Charm Industrial Could Add up to 200,000 Jobs to US Economy by 2040

The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report estimates that we need to move roughly 6 billion tons of carbon out of the atmosphere every year by 2050. That’s a lot of mass. Global shipping moves a similar volume: 11 billion tons of goods in 2021. To reach this scale, carbon removals will require a massive workforce. But where will that workforce come from? What experience and skills are going to be most necessary?

As we’ve started delivering permanent carbon removal via bio-oil sequestration, we’ve been privileged to work with folks who bring incredible experience and skills honed in other industries to this new sector.

Today, we’re delighted to share three of these stories, as well as the results of an economic impact study completed by external economists.

Jen is a former petroleum geologist, now Charm’s carbon removal geologist. It’s been incredible watching her bring methodical rigor to bio-oil sequestration. You can read and watch her story here.

Caleb worked in farming and oilfield services, now working on Charm’s injection field operations. Making bio-oil sequestration work in the real world is always full of surprises. Caleb makes it happen. You can read and watch his story here.

Adam built electrical and construction skills on wind farms and cell towers, and is now one of Charm’s pyrolysis operators. I couldn’t have asked for a better teacher on how to operate our pyrolyzer a few months back. You can read and watch his story here.

As we scale up bio-oil sequestration in the years and decades ahead, we’ll need to rapidly grow our field operations team. Folks like Jen, Caleb and Adam are the core of a team and industry that will need to grow 70%+ every year for the next 20–30 years to prevent the worst effects of climate change.

To put more detail on that, we’re also announcing today a new third-party study that shows the economic opportunities and impacts that Charm can have at scale. Charm’s permanent carbon removal process requires skills from agriculture, manufacturing, oilfield services, logistics and more. We see it as a huge opportunity to grow the economy, in the very heart of the country.

A study conducted by economists at ICF identified that Charm’s planned activities would create 20,000 direct and indirect jobs and $2B in GDP by 2030, with the potential for both to increase by 10x—that’s more than 200,000 jobs and over $20B in new GDP by 2040. The report breaks down these job impacts by sector, and delves into the potential secondary impacts of job creation at Charm—outlining the economic growth that can happen in the communities where Charm works. Charm is excited to be investing in the American heartland, and will provide new economic opportunities to workers in their communities using the skills they already have.

One of the highlights of this study is the extent to which Charm will be able to bring workers from across industries into the growing climate tech economy. Charm’s purchases of inedible biomass residue will deliver economic benefits into both the agriculture and forestry sectors, to the tune of 20,000 jobs by 2036. As we spin up pyrolyzer production, we’ll also create thousands of jobs in manufacturing and tens of thousands of jobs in equipment repair. And as we scale our injection activities, we’ll be creating thousands of jobs for workers with drilling, subsurface and oilfield operations expertise carried over from fossil fuel based energy sectors.

We expect that these jobs will be created across the US: from California and Colorado, where we’re headquartered, to places like Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and other states with agricultural and forestry residues alongside orphan oil & gas wells—where the vast majority of our operations and hiring will happen.

Jen, Caleb, and Adam’s stories highlight the ways that they’re applying their skills in a growing industry and what that transition has been like for them. We can’t scale what we’re doing without leaning on the expertise of existing industries. We’re excited to provide opportunities in a new industry, and we hope you’ll join us!