CarbonCure Climate Strategies

One of the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE Grand Prize winners CarbonCure Technologies is enhancing the sustainability of the cement and concrete industry! The company has already produced a total of more than 7 million truckloads of lower carbon concrete (enough to completely fill the AT&T Stadium in Texas with concrete 13 times over)! 🤯 🏗️ Cement manufacturing accounts for an estimated 7% of the world’s CO2 emissions. CarbonCure is empowering concrete producers to achieve the industry’s net zero commitment by 2050 through tech that permanently stores captured CO2 in concrete through carbon mineralization. 🙌 “We signed up for the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE motivated by the spirit of competition and a vision for how we might leverage the financial winnings to grow our success. In hindsight, we never imagined the extent of our resulting trajectory from making global headlines as an XPRIZE winner. Not only did this title accelerate our growth across North America, it fueled our entry into new markets.” - Pradeep Krishnamoorthy, Senior Director of Hardware & Product Development at CarbonCure Technologies 🌎 CarbonCure has continued to make a big impact since winning the NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE. The company has been able to scale its core technology, CarbonCure Ready Mix, which is available in nearly 800 concrete plants in more than two dozen countries. 📈 The company has also been able to surpass 464,000 metric tons of carbon savings from their technologies, equivalent to removing more than 110,000 gas-powered cars from the road for a year. ✖️ Krishnamoorthy said, “XPRIZE has validated the reality that carbon utilization can and should play a key role in both global climate goals and mitigation of hard-to-abate emissions. Through XPRIZE, there is broader acceptance of CO2 not just as a waste stream, but also something that can be used to make valuable products and reduce emissions in the process.” 💡CarbonCure has more projects on the horizon. The company will continue to ramp up the deployment of their proven climate technologies, further innovate to enhance their systems that permanently remove and reduce CO2, and accelerate their growth in international markets. To learn more about CarbonCure’s work, visit here. https://lnkd.in/eVn7kGs

I’m generally an optimistic person, which is essential to work in climate, but the last few weeks (months...years?) have felt like smashing my head against a wall repeatedly. Specifically, in the carbon markets. The debate on purity vs. pragmatism in corporate decarbonization is exhausting, and SBTi's recent pre-guidance guidance on carbon credits has intensified this tired debate. I won't belabour the widespread disappointment with SBTi's most recent report, already well articulated by many (Nathan Truitt, Jennifer Jenkins, Tommy Ricketts), because I really don’t care that much. Why? Because more back and forth isn’t the answer. Immediate, bold actions—even if imperfect—are. The best part of my job is speaking with innovators, climate leaders and doers across a huge variety of organizations in complicated, ‘real-economy’ industries. Some organizations have SBTi targets, and some have dropped them, but they all share one thing: they want to take action now. But it’s hard. These companies, voluntarily taking action despite potential media scrutiny or academic criticism, understand that it requires iterating on today’s decarbonization levers while advocating for the systemic changes needed to hit net-zero targets (i.e. solving for the often overlooked G in ESG: effective Governance structures). Some are struggling to measure their emissions for the first time, others are pushing for budget approvals for climate mitigation projects, and a few are leading the way with flexible approaches to value chain decarbonization that will be invaluable for those further behind in their transition journeys. And you can find examples of orgs in each of these buckets who are doing it without an SBTi target. At CarbonCure, we applaud those companies and governments joining us on our mission to help decarbonize the built environment and make low-carbon materials the industry norm. The challenges are immense, but the climate crisis demands urgent, pragmatic steps—not endless debates and half-measures. We believe in learning as we go, not solving problems with rigid rules before we even know what they should look like. Instead, we advocate for immediate, impactful actions, such as: - Purchasing high-quality carbon credits to compensate for existing, residual emissions today, helping to grow the deployment of solutions and drive down green premiums - Co-innovating new market-based mechanisms to efficiently and flexibly scale tomorrow’s solutions - Requiring or requesting lower carbon materials for all new construction projects At the end of the day, it’s imperfection that drives progress. Imperfect solutions lead to more perfect solutions. Let’s not fall prey to the Nirvana Fallacy. If you’re committed to rejecting analysis paralysis and taking bold, practical actions in the built environment, we should chat. Even more importantly, if you've made it to the end of this diatribe and disagree, I'm even more eager to speak. My inbox is always open.

Kudos to DOE's Fossil Energy and Carbon Management for publishing the comprehensive Responsible Carbon Management Initiative Principles for carbon management project developers to ensure their projects achieve the highest levels of safety, environmental stewardship, accountability, community engagement, and societal benefits. This thoughtful document serves to help align the expectations of carbon buyers, project developers and end users of carbon products, such as concrete with CO2 mineralization. Via the principles here: https://lnkd.in/eiBgpWeJ

The #XPRIZECarbonRemoval team recently had the opportunity to visit Heirloom's cutting-edge direct air capture (DAC) facility in Tracy, CA. Heirloom, a pioneer in low-cost DAC technology, developed an innovation that accelerates the natural process of capturing CO2 from the atmosphere to form limestone in just days, enabling the permanent removal of CO2 at a billion-tonne scale. This scalable and cost-effective solution is crucial for significantly reducing atmospheric CO2 levels and combating climate change. During the visit, the team observed operations by CarbonCure Technologies, Heirloom's partner in carbon storage. CarbonCure injects and permanently stores CO2 through mineralization in concrete materials, which are then used to build local infrastructure. This collaboration not only enhances Heirloom's carbon removal capabilities but also contributes to sustainable construction practices. Led by CEO and Founder Noah McQueen, Heirloom is guided by a commitment to sustainability, fair labor practices, and community engagement. McQueen's dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion ensures that the benefits of this pioneering technology are accessible to all, supporting a more inclusive and equitable energy economy. Heirloom and CarbonCure's partnership exemplifies how innovative technologies and responsible practices can work together to create meaningful change for our planet's future. To learn more about how XPRIZE Carbon Removal finalists are rebalancing the carbon cycle through their groundbreaking solutions, check out our blog here. https://lnkd.in/gDjTiPaR