The Carbon Curve

This is the second episode of The Carbon Curve: Canada’s Next Industrial Play, a special miniseries about embedding carbon removal into Canadian industry.
This is the second episode of The Carbon Curve: Canada’s Next Industrial Play, a special miniseries about embedding carbon removal into Canadian industry.
Na’im speaks with Bill Adams, chief sustainability officer at Mercer International; Sheila Harrison, vice-president of policy at the Alberta Forest Products Association; and Tina Rasmussen, chief business officer of MLTC Industrial Investments at the Meadow Lake Tribal Council.
Bill walks through what decarbonization looks like inside a pulp company that has to make the capital case, including Mercer’s BECCS work with Svante at the Peace River mill in Alberta, which would capture about 500,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 a year if it reaches a final investment decision. Since the interview, Emissions Reduction Alberta has approved a $7 million grant to Svante for the front-end engineering study that Bill described as the expensive step before that decision.
Sheila focuses on the sector under pressure: softwood lumber tariffs, wildfire, fibre security, and the climate-competitiveness framing governments are pushing while companies are trying to keep the lights on. Her throughline is blunt. You cannot build a forest bioeconomy, or bolt BECCS onto it, if you lose the primary mills that already harvest, saw, and pulp the wood.
Tina shows what it looks like when that idea is built and owned by the people whose land it sits on. At Meadow Lake, the Tribal Council’s NorSask sawmill feeds the MLTC Bioenergy Centre, and that site is becoming North Star, Canada’s first major Indigenous-owned BECCS project, with a 15-year Microsoft offtake for 626,000 tonnes of durable carbon removal.
Na’im, Bill, Sheila, and Tina discuss:
* What a pulp mill actually is, and why biogenic CO2 from a recovery boiler is a practical capture target
* What has to be true for BECCS to move from an interesting concept to a real capital conversation at Peace River
* Why Alberta’s geology, policy, and carbon-price recycling through Emissions Reduction Alberta matter for projects like this
* What AFPA members are facing from tariffs, wildfire, and investor confidence
* Why keeping primary forest manufacturing is the precondition for BECCS, biochar, or any forest bioeconomy
* What Canadian governments need to get right for companies to be both economically and climate competitive
* How North Star connects a sawmill, a bioenergy centre, and permanent underground storage
* What a Microsoft-scale offtake means for an Indigenous-led project before steel is in the ground
* Why majority Indigenous ownership changes how the project gets built and who benefits
Relevant Links:
* Mercer International - Website
* Alberta Forest Products Association - Website
* Meadow Lake Tribal Council - Website
* Svante - Website
* Emissions Reduction Alberta — Integrated FEED Study for BECCS at Mercer Peace River - Project page
* ERA media release on the $20 million rural and northern package - Media release
About Bill Adams:
Bill Adams is chief sustainability officer and senior vice president, Canadian pulp operations, at Mercer International, a global forest products company with mills in Canada, the US, and Germany. He has spent three decades in forest products across Weyerhaeuser, Domtar, Canfor, and Mercer. At Peace River, Mercer is advancing a BECCS project with Svante that would capture about 500,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 a year from the mill’s recovery boiler.
About Sheila Harrison:
Sheila Harrison is vice-president of policy at the Alberta Forest Products Association, which represents Alberta’s forest products producers across lumber, pulp, paper, pellets, and panel products. She works the files that keep the sector viable: fibre security, wildfire, energy costs, regulatory certainty, and the climate-competitiveness agenda.
About Tina Rasmussen:
Tina Rasmussen is chief business officer of MLTC Industrial Investments, the economic development arm of the Meadow Lake Tribal Council in northern Saskatchewan. She helped develop the MLTC Bioenergy Centre, which runs on waste biomass from the Tribal Council’s NorSask sawmill, and is advancing North Star, Canada’s first major Indigenous-owned BECCS project, with a Microsoft offtake for 626,000 tonnes of durable carbon removal over 15 years.
