In this episode of This Is CDR, OpenAir co-hosts Chris Neidl and Megha welcome DrawDAO co-founder Charles Van Tassel. DrawDAO is a new Web 3.0 initiative that aims to accelerate the advancement of key carbon removal technologies. DrawDAO partners with prominent mission-aligned artists to raise funds for early stage, opensource carbon dioxide removal & storage projects through the creation and sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Charles shares an overview of DrawDAO’s origins and approach, with a focus on Carbon Gardener, the very first DrawDAO supported project scheduled to kick off in September 2022. Charles is joined by Carbon Gardener project lead, Cornell University researcher, Activate Fellow and This Is CDR return guest Dr. Garrett Boudinot to preview the goals and details of Carbon Gardener. See https://drawDAO.org
ABOUT OUR GUESTS Charles Van Tassel comes to DrawDAO from a background in data science, product development, and the arts. He is a co-founder of The Climate Map, a research non-profit exploring all of the different pathways and methodologies of CDRS, and has worked in climate tech at companies ranging in mission from conscious consumerism to carbon-free energy. Dr. Garrett Boudinot holds a PhD in Geological Sciences, and is one of the world’s leading experts in the area of agricultural enhanced weathering practices. Over the last two years as a Research Associate with Cornell’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Garrett has helped lead pioneering investigations into the carbon removal efficacy of rock dust. This spring he was selected as an inaugural Entrepreneurial Fellow at Activate New York, supported by NYSERDA and Columbia University, where he is working to scale up CDR through commercialization. Garrett is the technical lead for the Carbon Gardener initiative, a collaboration with the OpenAir community and, proudly, the very first project to be supported by DrawDAO later this summer.