Every day, more carbon removal is required. This is needed to counterbalance ongoing emissions that are difficult to eliminate and emissions we were too slow to eliminate historically. Neustark, one of the fastest-growing carbon removal companies, is capturing CO₂ at point sources and storing it in mineral waste, which may now be used to make your streets.
Founded in July 2019 by Valentin Gutknecht and Johannes Tiefenthaler, Neustark emerged from a shared vision to find a sound method of permanent CO₂ removal with an immediate and scalable impact. “Demolished concrete is the world’s largest waste stream,” said Co-Founder & Co-CEO Valentin Gutknecht. “Neustark turns this waste stream into a carbon sink. We’ve created and deployed a solution that mineralizes CO₂ in demolished concrete aggregate – thus permanently storing it and removing the CO₂ from the atmosphere.” The CO₂ turns into limestone and is bound to the demolished concrete. This happens alongside the recycler’s normal steps for processing demolition waste to build streets or produce fresh recycled concrete.
The Swiss climate tech operates 18 capture and storage sites and has 30 more under construction across Europe. “Our objective is to remove 1 million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere in 2030. Though certainly an ambitious business plan, we are well underway to reach that goal,” said Valentin. One of the key insights that has allowed them to rapidly scale, was how they inserted themselves in an existing process. This means their industry partners don’t have to change, reducing friction. “Our business model was built upon the vision of using existing materials to remove carbon today. We take CO₂ from biogas plants – a ‘waste material’ in their supply chain – and store it in demolition concrete and other mineral waste materials. The capture and storage technology can be installed along our partners’ existing processes. The benefits lie exactly there: that we do not have to disrupt existing processes and can thus convince our partners more easily to work with us to remove CO₂.”
Neustark now ranks among the top ten sellers of carbon removal worldwide, having sold high-quality removal credits to corporations such as UBS and most recently Microsoft. The deal with Microsoft is an agreement to deliver 27,600 tons of carbon removal credits over six years. This agreement highlights Microsoft’s focus on front-running a potential shortage of high-quality credits. “More and more companies are realizing that carbon removal is not (yet) in abundance, so there may be a supply shortage soon. Those who invest today are securing quantities for the next 5-10 years,” said Valentin. These future deals are critical for incentivizing investment in carbon removal, and are increasingly common. “Currently, for every $1 spent in the ex-post market, roughly $4 is invested in pre-issuance credits,” said Tommy Ricketts, CEO and co-founder of BeZero Carbon.
More accurate measurement often means higher pricing for carbon removal credits, as governments, companies, and individuals need to know precisely how much carbon dioxide they paid to have removed. Having control over every step has allowed Neustark to give buyers more certainty. “Of course, our end-to-end model has both its challenges and benefits. Few players do end-to-end in CCS or CDR; most players either focus on the capture or the storage part. Since we cover the whole value chain, we can meticulously track the efficiency of our process, and then have it validated by an external party,” said Valentin.
Neustark has inserted itself into an existing process, construction, and started using it to sequester carbon permanently today. The same thing that makes the construction industry a global contributor to emissions, its sheer scale, is giving Neustark the running room it needs.