About Mercer International:
Mercer International is a global forest products company with pulp, timber, and related operations in Canada, the US, and Germany. Its Peace River pulp mill in Alberta is the site of a BECCS partnership with Svante. Learn more at mercerint.com.
About the Alberta Forest Products Association:
The Alberta Forest Products Association represents Alberta’s forest industry producers. Its members make dimensional lumber, pulp, paper, pellets, MDF, plywood, and other panel products, and support communities across a province that is about 60% forested.
About Meadow Lake Tribal Council / MLTC Industrial Investments:
The Meadow Lake Tribal Council represents nine First Nations in northwestern Saskatchewan. Through MLTC Industrial Investments and related businesses, the nations own or co-own forest management, the NorSask sawmill, the MLTC Bioenergy Centre, and a majority stake in the North Star BECCS project. Distributions from those businesses return to the nine nations for community priorities.
About Svante:
Svante designs and manufactures solid-sorbent carbon capture technology for industrial emissions and carbon removal. It is the technology partner on Mercer’s Peace River BECCS work and received a $7 million Emissions Reduction Alberta grant for the project’s front-end engineering study. Learn more at svanteinc.com.
This episode was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Consecon Foundation.
This episode was created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Daniel Kelter and Tank Chen.
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 on the advisory board of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative and Terraset, and a former policy fellow with Elemental Impact. He previously ran carbon removal consulting practice Carbon Curve, and publishes The Carbon Curve newsletter and podcast. This episode is part of Carbon Curve: Canada’s Next Industrial Play, a special mini-series. The views here are his own.
Tank Chen is the Head of Content and Community at CDR.fyi, a public benefit corporation dedicated to accelerating carbon removal through transparency. He is also the co-founder of CDRjobs, a career platform for the carbon removal industry.
Daniel is the Senior Director of Public Affairs for Carbon Removal Canada. Based in Ottawa, he leads the organization’s engagement with Parliament, federal departments, and the wider carbon removal community, bringing experience from industry associations in the steel and fertilizer sectors and from the offices of Members of Parliament. His career has centred on building coalitions across industry, government, and civil society to move shared priorities forward.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via LinkedIn.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

This is the first episode of The Carbon Curve: Canada’s Next Industrial Play, a special miniseries about embedding carbon removal into Canadian industry.
Na’im speaks with Jim Mann, founder and CEO of UNDO, and Brodie Berrigan, senior director of government relations and farm policy at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture. Jim explains enhanced rock weathering: finely crushed silicate rock is spread on farmland, where it pulls CO2 from the air and locks it away while feeding the soil. UNDO uses equipment farms already have and typically picks up the cost instead of sharing carbon revenue with the farmer. The farmer gets the material and whatever the field gives back.
Brodie focuses on adoption. Farmers are business owners first. A new practice only scales if it works as a farm business, if neighbours can see it working, and if the policy around it feels safe enough to last.
Na’im, Jim, and Brodie discuss:
* What enhanced rock weathering is and why its permanence is measured in geologic time
* How UNDO works on a farm: existing spreaders, no new plant, and UNDO organizing the haul and application
* Why Canada, and especially the Prairies: feedstock, agriculture at scale, rail, and Farm Credit Canada as an agricultural lender
* What a Microsoft-scale buyer does for the category, and why Jim wants agriculture treated as part of the solution
* Who the CFA represents in Ottawa, and what the sector is facing from input costs, trade risk, and weather
* The first question farmers ask when a new practice arrives
* What would make an incentive last, and Brodie’s three-legged stool: environmental, economic, and social
Relevant Links:
* UNDO - Website
* Canadian Federation of Agriculture - Website
* Farm Credit Canada - Website
About Jim Mann:
Jim Mann is the founder and CEO of UNDO, one of the largest enhanced rock weathering companies in the world. UNDO spreads crushed silicate rock on farmland to permanently store CO2 and return minerals to the soil. Before UNDO, Jim started the Future Forest Company. UNDO’s buyers include Microsoft, Barclays, and British Airways, and the company is expanding across the Canadian prairies. Farm Credit Canada invested in UNDO in 2025.
About Brodie Berrigan:
Brodie Berrigan is senior director of government relations and farm policy at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, the largest farm organization in the country. He works the files that keep producers up at night: business risk management, food security, labour, trade, and transportation. Before the CFA, he spent years in the federal government at Public Services and Procurement, the Privy Council Office, and Employment and Social Development.
About UNDO:
UNDO uses enhanced rock weathering to permanently remove CO2 by spreading crushed silicate rock on farmland. The company works with existing farm equipment and existing extraction sites, and it sells durable carbon removal to corporate buyers. Learn more at un-do.com.
About the Canadian Federation of Agriculture:
The CFA is Canada’s largest general farm organization. Its members include provincial and territorial farm groups and national commodity associations. It represents about 190,000 farmers and farm families in Ottawa. The wider agri-food system employs about 2.3 million people and generated about $150 billion in GDP in the year Brodie cites.
This episode was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Consecon Foundation.
This episode was created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Daniel Kelter and Tank Chen.
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 on the advisory board of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative and Terraset, and a former policy fellow with Elemental Impact. He previously ran carbon removal consulting practice Carbon Curve, and publishes The Carbon Curve newsletter and podcast. This episode is part of Carbon Curve: Canada’s Next Industrial Play, a special mini-series. The views here are his own.
Tank Chen is the Head of Content and Community at CDR.fyi, a public benefit corporation dedicated to accelerating carbon removal through transparency. He is also the co-founder of CDRjobs, a career platform for the carbon removal industry.
Daniel is the Senior Director of Public Affairs for Carbon Removal Canada. Based in Ottawa, he leads the organization's engagement with Parliament, federal departments, and the wider carbon removal community, bringing experience from industry associations in the steel and fertilizer sectors and from the offices of Members of Parliament. His career has centred on building coalitions across industry, government, and civil society to move shared priorities forward.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via LinkedIn.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

Episode 67 is with Dr. Joachim Katchinoff, Co-founder and CEO of CREW Carbon
In this episode, Na’im speaks with Dr. Joachim “Jo” Katchinoff, co-founder and CEO of CREW Carbon, about how wastewater treatment plants can become permanent carbon sinks. Jo explains how dosing calcium carbonate into wastewater bioreactors converts microbe-produced CO2 into stable bicarbonate, why closed treatment systems make measurement far easier than open-ocean approaches, how the same intervention helps utilities remove more nitrogen and phosphorus while deferring major capital upgrades, what it takes to scale in a slow-moving regulated sector, and more.
This conversation was recorded before some big news from CREW: the company just signed an offtake agreement with Microsoft for up to 23,602 durable carbon removal units — bringing CREW to more than $40 million in committed carbon removal contracts with buyers including JP Morgan, Google, Autodesk, and Stripe through Frontier. It’s a strong signal that the approach Jo describes in this episode is resonating with the market’s most demanding buyers.
Na’im and Jo discuss:
* Jo’s Journey From Environmental Consulting To Yale
* Commercializing Alkalinity-Based Carbon Removal
* How Wastewater Treatment Actually Works
* Wastewater Alkalinity Enhancement Explained
* MRV Advantages Of Closed Reactor Systems
* Co-Benefits For Wastewater Utilities
* Scaling In A Regulated, Risk-Averse Sector
* What Policymakers Need To Know
* CREW’s Series A And What’s Next
Relevant Links:
* CREW Carbon - Website
* Wastewater Alkalinity Enhancement - CREW’s Approach
* CREW Carbon Signs Offtake Agreement with Microsoft for Wastewater Carbon Removal
* Isometric’s Certified Protocol for Carbon Removal via Wastewater
* CREW Carbon and Isometric Announce the World’s First Wastewater Alkalinity Enhancement Carbon Removal Credits
About Jo Katchinoff:
Jo is the co-founder and CEO of CREW Carbon, a scientist with multiple patents and over a decade in environmental research and climate modeling. Jo leads CREW’s scientific strategy, partnerships, and commercialization of a novel platform that lets wastewater facilities remove and permanently store atmospheric carbon dioxide. Previously, Jo was a postdoctoral researcher and project manager at Yale, where his work on alkalinity-based carbon removal laid the scientific foundation for CREW’s platform. During his PhD at Yale’s Earth and Planetary Sciences Department, he published in journals like Nature and won the Hammer Prize for Outstanding Geologist. He was also a Marie Curie Fellow at Oxford, studying weathering and carbon dioxide removal. He holds a PhD and MPhil from Yale and a BS in Earth Science from William & Mary.
