Holcim has invested in Neustark to accelerate the scale-up of the company’s pioneering carbon removal technology
Switzerland’s Holcim is one of the world’s largest producers of cement in the world. In its latest financial report it says it has reduced its carbon emissions by 21% year on year, largely by using different aggregates that get mixed with the cement to make concrete. Now Holcim has invested in Neustark’s CO2 storage technology, which it says it will introduce at its construction demolition sites worldwide.
“We are proud to have Holcim on board as both a financial and strategic partner,” said Valentin Gutknecht, founder and co-CEO of Neustark. “Thanks to their global standing and wide reach of production sites, we will be able to roll out our CO2 removal technology at a very high pace this decade. This agreement between neustark and Holcim, a global leader in innovative and sustainable building solutions, marks a substantial step forward in both carbon removal as well as the decarbonatization of the construction sector.”
The collaboration will help massively scale-up neustark’s footprint in the next years. Together, Neustark and Holcim will be storing a significant part of the neustark’s goal of removing 1 million tons of CO2 in 2030 at their production sites generating a huge carbon removal impact.
Neustark has developed and deployed a solution that allows the removal of carbon permanently by binding it in demolition concrete. Currently, eleven storage sites are in operation, already removing CO2 every day from the atmosphere, and fifteen more are under construction.
“One million tons of CO2 removed from the atmosphere in 2030 – that’s our ambition. We’re already well under way towards the megaton goal, only four years after founding our company. Our strategic partnership with Holcim represents a significant part of this roadmap. It will be a true catalyzer to further scale up the permanent carbon removal impact that we generate in the next years,” said Johannes Tiefenthaler, founder and co-CEO of Neustark.
The two companies have a history of working together to pioneer climate solutions. Since May 2023, Holcim has been operating a mobile storage plant built by neustark, which is already storing tons of CO2 at various Holcim sites in Switzerland every week. Thanks to the extended collaboration hundreds of similar storage plants across the globe will follow in the next years.
To scale up carbon removal via mineralisation in demolition concrete, Neustark builds on partnerships with a large number of local and global construction material recyclers. Only by launching thousands of storage sites in collaboration with a multitude of partners will neustark be able to scale up the carbon removal impact that is needed in time. The Holcim collaboration is a huge step in that direction.
In addition to demolition concrete, CO2 will also be stored in slurry. Further waste streams are to be developed in joint projects.
Following the launch of its first stationary plant in 2022, neustark now has eleven CO2 storage sites in operation with a cumulative storage capacity of around 4,000 tons per year. At the end of September, the first storage plant in Germany will be launched. 15 more capture and storage sites are currently under construction in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and France.
Neustark said it is scaling up rapidly, on track towards permanently removing one million tons of CO2 in 2030. To realize its roadmap, neustark is backed by elite investors including Siemens Financial Services, ACE & Company, Verve Ventures, and now Holcim.
As part of its business model, organisations at the forefront of climate action buy neustark’s CDR, which, alongside their reduction efforts, helps them to achieve net-zero. Neustark recently secured one of the largest CDR credit purchases this year, with Switzerland’s Climate Cent Foundation having acquired 29,500 tons of its permanent carbon removal. Further CDR clients include UBS, Microsoft and Verdane.
About Holcim
Holcim’s profitable growth will be driven by innovative building solutions, from ECOPact low-carbon concrete to energy-efficient roofing systems. We will lead cement’s low-carbon transformation, with solutions like ECOPlanet, including the world’s first cement with 20% construction demolition materials inside.
“We will further fuel our company’s growth with bolt-on acquisitions in mature markets in the aggregates and ready-mix concrete businesses. Strengthening our performance, we will scale up digitalization across our value chain, from operations and distribution to customer experience.”
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About Neustark
Limiting global warming to 1.5°C implies reaching net zero CO2 emissions in 2050 according to the IPCC. Next to substantially reducing emissions, this target will only be possible by globally deploying carbon removal (CDR) solutions at the scale of billions of tons of CO2. Neustark is a leading provider in this rapidly growing field, having developed a solution to permanently store CO2 from the air in recycled mineral waste such as demolished concrete.
Our first solutions have been deployed in Switzerland and Europe and are already capturing and storing tons of CO2 every week. We are currently scaling up our operations and carbon removal impact globally – on the road to removing one million tons of CO2 in 2030, and beyond that.
Founded in 2019, Neustark AG is based in Berne, Switzerland, and is a team of around 55 people (as per Q3 2023). Together, we enable permanent CO2 storage for a bright future of all generations on our planet.
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