EDITOR’S NOTE [9.4.2023] — We’ve moved from Medium to Substack! You can follow along and learn about all things Terraset over there.
We’re excited to introduce Terraset, a 501(c)(3) that helps climate-conscious individuals, foundations, family offices, and donor advised funds support high-quality carbon removal.
Patagonia made headlines a few weeks ago, and if you care about the climate, you probably know why. Lifelong environmentalist and self-proclaimed reluctant businessman Yvon Chouniard announced that the company’s profits would be used to fight climate change.
This move was huge, and a fitting one for the company behind Don’t Buy This Jacket, The President Stole Your Land, and One Percent for the Planet.
We also hope it’s a harbinger of a growing movement: climate philanthropy.
We need to throw everything at climate. Policy, corporate action, venture capital, philanthropy — we need it all. Climate philanthropy has attracted more attention and capital lately, which is great. But at less than 2% of total giving, it can do so much more. And a small percentage of that already small amount goes to carbon removal, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said is crucial in limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050.
We need to increase climate philanthropy drastically, and with it, the amount that goes towards supporting carbon removal.
We started Terraset to help do that.
“Deploying carbon dioxide removal at gigaton-scale is crucial. Terraset is helping drive philanthropic capital towards the projects that’ll make it possible.“
— Andrew Beebe, General Partner at Obvious Ventures
We need permanent, high-quality carbon removal, now.
Getting to net zero requires both massive emissions reduction and carbon dioxide removal at gigaton-scale. The latest IPCC report makes this abundantly clear: in addition to decreasing carbon dioxide emissions by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, we have to remove 5–10 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year by 2050. Carbon removal won’t reverse climate change alone, but we can’t fix the climate without carbon removal.
The good thing is, the carbon removal industry is attracting attention, capital, talent, and policy support. The Inflation Reduction Act introduced new, expanded incentives for carbon capture and storage. Funding for carbon removal companies is growing exponentially. Exciting new projects and startups are launching at an incredible rate.
But building and deploying carbon removal solutions is expensive, especially when volume is low. Businesses need customers to purchase these removals in their early stages so they can scale up and bring costs down.
“Removing 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide in the next 15 years is possible, but it’s hard. We need organizations like Terraset to lead the charge in driving early demand, so we can scale up, drive costs down, and hit our aggressive global climate targets.”
— Shashank Samala, CEO of Heirloom
Introducing a new tax-deductible vehicle for carbon removal.
As a 501(c)(3), we pool tax-deductible donations and make strategic purchases of high-quality carbon removal from vetted, high-potential projects. We don’t get credits or offsets in return (and we immediately retire any we may receive). We just reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases.
We use research from leading climate organizations like Frontier and CarbonPlan and evaluate potential recipients against criteria to ensure donations drive real impact. We purchase from projects that are:
- Additional: Carbon is removed as a result of the donation, and wouldn’t otherwise have happened.
- Long term: Carbon is stored for centuries or millennia.
- Verifiable: Providers have scientifically-rigorous, transparent reporting on the amount of carbon removed as a result of the purchase.
- Validated: Leading climate experts have published research on or publicly supported the project.
- Scalable: Projects have the potential to scale to many megatons per year and become drastically more affordable.
- Ethical: Projects actively avoid or minimize possible negative social or economic impact in the communities they operate in.
Selected projects become part of our portfolio, and donations are pooled to purchase high-quality carbon removal from them at agreed-upon prices. This portfolio includes Charm, which converts waste biomass into bio-oil then injects it underground (and counts Microsoft, Shopify, and Stripe as customers), and Heirloom, which builds direct air capture technology via mineralization (and is backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund).
“With Terraset, I know I’m purchasing high-quality, long-term carbon removal, and the tax benefits mean my purchase goes further. They’re removing carbon right when we need it most.”
— Calvin French-Owen, Co-Founder of Segment
The climate road ahead.
It’s early days for carbon removal, and the journey to net zero is a long one. But we like to focus on what’s possible, not what’s wrong. Want to help?
Here are a few ways to get involved:
- Donate: Let’s pull some carbon dioxide from the atmosphere! Give online or get in touch to talk with our team.
- Nominate projects: We’re always evaluating carbon removal initiatives. Send us your suggestions and we’ll take a look.
- Join us: We’re a lean operation but would love volunteer support, especially if you have climate science expertise or carbon removal experience. Let us know what you’re interested in!
Climate is a yes, and situation. We need emissions reductions across all sectors of the economy. We need nature-based solutions and technology. We need scientists, engineers, analysts, designers, and product managers. We need government, non-profits, corporate sustainability teams, and startups. We need policy, venture capital, and philanthropy. We need it all to get to net zero — this is far from a comprehensive list — and we hope to play a part in getting us there.
“While the voluntary market can only take us so far, it is playing a critical role in jumpstarting the CDR market, and enabling donors and philanthropists to direct funds in this important area is creative and potentially hugely impactful. I’m excited to see where this goes!”
— Jason Jacobs, Partner at My Climate Journey
