
Using seaweed to benefit the climate – an impact funders perspective
Using seaweed to benefit the climate – an impact funders perspective
About the speaker:
At the Grantham Foundation, Marc is supporting the development of innovative climate solutions, with an emphasis on ocean-based carbon dioxide removal strategies, through direct investments and grantmaking. Before joining the Grantham Foundation, he served as a program director at ARPA-E launching and managing a diverse portfolio of energy and climate-focused funding programs, including the MARINER program. Other professional experiences include work as a consulting engineer, management of the central bioprocessing facility of the University of Minnesota, as well as founding and leading an industrial biotech startup. He studied biology and chemical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe (KIT) and INSA Toulouse and obtained an M.S. and a Ph.D. in environmental engineering from Stanford University and the University of Minnesota, respectively.
Company info:
The Grantham Foundation is a private charitable foundation with a mission to protect and improve the health of the global environment. The Foundation seeks to raise awareness of urgent environmental issues and supports individuals and organizations to find solutions. Over the last several years, the Grantham Foundation has funded an extensive portfolio of projects focused on breakthrough technologies to drastically reduce emissions and remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
Presentation:
In the last few years, seaweed cultivation has received a lot of attention as a promising new tool for carbon capture and sequestration. The early enthusiasm has been followed by closer scrutiny of the potential challenges and limitations for seaweed-based approaches to achieve climate-relevant scale at a cost-competitive with other carbon removal technologies. This presentation will attempt to sort through the sometimes contradictory information to chart a path forward from the perspective of a climate motivated funder/investor.
Keywords:
seaweed, carbon capture, impact investment
Interview: