Enhanced rock weathering pulls carbon dioxide from the air using crushed rock. Jim Mann, CEO and founder of Undo, explains how the process works and why the technology scales fast. Undo turns rock dust into permanent carbon storage and sells credits to Microsoft and British Airways at $350 a ton, a price Mann expects to halve within years.
The atmosphere holds 1.7 trillion tons of legacy CO2, and enhanced rock weathering ranks among the few carbon removal pathways built to pull carbon out for good. Jim Mann, CEO and founder of Undo, joins host Tim Montague to break down how his company spreads crushed basalt on farmland to speed up natural rock weathering by 50,000 to 100,000 times, turning atmospheric CO2 into bicarbonate that stays locked in the ocean for around 100,000 years.
Undo counts Microsoft, Barclays, British Airways, and McLaren Racing among its customers, selling durable carbon removal credits at roughly $350 a ton today, with a path toward half that price as the company scales. Mann and Montague debate whether net zero targets go far enough, why the EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism forms the backbone of a real carbon market, and what enhanced rock weathering needs to move from thousands of tons a year to the gigaton scale the IPCC says the world needs.
Here is what you will learn in this conversation about enhanced rock weathering and carbon removal economics:
- You'll learn how Undo speeds up natural rock weathering by 50,000 to 100,000 times by spreading crushed basalt on farmland.
- Find out why bicarbonate formed through enhanced rock weathering stays locked in the ocean for around 100,000 years.
- Understand how Undo prices carbon removal credits near $350 a ton today, and why Mann expects the price to fall by half.
- Hear Tim push back on net zero as a partial solution, since 1.7 trillion tons of CO2 already sit in the atmosphere.
- Learn how the EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism links carbon removal to emissions trading and builds a real compliance market.
The EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism now stands in force, and similar rules move through the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Regulators start linking carbon removal directly to emissions trading, moving today's voluntary carbon market toward a compliance market with real teeth.
If you are trying to figure out where permanent carbon removal fits next to renewables and storage in your own project pipeline or client conversations, this episode gives you the numbers to start that conversation.
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