Reversing-Climate-Change

Take on a podcast episode from Reversing Climate Change, originally published Thu, 25 Ju. Listen: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/reversingclimatechange/episodes/405-Does-Managed-MRV-imply-the-existence-of-Unmanaged-MRV--w-Varsha-Ramesh-Walsh--Offstream-e3l8cev TL;DR Offstream is repositioning from a DMRV (digital monitoring, reporting, verification) software vendor to “Managed measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV)” — they do the work, not just provide a dashboard. Useful naming of an under-articulated category. Walsh’s claim: the head-of-MRV in-house hire is often more expensive than outsourcing the whole function. Plausible for small biomass developers, untested at scale. Most operational data in carbon projects still passes through a human at some point — bills of lading, odometer photos, clipboard entries. Honest admission worth hearing from a vendor. Thesis: every owner of a physical asset eventually becomes a carbon project developer. Big swing; light on the path to get there. Long surveillance-capitalism tangent eats ~20% of the runtime. Skippable. Ross Kenyon hosts Varsha Ramesh Walsh, cofounder/CEO of Offstream, on episode 405 to explain why Offstream stopped trying to be pure software and embraced what Walsh calls “Managed MRV” — a services-plus-platform model targeting biomass-based durable CDR developers (biochar, lumber mills with waste streams) and increasingly 48E ITC tax-credit work. ...

Take on a podcast episode from Reversing Climate Change, originally published Thu, 18 Ju. Listen: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/reversingclimatechange/episodes/404-When-will-insetting-work-for-carbon-dioxide-removal-w-Tom-Mills--Stripe-Climate-Fellow-former-e3kugqp TL;DR Tom Mills (ex-Stripe Climate Fellow, now at Mati Carbon) argues insetting durable CDR into ag supply chains is harder than the industry assumes — useful reality check. Coffee is the first ag value chain where biochar insetting actually pencils, driven by EUDR pressure, unmixed supply chains, and willing-to-pay CPGs. Plausible. GHG Protocol forces removals onto a separate ledger from scope 3 reductions — a structural block on insetting demand that’s underdiscussed. Important. “Supply shed” remains undefined; practitioners are setting norms by just doing it. Honest, slightly alarming. Real insetting business model = stacking non-carbon benefits (yield, pesticide residue, nitrate leaching, biofortification), not selling the ton. Worth the hour for value-chain folks. Ross Kenyon hosts Tom Mills — former Stripe Climate Fellow, now at enhanced rock weathering developer Mati Carbon (XPRIZE Carbon Removal grand prize winner) — on episode 404 of Reversing Climate Change. Mills spent his fellowship year on a single question: when does embedding biochar and enhanced rock weathering into Global South ag supply chains actually work? The honest answer is “not yet, and here’s why.” ...

Take on a podcast episode from Reversing Climate Change, originally published Thu, 11 Ju. Listen: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/reversingclimatechange/episodes/403-How-to-get-max-value-from-carbon-market-consultantsw-David-LaGreca--EcoEngineers-e3kkn5k TL;DR When to call a consultant: as soon as you have a concept beyond a napkin sketch — useful framing, mostly self-serving but honest about it. Claim: a 1-6 month consulting engagement often beats hiring a $150-200k FTE for methodology, LCA, registry selection work. Plausible for early-stage developers. EcoEngineers’ workload has shifted from drafting new CDR methodologies (2022-2023 peak) to advising large energy/corporate entrants and operating projects. Useful market-temperature signal. Rule of thumb: AI tooling gets you ~70% of the way on methodology drafting; the last 30% is where expertise compounds. First time I’ve heard it quantified that way. Registry choice (Puro vs. Isometric vs. Rainbow vs. others) is undersold as a strategic decision that determines credit volume, verification cadence, and labeling eligibility. Episode link. Ross Kenyon hosts David LaGreca of EcoEngineers — a sponsor of the show, which Ross discloses repeatedly — for an hour on how durable-CDR developers should actually engage advisory firms. The episode is half practical (hire vs. contract math, when to fire a consultant) and half industry-state observation from someone who’s touched roughly 10 CDR protocols across 7-8 mechanisms. ...

