Earth Day 2024: Businesses Shine in Climate Action

As Earth Day approaches this Monday, April 22, 2024, we’re reminded of our planet’s vulnerabilities and the pressing need for concerted action against climate change. This call to action becomes even more poignant following the recent solar eclipse, an event that, for a brief moment, shifted many people’s focus to the skies and to our place in the environment.

Businesses Take the Lead with Environmental Management Systems

It’s clear that businesses of all sizes have a pivotal role to play. By adopting robust environmental management systems, companies can not only mitigate their environmental impact but also enhance their operational efficiencies and brand reputation. Platforms like Way We Do offer critical support in this area, providing the tools necessary to integrate sustainable practices into the fabric of daily business operations.

An Environmental Management System (EMS) can be structured around various environmental standards, each designed to help organizations minimize their ecological footprint while complying with regulations and improving efficiency. One of the most recognized standards is ISO 14001, which provides a framework for continuous improvement in environmental performance.

Create your Environmental Management System (EMS) with Way We Do. Book a meeting to learn more.

Part of the subscription cost of Way We Do is donated to initiatives such as the Stripe Climate fund. This is more than just a contribution; it’s an investment in our collective future. Way We Do is one of the early customers supporting carbon removal purchases through Frontier — a program designed to act as an early backer of promising new technologies aimed at durable carbon removal. This initiative involves a collaboration with scientific experts to ensure that the solutions supported are both viable and impactful.

Frontier’s Impactful Contributions

In its third round of carbon removal purchases in September 2023, Frontier facilitated a staggering $7 million worth of investments across 12 innovative companies, including Airhive, Alkali Earth, and CarbonBlue, among others. These contributions, supported by notable buyers like Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey Sustainability, are pivotal in scaling technologies that promise to sequester CO₂ for over a millennium.

Additionally, Stripe has furthered research and development by providing significant grants to companies like Carboniferous and Rewind, aiming to foster groundbreaking technologies that can revolutionize our approach to climate change.

A Diverse Array of Solutions

The selected companies from Frontier’s latest cohort are exploring a variety of unique approaches to carbon removal. From using photo-excitable molecules to extract CO₂ from seawater to enhancing the carbon absorption capacity of rivers with minerals, these technologies are as innovative as they are diverse. The geographical spread of these companies and their deployment sites — ranging from rice paddies in India to desalination plants in Israel — illustrates a global commitment to finding localized solutions to a global problem.

Here’s a glimpse into some of the cutting-edge technologies and methods being developed across the globe:

1. Airhive (London, UK)
   Direct air capture technology using a geochemical approach with a fast-reacting sorbent to capture atmospheric CO₂ in a fluidized bed reactor, aiming for low-cost and efficient CO₂ sequestration (943 tons).
2. Alkali Earth (Northfield, MN, USA) 
   Enhanced weathering technique using alkaline industrial byproducts as carbon-absorbing road gravel, simultaneously enhancing road durability and capturing CO₂ (1,351 tons).
3. Banyu Carbon (Seattle, WA, USA)
   Innovative direct ocean removal that uses sunlight-activated molecules to capture and degas CO₂ from seawater, offering an energy-efficient removal method (360 tons).
4. Carbon Atlantis (Munich, Germany)
   Utilizes an electrochemical pH-swing process for direct air capture, pairing it with mineralization for durable CO₂ storage in construction materials (275 tons).
5. CarbonBlue (Haifa, Israel)
   Engages in direct ocean removal using a calcium-based closed-loop process to extract and permanently sequester CO₂ from both freshwater and saltwater sources (400 tons).
6. CarbonRun (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
   Enhances riverine carbonate chemistry to naturally capture atmospheric CO₂ and transport it to oceanic sinks, boosting river ecosystems and their carbon capture capacity (1,291 tons).
7. EDAC Labs (Baltimore, MD, USA)
   Applies electrochemical processes to recover metals and capture CO₂, with the end products contributing to both environmental and economic gains (317 tons).
8. Holocene (Knoxville, TN, USA)
   Employs organic molecules in a two-step process to capture and crystallize CO₂ from air, with a focus on low-energy, high-efficiency operations (332 tons).
9. Mati (Houston, TX, USA)
   Utilizes silicate rock dust on agricultural fields to facilitate CO₂ weathering, storing carbon in local watersheds and eventually the ocean, providing co-benefits to smallholder farmers (1,513 tons).
10. Planetary Technologies (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada)
    Ocean alkalinity enhancement through the introduction of alkaline materials to natural and industrial water flows, permanently sequestering CO₂ as bicarbonate (937 tons).
11. Spiritus (Los Alamos, NM, USA)
    Direct air capture using a low-energy, high-performance sorbent, with innovative regeneration processes aimed at cost reduction (713 tons).
12. Vaulted Deep (Houston, TX, USA)
    Implements biomass carbon removal and storage by injecting organic waste into durable geological formations, leveraging a novel slurry technology (1,666 tons).
13. Arbon (New York, NY, USA)
    Direct air capture employing a humidity-swing process that uses less energy than temperature and pressure-based systems (173 tons).
14. Vycarb (Brooklyn, NY, USA)
    Enhances ocean alkalinity using a controlled dissolution system to safely increase water alkalinity and capture atmospheric CO₂ (58 tons).
15. Carboniferous (Houston, TX, USA)
    Biomass carbon removal and storage sinking agricultural residues in anoxic ocean basins to prevent decomposition and effectively sequester carbon (0 tons reported, ongoing experiments).
16. Rewind.earth (Tel Aviv, Israel)
    Utilizes a unique method of sinking biomass to the anoxic depths of the Black Sea to ensure slow decomposition and durable carbon storage (0 tons reported, ongoing development).

As we look towards Earth Day and beyond, it’s evident that every business can contribute meaningfully to our planet’s health through strategic investments in technology and sustainable practices. The recent solar eclipse serves as a reminder of our planet’s fragile beauty and the urgent need to protect it. By supporting initiatives like Frontier and integrating environmental management systems into our businesses, we are taking significant steps towards a more sustainable and hopeful future.

This Earth Day, let’s reflect on our impact and the powerful changes we can make when we commit to acting boldly for the sake of our planet.