Mobilization Effort, War Metaphors, and the Role of Policy in Carbon Removal

Episode 28 is with Marty Odlin, Founder and CEO of Running Tide.

Today Na’im speaks with Marty Odlin about how Running Tide is navigating the waters of open ocean CDR.

Marty Odlin is the Founder and CEO of Running Tide, a global ocean health company. A systems engineer from a 4th generation fishing family, Marty founded the company in 2017 after seeing the devastating implications of climate change on his own community. 

Running Tide designs and deploys cutting-edge diagnostics and comprehensive interventions that rebalance the carbon cycle, decarbonize global supply chains, restore marine ecosystems, and revitalize coastal communities. Proudly headquartered in Portland, Maine, Running Tide is scaling worldwide in partnership with leading investors, companies, scientific institutions, and governments.

Since the original recording, Running Tide has completed its first carbon removal deployment season in Iceland, which resulted in the delivery of the first ever ocean-based carbon removal credits to their first customer, Shopify. The company is also founding signatory and Marty was an author of the recently released Reykjavik Protocol, a set of supplier best practices designed to responsibly grow the nature-deployed credit industry, reduce uncertainties, and clarify conflicts of interest.

In this episode, Na’im and Marty discuss:

* Carbon removal’s “victory conditions” and the critical need to engage the general public in order to reach gigaton scale carbon removal;

* The fast and slow carbon cycles;

* Running Tide’s work on ocean CDR;

* The advantages and challenges of open systems;

* The importance of following the best available science;

* The UN High Seas Treaty and implications on Running Tide’s work.

Relevant Links:

* Running Tide announcing their credit delivery (also see interview between Running Tide & Shopify regarding credit delivery)

* Blog post announcing RT signing onto the Reykjavik Protocol

* Running Tide’s Ocean CDR Research Roadmap

* Running Tide’s Framework Protocol for Open Ocean CDR

* Ocean Visions

* Ocean Frontier Institute at Dalhousie University

* UN High Seas Treaty

This episode was created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Lucia Simonelli.

Na’im Merchant is the co-founder and Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada, a policy initiative focused on scaling carbon removal in Canada. He is also a policy fellow with Elemental Excelerator. He previously ran carbon removal consulting practice Carbon Curve, and publishes The Carbon Curve newsletter and podcast. Every two weeks, Na’im will release a short interview with individuals advancing the policies, technologies, and collective action needed to scale up carbon removal around the world.

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