Climeworks, a pioneer of direct air capture (DAC) technology. announced on 12 January that it has delivered its first carbon removal services, performed at Orca, to its corporate customers, including Microsoft, Shopify, and Stripe. 

Climeworks’ carbon dioxide removal services were certified by DNV, an independent quality and assurance leader, after a successful audit. 

According to a statement by Climeworks, the certification process is based on a rigorous direct air capture & storage (DAC + S) methodology, which was co-developed by Climeworks and Carbfix, and validated by DNV in 2022.

For certification, DNV verifies Climeworks CDR services performed at Orca, following this methodology, and ensures the removals were properly measured and reported. DNV confirms that the CDR allocated to a customer cannot be double-counted and matches with performed and available quantities of certified Climeworks CDR Services.

“On Climeworks' journey to gigaton scale, providing our first corporate customers with CDR services is an exciting milestone we're proud to reach with the rigorous validation of a certifying 3rd party. 

“It demonstrates we want to do the right things but also do them the right way. Scaling our operations fast is only one part of the Climeworks mission. The other part is that this scale-up follows high standards, guaranteeing our customers they can trust our CDR to be of highest quality, meaning additional, highly durable, and safe,” said Christoph Gebald, Co-CEO and Co-founder of Cimeworks. 

“To stay within the limits of the Paris Agreement, the scale-up of global DAC capacities must happen fast. To do so we need to continue to ensure trust in carbon removal, the DAC industry and the carbon market. Clear definitions and industry standards of what CDR is as well as clear rules on key criteria such as durability, additionality, and measurability are needed. 

“At Climeworks, we strive for the highest integrity by setting and following stringent standards to earn this trust, and the performance of our first certified CDR services are another proof point of this. We want to lead by example and to be a reliable partner to customers and policymakers,” commented Christoph Beuttler, Chief Climate Policy Officer at Climeworks.

Climeworks has launched more than 15 projects into operation across Europe, including Orca. 

Delivering third-party certified CDR services is a milestone for the DAC industry more broadly. DAC needs to scale drastically over the coming decades, and industry-wide standards are needed to build the trust that is required for this to happen, claims Climeworks.