About CREW Carbon:
Founded in 2022 out of Yale University, CREW Carbon is a water technology company providing wastewater treatment facilities with a solution that improves performance, lowers cost, and permanently removes greenhouse gases. By dosing carbon-negative alkalinity like calcium carbonate directly into wastewater bioreactors, CREW captures biogenic CO2 as stable bicarbonate while improving biological treatment efficiency. CREW is now deployed at 10 wastewater treatment facilities across the US and Europe, has raised over $35 million in funding including a recent Series A, and holds more than $40 million in committed carbon removal contracts with buyers including Microsoft, JP Morgan, Google, Autodesk, and Stripe through Frontier. You can learn more at crewcarbon.com.
This episode was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Consecon Foundation.
This episode was created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Tank Chen.
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 on the advisory board of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative and Terraset, and a former policy fellow with Elemental Impact. 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.
Tank Chen is the Head of Content and Community at CDR.fyi, a public benefit corporation dedicated to accelerating carbon removal through transparency. He is also the co-founder of CDRjobs, a career platform for the carbon removal industry. Based in Taiwan, Tank is a carbon removal advocate focused on educating policymakers, corporate leaders, and the public on the importance of carbon removal, using data-driven insights to support communication and policy advocacy.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via LinkedIn.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

Episode 66 is with Richard Barker, Partner at Counteract
In this episode, Na’im speaks with Richard Barker, a partner at Counteract, about why financing models vary widely by pathway, capex/opex profile, and deployment context. Richard highlights industrial integration opportunities, the need for team and financial readiness for long corporate timelines, how policy should set stable expectations akin to landfill tax, and more.
Na’im and Richard discuss:
* Richard’s Journey Into Climate Investing
* Counteract’s Investment Thesis
* Financing Models Evolving
* CDR Pathways With Industrial Fit
* Financing In Tight Markets
* Preparing Startups To Scale
* Lessons From Other Industries
* Policy Expectations And Demand
* Counteract Next Delivery Fund
Relevant Links:
* Counteract - Website
* Counteract’s Portfolio Companies
About Richard Barker:
Richard is a Partner at Counteract. His varied experience spans over 35 years and working in a number of countries. He studied engineering at Oxford University, before lecturing in Economics at UCC in Ireland. After spells in strategic consulting and as Head of Strategy at ANZ Investment Bank in Australia, Richard founded and grew a number of sustainable businesses - in chemical process technology, aluminium recycling and biomethane - before moving onto the investment side about 10 years ago. He has advised a number of investors on sustainable infrastructure investment before joining Counteract.
About Counteract:
Founded in 2021, Counteract was the world’s first early stage investor dedicated to carbon removals. They’re a team of experienced entrepreneurs who saw a huge opportunity in an overlooked part of climate. The team has looked at over 1,000 companies on its journey to investing in 27 companies to date - diverse by both geography and CDR pathway. This, together with Counteract’s own research capability, puts it at the centre of this nascent market with unparalleled knowledge and a strong reputation within the CDR ecosystem
This episode was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Consecon Foundation.
This episode was created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Tank Chen.
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 on the advisory board of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative and Terraset, and a former policy fellow with Elemental Impact. 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.
Tank Chen is the Head of Content and Community at CDR.fyi, a public benefit corporation dedicated to accelerating carbon removal through transparency. He is also the co-founder of CDRjobs, a career platform for the carbon removal industry. Based in Taiwan, Tank is a carbon removal advocate focused on educating policymakers, corporate leaders, and the public on the importance of carbon removal, using data-driven insights to support communication and policy advocacy.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via LinkedIn.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com

Episode 65 is with Luke Connell (CarbonRun), Trish Nixon (Amplify), and Brandon Vlaar (Mangrove Systems) recorded live during Toronto Climate Week
For this special Toronto Climate Week wrap-up, Na’im sits down in person with three of the sharpest minds in the Toronto climate scene, each bringing a different vantage point on where carbon removal really stands. Trish Nixon (Venture Partner at Amplify Capital) brings the finance and capital side, Brandon Vlaar (CEO of Mangrove Systems) brings measurement and verification, and Luke Connell (CEO of CarbonRun) brings the supplier and operator side. A year after many feared the bottom would fall out of climate, the conversation is candid about the headwinds: a venture market that cannot scale this sector alone, a punishing “missing middle” in project finance, and an affordability lens now applied to every climate policy. At the same time, the panel makes the case that the structural foundations for a durable market are further along than the vibes suggest. It is an honest look at the valley of death ahead, and the real opportunity waiting for the companies that make it to the other side.
In this episode, we discuss:
* Whether the sector feels better or worse than a year ago, and why we are “over the hype cycle”
* The “missing middle” in project finance, and why venture was the wrong tool to scale an infrastructure-heavy market
* Canada as a safe haven for carbon removal: real advantage or comforting story?
* CarbonRun’s first verified river alkalinity enhancement credits, and how audits expose optimistic models fast
* The role of MRV and VVBs in reducing friction from operational activity to revenue
* Consolidation ahead for a field of roughly 1,100 permanent-CDR companies, and why that can be healthy
* The affordability trap, the move from “desktop to deployment,” and what success looks like five years out
Guests
Trish Nixon, Venture Partner, Amplify Capital. Trish is a climate-finance leader with roots in project finance and impact investing. She co-led CoPower, a clean-energy fintech, through its acquisition by Vancity, then served as Managing Director of Climate Finance at VCIB. At Amplify Capital she invests in early-stage climate and health ventures, and she also advises companies in the space, including CarbonRun.
Brandon Vlaar, CEO & Co-Founder, Mangrove Systems. Brandon is a repeat founder who came up through Canadian fintech, co-founding Lending Loop, the country’s first peer-to-peer lending platform, before turning to climate. He launched Mangrove Systems in 2022, and today it builds digital MRV (dMRV) software trusted by some of the largest carbon projects in the world, spanning carbon removal, carbon capture, low-carbon fuels, and super-pollutants.
Luke Connell, CEO & Co-Founder, CarbonRun. Luke is an entrepreneur whose career has bridged social impact and commercialization before he found his way to carbon dioxide removal in 2020. He now leads CarbonRun, the Nova Scotia company pioneering river alkalinity enhancement: adding finely ground limestone to acidified rivers to restore them while permanently converting atmospheric CO₂ into stable ocean bicarbonate. Under Luke, CarbonRun recently issued its first verified credits.
Referenced in this episode
* CarbonRun
* Mangrove Systems
* Amplify Capital
* Carbon Removal Canada
* Toronto Climate Week
This episode was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Consecon Foundation.
This episode was created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Tank Chen.
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 on the advisory board of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative and Terraset, and a former policy fellow with Elemental Impact. 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.
Tank Chen is the Head of Content and Community at CDR.fyi, a public benefit corporation dedicated to accelerating carbon removal through transparency. He is also the co-founder of CDRjobs, a career platform for the carbon removal industry. Based in Taiwan, Tank is a carbon removal advocate focused on educating policymakers, corporate leaders, and the public on the importance of carbon removal, using data-driven insights to support communication and policy advocacy.
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via LinkedIn.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com