Take on a podcast episode from Reversing Climate Change, originally published Fri, 15 Ma. Listen: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/reversingclimatechange/episodes/399-How-to-Pitch-Terraset-and-other-carbon-removal-buyersw-Taylor-Insley--Terraset-e3jd1gr TL;DR Taylor Insley (Terraset) says ~75% of developer interactions at Carbon Unbound are bad pitches — ambush style, no social grace. Believable and useful. Terraset claims 6-8x leverage per dollar deployed via its revolving fund model. First time I’ve seen that ratio cited publicly for them. Terraset gets ~450 projects in its intake pipeline against a team of three. Diligence bandwidth is the binding constraint, not capital appetite. Insley’s actual advice: relationship-building beats first-impression perfection; she discounts bad early pitches if the project matures. Ross’s “minor leagues” framing — Milky Wire/Terraset before Frontier/Microsoft — is the most operationally useful frame in the episode. Episode link. Ross Kenyon interviews Taylor Insley, Director of Strategic Growth at Terraset, the tax-deductible philanthropic CDR buyer. The episode is essentially a sales-craft conversation for developers pitching small-to-mid catalytic buyers, anchored on a Carbon Unbound Vancouver panel Insley did earlier this year. There’s also a long Ross monologue on status and in-group dynamics that you can safely skip. ...

Take on a podcast episode from Reversing Climate Change, originally published Thu, 21 Ma. Listen: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/reversingclimatechange/episodes/400-What-kind-of-leader-does-my-CDR-company-need-me-to-be-w-Julia-Reichelstein--Vaulted-Deep-e3jiss8 TL;DR Vaulted Deep is on track for ~50,000 tonnes of durable removal this year, up from 25,000 tonnes cumulative to date — credible scale-up for a non-biochar developer. Reichelstein frames Vaulted as a waste management company first, CDR second; gets paid on the disposal side, which sidesteps biomass-competition risk entirely. The Microsoft ~5M-tonne offtake (signed 2024) underwrites site development through ~2040 — the deal that turned them from operator into builder. Most of the conversation is leadership philosophy, not technical. Useful if you’re a founder; thinner if you came for measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) or geology specifics. Spin-out mechanics from Advantek get a rare honest treatment — including why venture-backed spin-outs are scarce. Ross Kenyon hosts Julia Reichelstein, co-founder and CEO of Vaulted Deep, for a wide-ranging conversation that’s roughly one-third Vaulted operations and two-thirds founder psychology. If you’ve heard Reichelstein on the technical circuit before, this is the softer cut — useful for understanding how she thinks, less useful if you want to interrogate the deep-well injection thesis. ...

Take on a podcast episode from Reversing Climate Change, originally published Thu, 07 Ma. Listen: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/reversingclimatechange/episodes/398-Scientists-vs--Engineers---the-Commercial-Pressure-on-Carbon-Dioxide-Removalw-Erica-Dorr--Samara-Vantil--Rainbow-e3j0jq0 TL;DR Rainbow’s head of science Erica Dorr and certification engineer Samara Vantil reframe the science-vs-engineering split as a false binary; both do applied work daily. The real gap is technical-vs-commercial. Useful framing for anyone who’s watched a salesperson promise a methodology change on a call. Concrete example: biochar lab samples cost ~€600 to ship Africa→Europe. That’s the kind of number that should anchor measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) requirement-setting. Defense of Charm’s “cut scope” posture as courage, not laziness — diminishing returns on the last sample are real and worth saying out loud. When project developers can’t deliver a data point, Rainbow’s default is a conservative discount factor, not rejection. Worth knowing if you’re a buyer reading their credits. Ross Kenyon hosts Erica Dorr (head of science) and Samara Vantil (environmental engineer, certification) of Rainbow, the carbon removal standard and registry. The episode is a follow-up to two essays Kenyon wrote for Rainbow on whether durable CDR needs more field engineers or more scientists, and lands somewhere more interesting than either piece: the science/engineering line is fuzzy, and the harder boundary is between technical teams and commercial. ...