John Dees, Senior Science Analyst at Carbon Direct

Carbon Direct is a science-first carbon management firm that enables organizations around the world to reduce, remove, and monitor their carbon emissions. They combine science, technology, and market expertise to help these organizations take action and reach their climate goals. They’re an incredible organization with clients and portfolio companies spanning 28 countries.

Now, if you've been a longtime listener of the show, Carbon Direct might be a familiar name. The CEO, Jon Goldberg, and the Chief Scientist, Julio Friedmann, have been guests in the past. We’ve also talked to Nili Gilbert who's the current Vice Chairwoman even before she worked at Carbon Direct. This episode is great because John Dees comes from a different background. He's in the trenches, living in excel, and working on the life cycle assessments (LCAs) for carbon emissions.

In today's episode, we cover:

An overview of Carbon Direct and where John sits in their portfolio of services
Projects that require life cycle assessments (LCAs)
How he thinks about climate and how his perspective has evolved
How John got involved with carbon removal
Scaling carbon removal to a level that matters
Characteristics to consider when selecting CDR technologies
Barries holding CDR back
The process behind developing LCAs for different projects
Types of clients and business drivers for Carbon Direct's LCA services
The need for LCA standardization and challenges in doing so
Tooling for LCAs and blind spots
Differences in LCAs between small vs. big companies and across sectors
Incentives for a company to care about LCA accuracy
For-profit LCA work vs. non-profit approaches
When companies should start thinking about tracking LCAs

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Episode recorded August 1, 2022.

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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant