Carbon Business Council Launches: Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 19, 2022 | PDF Available
Carbon Business Council Launches to Create a Seat at the Policy Table for More Than 40 Leading Carbon Management Startups
--CEOs of Founding Member Companies Are Inaugural Signatories of the Ethical Oath to Restore the Earth, Establishing a New Standard for Responsible Growth--
Washington D.C. -- The Carbon Business Council (CO2BC), a nonprofit trade association of more than 40 leading carbon management startups with combined assets of more than $100 million, launched Tuesday to advocate for early-stage companies focused on removing, utilizing, and managing carbon dioxide. The 42 founding member companies are market leaders with diverse carbon management approaches. CO2BC also includes observers to strengthen connections between startups and carbon removal investors, nonprofits, and other stakeholders.
Many CEOs and leaders of founding member companies are inaugural signatories of the Oath to Restore the Earth, establishing an ethical standard for growing the carbon management industry responsibly. Invoking long standing medical and legal oaths, the Oath to Restore the Earth builds alignment around a set of principles, including that removing emissions should work in tandem with mitigating them. CO2BC is inviting all carbon management professionals to uphold the ethical oath.
“From the printing press to penicillin, entrepreneurs have a history of approaching challenges with a problem-solving set of eyes. Because reversing climate change will require multiple solutions coming from both startups and policymakers, we’re launching the Carbon Business Council to bring innovators to the policy table,” said Ben Rubin, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of CO2BC. Board members of CO2BC include Zane McDonald, Co-Founder of CO2BC and Executive Director of the Open Hydrogen Initiative; Ken Alex, Director of Project Climate at UC Berkeley; Maggie Cutts, Director of Partnerships with Prime Coalition; and Susan Su, Investment Partner with Toba Capital.
CO2BC launches just ahead of the Energy Department’s Carbon Negative Shot Summit, focused on DOE’s “all-hands-on-deck call for innovation” to store carbon dioxide at gigaton scales for less than $100 a metric ton, a threshold viewed by economists as the dollar amount that makes carbon removal commercially viable. Startups are leading the way in bending the technology cost curve for carbon management by incubating affordable and scalable solutions.
CO2BC is technology neutral, in recognition that reaching gigaton levels of carbon removal at cost-effective prices will require multiple innovations in removal and management. CO2BC’s founding members bring a wealth of diversity to carbon management, from the range of approaches to geographic locations. Startups working to reverse climate change are invited to learn more about CO2BC membership. A snapshot of CO2BC’s founding members:
Stripe, Microsoft, Shopify, and other major corporations have made carbon removal purchasing commitments from CO2BC’s founding members to help companies achieve their net zero and net negative climate pledges.
Founding members have received multiple awards and accolades, winning for the XPRIZE Carbon Removal Challenge and Earthshot competition. Companies have also been participants in leading accelerator programs, including Y Combinator and LaunchPad.
Twenty percent of CO2BC’s founding member companies are founded and led by women.
Founding members are geographically diverse, with headquarters ranging in location from Oklahoma, to Canada, to Germany. Thirty-four percent of CO2BC’s Founding Member companies are international and companies are operating across six continents.
Scientists globally have reached consensus that the world needs to remove and manage gigatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, working in tandem with mitigation. Founding members bring a range of promising solutions to remove, manage, and utilize climate pollution. Approaches include managing the alkalinity of the ocean so that it can store carbon dioxide, launching marketplaces to more efficiently connect carbon removal buyers and sellers, injecting carbon dioxide inside cement, and many more.
The Carbon Business Council has a webinar scheduled for July 26 to debut information about upcoming initiatives, which includes publishing a white paper on voluntary carbon markets, launching the Carbon Fix newsletter, and advocating for the CREST Act (bipartisan legislation introduced by Senator Collins and Cantwell and endorsed by CO2BC). The launch of the Carbon Business Council was applauded by multiple organizations including OpenAir Collective, AirMiners, Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University, Ocean Visions, ClearPath, and the Direct Air Capture Coalition.
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Carbon Business Council (CO2BC), a member-driven and tech-neutral trade association of companies unified to restore the climate, is the preeminent industry voice for carbon management startups.
