Olivier Reinaud is Co-Founder & Managing Director at NetZero, a startup bringing carbon removal at scale in the tropics with biochar.

Launched in 2021 with a diverse founding team, including the climatologist Jean Jouzel (IPCC vice chair), NetZero has rapidly demonstrated its technology in Cameroon and Brazil and has been selected in the prestigious Musk Foundation’s X Prize for Carbon Removal.

With $12M raised recently to scale up operations, Net Zero aims to remove 2 million tons of CO2 with biochar by 2030 with a mutually beneficial partnership between all biochar stakeholders:

• Agricultural cooperatives get to valorize cumbersome biomass residues into biochar
• Farmers get that biochar to improve yields and minimize fertilizer use
• Food companies finance biochar production to reduce their supply chain carbon emissions

In this episode, we talk with Olivier about:

• how is grandfather ventured into biochar when climate change was still doubted or ignored by most
• the key role of carbon credits in achieving a net zero world
• how biochar is produced, how does it capture carbon from plants, and what are the benefits for farmers
• Net Zero licensing model and how it will enable this startup to rapidly grow from 2 facilities to hundreds of biochar facilities

Enjoy the discussion!