Jason Grillo joined AirMiners in 2019. He’s “always been fascinated with this notion of turning what we know is a pollutant into an economic resource – either that's as a product or as a credit. It's a way of basically cleaning up the atmosphere and deriving value from that.”
Airminers is “a community dedicated to accelerating the pace of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and our mission is to remove the first billion tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the end of 2030.” Jason says all the programs Airminers runs flow from that mission.
GET READY
Airminers offers a five week program called "Boot Up” “to get people enlisted in their
carbon removal journey. It’s kind of an intake area.” And it’s free. “Did I mention it’s free?” Jason asks.
For a lot of the Airminers community, Boot Up is their entry point to carbon removal. Boot up feeds into a larger community where members are pushing the envelope of what carbon removal can be. Airminers’ bimonthly events series keeps the thinking fresh. “We push on topics that are most pertinent to advancing the field of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.”
GET SET
The “most concentrated way that we work with the community is in our Launchpad program,” says Jason. “This is a program of six weeks that we run every quarter for companies who are maybe three or four people at most.” Their tactics for removing carbon from the atmosphere span “oceans and forests and soils and mineralization, and measurement, reporting and verification, and yes, direct air capture.” There’s even “subterranean mineralization methods.”
“We also have an accelerated program for maybe 10 to 15 teams every three months. The idea is to instruct entrepreneurs at very early stage companies how to understand carbon
markets, how to do techno-economic assessments, how to pitch to venture capitalists, or what their financial projections would look like.” In other words, all the skills entrepreneurs need to succeed in this space. “We're happy to see teams graduate and achieve funding goals or start to sell carbon removal credits in carbon markets. It’s something that we’re very proud of.”
GO!
On his advice to those just entering the carbon removal space and Airminers’ platform, Jason says:
“Reach out to people who you believe are able to help. As vast as the potential is for carbon removal, it also plays very, very small. Every day, I'm taken aback with just how friendly, collegial and supportive everybody in our community is. So find people, ask their opinions. We're all rowing toward the same goal here: removing atmospheric greenhouse gases.”
“This is an opportunity. Airminers includes anyone who can take action. I feel confident that we will be able to fulfill our goal of an accumulative 1 billion tons removed by the end of 2030. It's a long goal of a very high bar to hit, but it's workable. Everyone has agency. The ingenuity that I see in terms of scientific, managerial, social and financial innovations that are happening every day in the industry known as carbon removal gives me a lot of hope. I am hopeful, I believe we can do it. I invite others, too. I just hope that others feel the same. I think they do, and I’m privileged to be part of it.
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