continued extraction or on regulators not enforcing ecological limits; it carries structural transition risk. The framework provides governance rules for each lane, including disclosure requirements, capital allocation limits, and board-level accountability. It is designed for use by investment committees, pension trustees, and corporate boards making capital allocation decisions compatible with the green economy transition.
The Kardashev Institute's GDP Decoupling Research provides empirical analysis of the conditions under which economic growth and ecological throughput — the total flow of energy and materials through an economy — have genuinely decoupled historically, and the conditions under which apparent decoupling is the result of measurement error, carbon leakage, or structural accounting choices. The research examines policy implications for transition planning: specifically, whether growth-compatible transition is achievable under realistic ecological constraints, or whether transition planning must account for degrowth scenarios in specific sectors. Findings will be submitted to SSRN on completion and targeted to policy practitioners and academic researchers working on transition economics.