Our first CEO, nearly $1 million in donations, and (of course) tons of high-quality carbon removal
Plus: support from Grantham Foundation and Conscience Bay Research, a partnership with 1% for the Planet, and other updates. It's been a while!
Dear friends of Terraset,
Happy Inflation Reduction Act anniversary eve! Three hundred and sixty four days ago, the U.S. government signed the most significant piece of climate legislation in its history, with almost $400 billion to tackle climate change.
It’s been a big year since then, especially in the magical world of carbon dioxide removal (CDR). The U.S. Department of Energy committed $3.7 billion to carbon removal projects (and just announced $1.2 billion for two commercial-scale direct air capture hubs), JPMorgan agreed to purchase $200M in CDR, and Frontier added $100M to its carbon removal fund.
And hey, we’ve got our own news to share:
We’ve raised nearly $1 million in donations since launching ten months ago.
We welcomed Grantham Foundation and Conscience Bay as strategic institutional donors.
We hired our first CEO—Adam Fraser, former CEO of global nonprofit Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, founded under the patronage of Nelson Mandela.
We’ve purchased hundreds of tons in carbon removal from Charm and Heirloom.
We joined 1% for the Planet, the environment nonprofit started by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard.
Like we said in January, we're optimistic that there will be a scaled, 10-gigaton-per-year supply of price-competitive CDR one day. But we have a lot of work to get there. We’re just excited to dig in and double down—now with Adam at the helm (and you all supporting the cause).
Want to join us in using philanthropic capital to catalyze permanent carbon removal? Here are some ways you can get involved:
Now, for those who want more, let’s dive in!
We’re raised nearly $1 million in donations from the Grantham Foundation, Conscience Bay, Tim Ferriss, and hundreds of people, funds, and institutions.
We’ve been blown away by the support of the Terraset mission! Every dollar matters and goes a long way towards scaling carbon removal. THANK YOU!
We’re especially thrilled to have the financial and strategic support of the Grantham Foundation and Conscience Bay Research, two organizations we respect deeply for their work on climate.
Terraset stands alone in its approach—no one else is using philanthropic dollars to purchase high-quality carbon removal. They’ve proven that there’s pent-up demand to support permanent CDR and found a way to channel it towards the most promising projects. We look forward to seeing them scale up and scale their impact.
— Kind words from Matt Lappé, Executive Director at Conscience Bay Research
We hired our first CEO, Adam Fraser—former CEO of Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, founded under the patronage of Nelson Mandela.
We plan to grow our carbon dioxide removal (CDR) purchases rapidly—to $150M by 2027. That’s only possible with an ambitious, passionate, and relentless leader chasing the mission, day in and day out. And that’s where Adam Fraser, our new CEO, comes in.
Adam spent the last four years as CEO of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, the global nonprofit founded under the Patronage of Nelson Mandela that uses sport to end violence, discrimination, and inequality. (If the phrase “sport has the power to change the world” sounds familiar, it’s from a speech Mandela gave at a Laureus event in 2000.)
Laureus has been a key player in the rapid growth of the Sport for Development sector, raising more than $200M and funding more than 300 programs in 50 countries. Adam’s been a key player in building and scaling the organization over the last 9 years—first as the Global Development Director, then as the CEO.
Adam’s done a lot of impressive stuff. Here are a few accomplishments we found particularly important for the next chapter of Terraset (and climate philanthropy as a whole).
We’ve purchased hundreds of tons in carbon removal purchases from Charm and Heirloom.
We doubled down on Charm and Heirloom, our first two CDR projects, with carbon removal purchases now in the hundred of tons.
Both companies have made huge strides since we made our first purchases last year. Heirloom captured and permanently embedded carbon in concrete and just received $600 million from the Department of Energy to support Project Cypress, a direct air capture facility being built with Batelle and Climeworks that plans to remove at least 1 million tons of carbon each year. Charm raised a $100M series B and signed a $53 million contract with Frontier to remove 112,000 metric tons of carbon between 2024 and 2030.
We claim zero credit for these feats, but knowing the brilliant people behind them makes us even more motivated to support more innovative CDR projects like them.
On that note, we’re actively reviewing new projects, so if you’re interested in joining our portfolio, fill out this CDR project intake form and we’ll be in touch!
We’re a new proud partner of 1% for the Planet, the environment nonprofit started by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard.
We were invited to join 1% for the Planet, the global organization started by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard that connects environmentally-conscious businesses with vetted sustainability-oriented nonprofits. Member companies—like our friends at Bend, who nominated us—commit to giving one percent of their annual revenue to nonprofits like ours. As longtime 1% for the Planet fans, we’re thrilled to be an environmental partner.
That’s it for now. Thanks for reading, thanks for supporting, and thanks for helping scale high-quality carbon removal!
— Team Terraset