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Quotes
"We're thrilled to support the Carbon Business Council as a founding member. Start-ups will drive the majority of innovation required to decarbonize the atmosphere. Alone, we're easy to miss, but working together we're hard to ignore." Jonas Lee, Chief Commercial Officer, CarbonCapture Inc
“We are excited to be one of the founding members of the Carbon Business Council. The ability to collaborate with others in this association will be extremely powerful and we look forward to all that will come out of the Carbon Business Council.” Kristin Skelton, Development Associate, Carbon Upcycling Technologies
"DroneSeed is proud to be a founding member of the Carbon Business Council and contribute to its work toward building modern, science-based policies that will support the growth of carbon removal accounting, from reforestation to direct air capture." Grant Canary, CEO, DroneSeed
“To unleash the creative power of industry and solve global climate change requires that companies work in concert with policymakers, scientists, and the public to build shared understanding and responsible plans for the deployment of climate-relevant scale carbon removal solutions. At Phykos, we are grateful for the opportunity to partner with the Carbon Business Council and our entrepreneurial peers on this challenge.” Nico Julian, CEO, Phykos
“TerraFixing is proud to be part of the Carbon Business Council. We believe that removing CO2 from the atmosphere is critical to meeting net-zero targets and going beyond to repair the planet. TerraFixing has signed the Oath to Restore the Earth in solidarity with others in the carbon management industry.” Dr. Sean Wilson, CEO & Founder, TerraFixing Inc
“Scaling carbon removal from a few thousand tons to gigatons annually in a matter of decades will not be the job of any one company, or of any sole technology, or of any individual government. It will take active and effective collaboration across the broader market ecosystem to build a sector able to achieve ambitious international goals, and the Carbon Business Council will have a core role to play in that effort. The Direct Air Capture Coalition applauds the CO2BC upon its launch and is eager to partner towards our shared goals." Jason Hochman, Senior Director & Co-Founder, Direct Air Capture Coalition
“Emission reversal science can be challenging, and fundraising is even harder, but by far the biggest effort that lies ahead is getting the world aligned on what our collective response to the climate crisis will be. We believe getting all of the carbon management companies together through the Carbon Business Council is an important step in building that alignment.” Arin Crumley, CEO, Pull to Refresh
"The future of our economy and planet rests on the ability for policymakers and private markets to enable carbon removal companies to reach scale. Many of the largest companies in the U.S. have already set world-leading net zero targets to end our contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, but now we need the policies in place to scale solutions that can make these net zero pledges a reality.” The Carbon Business Council aims to do just that and we are all in with them.” Philip-Michael Weiner, Founding Partner, Recapture
"Today there is a mismatch between words and action. New removal options are being developed here in the US, but we need to scale up these solutions. We look forward to partnering with others in the Carbon Business Council to make this a reality. " Chris Knop, CEO, Carbon Sequestration Inc
“CACTO is delighted to join the Carbon Business Council as a founding member, and looks forward to connecting with other mission-aligned companies and individuals. At CACTO we have a simple approach to CO2: reduce to a minimum and remove the unavoidable. Startups are ready to lead the way.” Jesus Chavez, CEO, CACTO
“Captura is a California-based startup founded in 2021 utilizing a unique Direct Ocean Capture approach to offer low cost carbon removal using only renewable energy and ocean water as inputs. We see industry collaboration as a critical element of effective climate action and are pleased to join the Carbon Business Council in working to enable rapid and widespread deployment of carbon removal.” Maya Kashapov, Business Development, Captura
“Impactful action will only be possible with widespread and deep-rooted collaboration. As a new industry, we need to build an army of people and companies, diverse in their approaches, but united in shared principles and a dedication to tackle the climate crisis in a meaningful way.” Hannes Junginger-Gestrich, CEO, Carbonfuture
“The world is in a climate crisis, and carbon removal is an essential part of the solution. Kita's focus is developing insurance for this market - which we believe is a crucial enabler to help drive capital and allow quality carbon removal projects to scale. However, partnership, policy and support are key to moving this industry forward at speed, and that is why we are so thrilled to be a founding member of the Carbon Business Council." Natalia Dorfman, CEO, Kita
"Carbon Blade is excited to be part of the Carbon Business Council and thrilled to see entrepreneurs and start-ups with novel ideas take on the challenge of dealing with excessive atmospheric carbon dioxide. The longer we delay, the harder this problem will be to fix, and it is important to start somewhere. The Carbon Business Council provides connections and a forum for sharing knowledge to the benefit of all." Daniel J. Soeder, Co-Founder, Carbon Blade
“Woonderlands is set on a mission to sequester one gigaton of CO2 per year through enhanced weathering from rock powders applied to tropical soil. We look forward to collaborating with others in the carbon management industry as a founding member of the Carbon Business Council.” Niklas Kluger, COO and Co-Founder, Woonderlands