The Charm Underground - October 2024

The Charm Underground  is a monthly series sharing our progress & learnings as we scale carbon removal to gigatonne scale. If you’d like to get The Charm Underground  in your inbox, subscribe below. 

Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) is a hot topic in carbon removal. Historically, both suppliers and registries were incredibly opaque and delivered dubious carbon accounting. Fixing this is what motivated us to start Charm -- so it’s no surprise that excellent MRV and transparency is a key part of our operations here! In August, we delivered the first-ever Isometric verified carbon removal to Stripe, Shopify, and JP Morgan. This month, we’re sharing the inner workings of Ledger, the system we’ve built to collect, monitor, and report on net removals, conform to registry protocols, and measure and model emissions with the latest climate science.

Introducing Ledger: A System for Reliably Monitoring & Reporting Biomass Carbon Removal at Scale

We often get asked, “How can a carbon removal supplier reliably monitor and report on removal operations that can be independently audited?” Charm has been working on answering that question for years, and we’re excited to share our approach to digital MRV, with the hope that others can use our learnings to shape their approach and avoid some common pitfalls. After all, we want to see more high-quality carbon removal in the world!

Read more about the "MRV problem" we set out to solve with Ledger, how we run Ledger and MRV to ensure high-quality removals, and our plans for gigatonne scale MRV.

⛰Welcoming Senator Michael Bennet to Our Colorado Miniforge

Last week, the Charm team welcomed Senator Michael Bennet along with Christina Burri and Amanda West Fordham from the Colorado State Forest Service, to our Fort Lupton facilities for a tour of Charm’s Colorado Miniforge. Senator Bennet has long championed policies to confront climate change and support forest health in Colorado, and we’re proud to have been able to showcase Charm’s scale up efforts addressing wildfire risk, improving forest health, and permanently removing carbon from the atmosphere. 

Thanks for stopping by Charm, Senator Bennet!

👷🏽‍♀️Meet the Charmers Series – Introducing Eldon Chou & Jess Hogan! 

What brings a CRISPR gene editing scientist at the cutting edge of cancer research to Charm? How might we be able to genetically enlist plants in the climate fight? What are some of the key challenges in scaling a workplace & team in a first-of-its-kind company? 

Get to know some of Charm’s powerhouse talent as we feature team members Eldon & Jess this month on “Meet the Charmers”. Learn more about their journeys into the carbon removal space, the challenges they’re most excited to work on, and interests/hobbies outside of work!

💻✨New Wildfire Prevention & Resources Pages 

We’re thrilled to unveil the launch of two new pages:

• Wildfire Co-Benefits: Discover more about our work with the National Forestry Foundation and Altitude Forestry on how working with Charm reduces wildfire risks and protects communities in fire-prone areas.

• Resources: Learn more about high-quality carbon removal through our library of event videos, white papers, and blog posts.

Happy browsing! 💻📲

🎤ICYMI: Charmers on the Big Stage

Team Charm reporting from the field! This month, our team was invited to share learnings at New York Climate Week and Carbon Unbound:

• Charm @NYCW: Hear from Harris Cohn, Head of Sales at Charm Industrial, as he speaks at New York Climate Week and discusses how carbon removal projects will reshape the planet to achieve Net Zero.

• Charm @Carbon Unbound: Dream team alert 🚨Kevin Niparko, Head of Product & MRV, and Nora Cohen Brown, Head of Market Development & Policy, repped Charm this week at Carbon Unbound to discuss key CDR trends and all things carbon removal policy.

  Photo credits: Carbon Unbound and New York Climate Week

What Charmers Read This Month

• Ars Technica’s piece on how the UK will have no coal-fired power plants for the first time since 1882.

• Financial Times’ article on the UK pledging £22bn in funding for carbon capture and storage projects.

• WSJ’s piece on oil companies trying to persuade Trump not to slash provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act.

• Carbon Herald’s piece on US Steel becoming the first steel company to offer Responsible Steel Certified Steel from its Big River facility in Osceola, Arkansas.

• Nan Ransohoff’s quick carbon removal demand math.

• The Government of Canada commits to purchase carbon dioxide removal services to green government operations and achieve net-zero emissions.

• MIT Technology Review’s piece warning the US must do more to boost demand for carbon removal.

• Carbon Herald’s piece on Morgan Stanley IM setting up a $750 Million fund to invest in carbon removal and reduction.

• Road to 10 Gigatons’ CDR emulator – a carbon removal scale-up game.

• FedScoop’s news on The White House announcing intent to appoint eight individuals to the body responsible for governing the National Science Foundation.

• Transport Topics’ piece on The U.S. Supreme Court letting the Environmental Protection Agency move ahead with its stringent new emissions limits for power plants.

• Berkeley News on a new type of porous material called a covalent organic framework that quickly sucks up carbon dioxide from ambient air.

• The Wall Street Journal’s article on Climeworks & Morgan Stanley Inking a 40,000-Ton Carbon Removal Deal.

• Carbon Herald’s piece on Microsoft’s Marine CDR Deal With Ebb Carbon.

And that’s a wrap for October! Make sure to subscribe to get The Charm Underground in your inbox every month.