This is CDR

​OpenAir is excited to present This Is CDR, an online event series that explores the wide range of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions currently being researched, developed, and deployed, and discusses them in the context of policies OpenAir seeks to form and advance at every level of government in the U.S., as well as in national and subnational jurisdictions globally.

​This week we are excited to welcome Stacy Kauk and Neil Hacker of Isometric. https://isometric.com/

​Neil Hacker leads Research and Partnerships at Isometric, the leading carbon removal registry. His work involves working with suppliers and building out a suite of high quality protocols for crediting in pathways like Enhanced Weathering, BiCRS and DAC. In his role, he spends a lot of time thinking about how Isometric can leverage high quality monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) to build trust and demand in the voluntary and compliance carbon markets.

Stacy Kauk is Isometric's Head of Science. This includes ensuring that rigorous science underpins all of Isometric’s carbon crediting decisions and that the Protocols and Modules are in line with the Isometric Standard. Stacy was previously Head Of Sustainability at Shopify where she was responsible for building Shopify’s $55M+ CDR portfolio and was a founding member of Frontier. She also serves on the advisory boards of Carbon Removal Canada and Collaborative Fund, a venture capital firm. She has a background in environmental engineering and public policy, with 20 years of experience working at the intersection of science and regulation in both the private and public sectors.

​Join us for a discussion of what Isometric does, how Isometric is different from other registries with their focus on scientific rigor, transparency, aligned incentives, and speed, what quality means when it comes to carbon credits, and Isometric's modular approach to protocol development and what protocols have launched recently.

​This Is CDR is back!

​OpenAir is excited to present This Is CDR, an online event series that explores the wide range of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions currently being researched, developed, and deployed, and discusses them in the context of policies OpenAir seeks to formulate and advance at every level of government in the U.S., as well as in national and subnational jurisdictions globally.

​This week we are pleased to welcome Anu Khan of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative.

Link: https://www.carbonremovalstandards.org/

​In the fall of 2022, Carbon180 published its guide to high accountability MRV, CDR industry stakeholders met in San Francisco to discuss the state of standardization, and scientists convened in Rhode Island to consider the technical and social underpinnings of MRV in open systems like the ocean. Since then, interest in MRV has exploded, with events, panels and workshops all over the world. And Anu Khan (former Deputy Director of Science & Innovation at Carbon180) has been going around to those events asking: What are standards? Where do standards come from? And whose job is this anyway?

​18 months of research on the carbon removal ecosystem, extensive industry interviews, and case studies from other emerging industries has led to the launch of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative (CRSI). CRSI is a new nonprofit initiative focused on bringing rigor and accountability to the CDR sector through the uniquely powerful mechanism of regulatory standards. In today's episode of This Is CDR, Anu explains what CRSI does, why they focus on policy, and how they work with partners across the CDR ecosystem.

​Anu founded CRSI in early 2024 while an Entrepreneur in Residence at Carbon180. She previously led the Science & Innovation team at Carbon180. Prior to Carbon180, Anu worked in climate philanthropy at Founders Pledge. Her academic background is in electrochemistry and materials science.

In this episode This Is CDR is pleased to welcome Deep Sky Chief Carbon Scientist and Head of Engineering Dr. Phil De Luna to discuss how the company is building large-scale infrastructure in Canada to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at an unprecedented rate.

Deep Sky: https://www.deepskyclimate.com/

​​About Dr. Phil De Luna:

​​Dr. Phil De Luna is renowned scientist and carbontech innovator, responsible for building Deep Sky Labs. Previously, Phil was a Sustainability Expert at McKinsey & Company. With a PhD in Materials Science & Engineering and a Masters in Chemistry, he has published 50+ papers in high impact science journals. A Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient in 2019, Phil was also a finalist in the $20M Carbon XPRIZE.

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In this episode we are pleased to welcome Graphyte's CEO Barclay Rogers and CTO Dr. Hannah Murnen to discuss how the company's Carbon Casting process offers carbon dioxide removal that is permanent, affordable, and immediately scalable.

Graphyte: https://www.graphyte.com/

​About Barclay:

​Barclay Rogers is a seasoned executive with extensive carbon experience, including leading business development efforts for Indigo Agriculture (agricultural soil carbon removals) and overall development activities for C12 Energy (geologic carbon sequestration). Barclay holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge, an LLM from the University of Arkansas, a JD from Lewis & Clark college, and a B.S in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Arkansas.

​About Hannah:

​Dr. Hannah Murnen is a proven leader in developing and scaling industrial technologies. She served as Managing Director of Activate Anywhere and Chief Technical Officer at Compact Membrane Systems. Hannah also spent several years with McKinsey and Company, advising industrial companies on growth strategy and operations. Hannah holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California Berkeley and a Bachelor of Engineering from Dartmouth College.

This week we are pleased to welcome Dr. David Hughes of Penn State University to present his work with PlantVillage and discuss how we can advance biochar carbon removal to gigatonne scale.

