This Is CDR – DACC + Concrete => CDR with Na’im Merchant and Chris Neidl

This week on This Is CDR we are pleased to welcome OpenAir’s own Na’im Merchant and Chris Neidl to to survey the primary pathways by which concrete can sequester CO2 in concrete, and how direct air carbon capture (DACC) plus concrete represents a scalable CDR solution we can start deploying *today*.

Hosted by OpenAir collectors Toby Bryce (@toby.bryce) and Megha Raghavan (@megha)

PRESENTERS

Na’im Merchant (@na’im) is a carbon removal consultant helping NGOs and start-ups figure out how to equitably and rapidly scale up carbon removal technologies. Na’im entered the carbon removal space after spending a decade in international development working with governments to improve access to life-saving health care technologies. He has co-authored reports and whitepapers with organizations like Carbon180 and Clean Air Task Force, and has advised companies like CarbonCure and Joro on supporting carbon removal. He is currently looking to leverage his market shaping experience, policy background, and carbon removal expertise to accelerate deployment of direct air capture and other permanent carbon removal technologies.

Chris Neidl (@neidl_c) is the co-founder of OpenAir and in this role works primarily on the collective’s different advocacy missions. Chris entered the CDR space following a fifteen year global career in the renewable energy field as a solar installer, educator, policy advocate, researcher and business development manager. Since 2018 he has worked extensively on policies related to concrete decarbonization at the state and municipal level. In this capacity, he led OpenAir’s inaugural advocacy mission in support of the Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act (LECCLA) in New York State, and currently serves as an industrial decarbonization policy consultant for the Natural Resources Defense Council. His concrete and climate-related writing has been featured in the peer-reviewed journal Frontiers in Climate; and he co-authored “Paving the Way for Low Carbon Concrete,” a federal policy position paper produced by Carbon 180, as well as the forthcoming Design Guide to Low Carbon Concrete Procurement for State and Local Governments (NRDC, Columbia University Center on Global Energy Policy) with Caleb Woodall, Phd.