Please describe your company and its contribution to hitting the Net Zero target.
UNDO exists to scale nature-based technologies that permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere. We believe that by harnessing nature-based carbon removal technologies, we are able to have an outsized impact on climate change. Our 1st technology is Enhanced Weathering, the acceleration of natural rock weathering, a geological process which locks away billions of tonnes of CO2 over hundreds of thousands of years. We partner with global organisations to source and spread basalt, enabling us to scale well beyond our own four walls. We have developed an internal R&D and external scientific advisory board that is at the cutting edge of EW, helping us co-develop the first verification process for EW. We are also scaling operations. By late 2022 we will be the largest CDR project in the UK and aim to be the largest in the world in 2023 by volume removed. Our Emerging Technologies Team is already looking at other nature-based processes we are able to scale in a similar way in future.
Describe how your business is combating challenges within carbon removals? Why will your solution help to scale the permanent carbon removal industry further?
It's widely understood that to have a chance of reaching the IPCC guideline of removing 10 billion tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year by 2050, the CDR industry must uncover and scale new technologies that are not currently being delivered at scale. This is UNDO's focus, to take naturally occurring carbon removal processes that are not yet commercialised or operationalised at scale, and focus on taking them through the carbon removal commercialisation process, from MRV and methodology development through to commercial scale, including the development of proprietary inventory management software to aid with the carbon accounting process. Through the development of these carbon removal technologies and the software that enables their scaling, UNDO is aiming to empower other operators and project developers to scale these technologies in unison to hit IPCC targets.
Please describe the main challenges you are encountering in scaling your business.
The key steps for the scaling of a carbon removal solution are having an approved MRV (measurement, reporting, verification) process in-line with a verification standard, in order to generate credits that can be purchased by mainstream businesses, whilst simultaneously delivering operational volume whilst reducing our operational costs to remove a tonne of carbon. Once these three areas are aligned; approved credits at a considerable volume and affordable price for the market, this will lead to the natural scale with a growing demand for effective carbon removals. For enhanced rock weathering, developing an approved MRV approach is the key challenge. UNDO is still working to complete an approved MRV approach, which we are confident at delivering over the next 6 months, although there is the potential that greater innovation in the remote sensor space will be required for this to be delivered optimally.
To the best of your knowledge, what is the emissions reduction potential of your company? (Please think about both your own activities, and the impact of your activities on other companies, people or organisations.)
UNDO's aim is to scale to remove 1 billion tonnes of CO2 permanently from the atmosphere by 2030. We believe that we have the potential remove 1 billion tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year through the scaling of enhanced rock weathering.