​PlantVillage: https://plantvillage.psu.edu/

About David:

​David Hughes is the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Global Food Security at Penn State University and Director of USAID Innovation Lab on Current and Emerging Threats to Crops. David is additionally founder of PlantVillage; the for-profit enterprises Carbon4Good and PlantVillage+; and the Village Youth Fund. PlantVillage is a public good research enterprise at Penn State that leverages AI to help smallholder farmers adapt to climate change and leverage their farms to mitigate climate change via AI. PlantVillage is one of the fifteen teams to have won an XPRIZE Carbon Removal Milestone Award and is now competing for the Grand Prize. PlantVillage has developed a digital monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system which is available to co-development partners including Biochar Life, Carboneers, and others via PlantVillage+ and the company's Biochar App.

In this episode This Is CDR is pleased to welcome Teresa Hartmann and Ted Christie-Miller from BeZero Carbon to present and discuss the company's work as a carbon ratings agency, and how independent, risk-based, project-level ratings can help build the market trust necessary to scale high-quality CDR.

​About Teresa:

​Teresa Hartmann is the Chief Ratings Officer at BeZero Carbon. Teresa has extensive experience in scaling carbon market development, transparency, and integrity. Before joining BeZero, Teresa led market formation for the ICVCM and helped develop the Core Carbon Principles. Teresa also held roles at WEF, UNEP, and a national park in Africa, as well as authored key reports on nature and climate finance such as WEF’s Nature and Net Zero report.

​About Ted:

​Ted Christie-Miller is Director of Carbon Removal at BeZero Carbon, a global carbon ratings agency. Ted joined BeZero in October 2021. Prior to BeZero, he founded and led the bipartisan Getting to Zero climate policy programme at the thinktank Onward. Ted regularly writes in the national media on the topics of climate and carbon markets and is a regular speaker at carbon events around the world.

​About BeZero Carbon - https://bezerocarbon.com/

​BeZero is a carbon ratings agency. Its ratings and risk products equip world-leading organisations with the knowledge, tools and confidence to make better climate decisions. Its aim is to scale investment in environmental markets that deliver a sustainable future.

In this Episode we welcome Holocene Co-Founder and CEO Anca Timofte to present and discuss the company's novel low-temperature DAC process which leverages organic chemistry for scalable and affordable CDR.

Holocene: https://theholocene.co

​ABOUT ANCA:

​Anca Timofte serves as Holocene’s CEO, having started Holocene from her Stanford GSB dorm room after 8 years of experience designing & developing DAC facilities at Climeworks. Originally from Romania, Anca holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Environmental Engineering from Washington University. She earned a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from ETH Zurich and completed her research thesis at Stanford University. She completed a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University focused on climate technology deployment and climate finance with an emphasis on carbon dioxide removal.

In this Episode This Is CDR welcomes Robert Höglund back to the program to present and discuss CDR.fyi's recently released 2023 Year in Review and other key CDR market developments.

CDR.fyi: https://www.cdr.fyi/

​About Robert:

​Robert Höglund is an advisor in carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and climate impact. He manages the charitable Milkywire Climate Transformation Fund, co-founded the CDR market overview CDR.fyi, works with the NGO Carbon Gap, and writes reports and articles on carbon removal and corporate climate contributions. He is also a member of the EU Expert Group on Carbon Removals (observer status), and of the Science-based Target Initiative's (SBTi) Technical Advisory Group.

​This week Toby and Megha welcome Dan Maxbauer and Sean McCauley from Alkali Earth to present and discuss the company's novel process which delivers high-quality, permanent, and verifiable CDR through optimized application of alkaline industrial minerals in gravel roads.

Alkali Earth: https://www.alkali.earth/

​About Dan:

​Dan Maxbauer is Alkali Earth's Co-Founder and Science Lead. Dan is an Assistant Professor of Geology at Carleton College and has expertise in mineral weathering and carbon cycling along with past experience consulting on carbon removal methodologies and project review with Verra, Frontier Climate, and XPRIZE.

​About Sean:

​Sean McCauley is Alkali Earth's Co-Founder and Business Lead. Sean is a Carleton College geology alumnus, PhD geochemist from Cal Berkeley, and has spent a long career working in consulting and private equity with large corporations such as McKinsey, TPG Capital, Target, and Charles Schwab.

In this episode Toby and Megha welcome Rory Brown and Jasper Wong from Airhive to present and discuss the company's novel DAC process which employs fluidisation to dramatically accelerate the mineralization of atmospheric CO2.

Airhive: https://airhive.earth/

​About Rory:

​Rory Brown is Co-Founder and CEO of Airhive. Rory is an experienced manager and strategist who has delivered over £200M in overseas programmes for the UK government. Rory brings leadership and delivery expertise to rapidly scale Airhive’s technology.

​About Jasper:

​Jasper Wong is Co-Founder and CTO of Airhive. Jasper is a PhD research engineer from Imperial College London with a background in decarbonisation. He holds a BA and MEng from the University of Cambridge. Jasper brings scientific and engineering expertise to Airhive’s technology.