CORPORATE INTEGRATION OF CDR INTO PRODUCTION AND VALUE CHAINS

Companies can add carbon removal to the way they produce goods and services, either by developing the activity themselves or by bringing in a specialist project developer. A pulp mill, for example, can host equipment that captures its biomass-derived CO₂ while a developer arranges financing, construction, transport, storage and credit sales. The partners may establish a joint venture, a company they own together, or sign contracts that divide those responsibilities. Other businesses can change the materials they buy, require suppliers to capture and store carbon, or turn timber residues into biochar, a stable carbon-rich material used in soils. A concrete producer can use CO₂ captured from the air and store it as minerals in its products. Management activates the lever by approving these changes and the associated investment or partnership. Buying unrelated removal credits to compensate for emissions is a separate action.

Management must decide who designs, pays for, owns and operates the removal equipment, and how it fits with ordinary production. A joint venture needs agreed voting rights and a process for resolving disagreements. A specialist developer needs reliable access to the host's site, carbon stream and utilities for the project's lifetime. Agreements must divide costs and credit revenue, assign monitoring and storage responsibilities, and address outages, insolvency or closure. Products must still meet quality, safety and cost requirements. Companies must establish the carbon's origin and how long it will remain stored. Capturing and storing fossil CO₂ reduces emissions but does not remove atmospheric carbon; mixed-fuel plants must identify the biomass share. Net-removal calculations must deduct energy, processing and transport emissions and consider what would otherwise have happened to the biomass. Biochar that is later burned does not provide lasting storage. Contracts must also settle who can sell credits and what producers and customers may claim.

An established business can use its workers, premises, energy connections and suppliers to support a removal activity. A specialist developer can supply the engineering experience, financing contacts and credit-selling capability that the business lacks, while the host contributes access to its site and production process. The partners can share investment and revenue through a joint venture or agree payments for hosting the project and supplying heat, materials or CO₂. Income from ordinary products and removal credits can help pay for shared equipment and services. Operating alongside normal production reveals whether the process is reliable and affordable. Successful designs and partnership agreements can then be used at other facilities, reducing the work needed to develop each project.

New equipment or materials can disrupt production, affect product quality or increase energy and water use. A removal project hosted at a mill may stop if the mill closes, changes fuels or cannot provide the agreed heat or CO₂. Partners may disagree over investment, operating priorities or revenue, and one partner's financial failure can leave the other with unfinished equipment or continuing obligations. Companies can overstate removals by allocating too little of the shared operation's emissions to the new activity, or by selling a credit while a product customer claims the same removal. Increased biomass demand can displace other uses or encourage unsustainable harvesting. Products may release stored carbon when discarded. Companies should assess the whole process and continue reducing their existing emissions alongside the removal activity.

Companies and project partners should compare actual performance with the agreed business case, including capital committed, costs, production interruptions, product quality, resource use and independently verified removals. Records should show where the carbon came from, how it was processed and where it remains stored. Expected future volumes should be reported separately from completed removals. Reviews should also examine whether each partner provides the promised site access, utilities, finance and operating services. These findings should inform decisions to expand the activity, change responsibilities or stop it.

The host company's managers, engineers, operators and workers should agree how the project will fit with normal production and safety. Project developers and investors should establish who funds and manages construction and operation. Suppliers and storage providers must document the carbon's movement and agree who deals with failures. Customers and standards bodies should confirm product suitability, while independent verifiers check removal calculations. Lenders and insurers assess each partner's commitments and capacity to meet them. Regulators and affected communities should be involved in decisions about pollution, resource use, transport and eventual closure.

Company management and project developers pull this lever by approving investments, changing production or entering agreements to develop and operate removal projects. They can act through a jointly owned company or contracts between separate businesses. Publicly owned companies can make the same operational decisions. Trade associations can help agree product specifications, and governments or foundations can offer support, but the participating companies decide how the removal activity is integrated and who is responsible for it.