Playbook: Adopting Carbon removal procurement & offtakes in 90 days

Global corporations have committed to purchasing over 90 million tonnes of carbon dioxide removal by 2030, yet actual contracted volumes sit below 15 million tonnes as of early 2026. A 2025 analysis by CDR.fyi found that the gap between corporate pledges and binding offtake agreements has widened every year since 2022, with procurement teams citing supplier evaluation complexity, price uncertainty, and measurement verification as the primary barriers to closing deals.

Why It Matters

The voluntary carbon market is undergoing a structural shift from avoidance-based offsets toward permanent carbon removal. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) now requires companies with net-zero commitments to neutralize residual emissions through carbon dioxide removal (CDR) rather than avoidance credits. The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) has raised the bar through its Core Carbon Principles, effectively disqualifying a large share of legacy forestry offsets. Meanwhile, compliance markets are beginning to incorporate removal credits: the EU Emissions Trading System is evaluating carbon removal integration, and California's cap-and-trade program has signaled openness to engineered removal pathways. Companies that establish procurement capabilities now will lock in lower prices and secure supply before the 2028-2030 demand surge that multiple forecasts project. Those that delay will face a seller's market with constrained supply and premium pricing on high-quality removal tonnes.

Key Concepts

Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR): Any process that captures CO2 from the ambient atmosphere and durably stores it in geological, terrestrial, or ocean reservoirs, or in products. This distinguishes removal from point-source carbon capture, which intercepts emissions at industrial facilities before they reach the atmosphere.

Offtake Agreements: Binding contracts where a buyer commits to purchasing a specified volume of carbon removal credits at an agreed price over a defined period, typically 5-15 years. These forward contracts provide revenue certainty that CDR developers need to secure project financing and build facilities.

Durability: The length of time captured carbon remains stored. Geological storage via direct air capture (DAC) offers 1,000+ year permanence. Enhanced rock weathering provides centuries-scale storage. Biochar delivers decades to centuries. Forest-based sequestration carries reversal risk from fire, disease, or land-use change.

Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV): The protocols for quantifying how much CO2 a project actually removes and stores. Robust MRV is the foundation of credible procurement, distinguishing verified tonnes from modeled estimates.

Advance Market Commitments (AMCs): Buyer coalitions that aggregate demand and guarantee purchase volumes to de-risk early-stage CDR projects. Frontier (backed by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey) is the most prominent example, having committed over $1 billion in advance purchase commitments.

What's Working

Aggregated buyer coalitions reducing transaction costs: Frontier has demonstrated that pooling corporate demand through a single intermediary accelerates supplier evaluation, standardizes contract terms, and reduces per-buyer due diligence costs. By early 2026, Frontier had facilitated over $200 million in pre-purchase agreements with 14 CDR suppliers across direct air capture, enhanced weathering, biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS), and ocean-based pathways.

Portfolio approach to technology diversification: Microsoft's carbon removal procurement program, one of the largest globally at over 5.5 million tonnes contracted through 2030, deliberately spreads purchases across multiple CDR pathways. This strategy hedges against single-technology delivery risk while supporting market development across the durability spectrum. Microsoft's 2025 carbon removal report showed that portfolio diversification reduced weighted delivery risk by 35% compared to single-pathway procurement.

Standardized contract frameworks accelerating deal velocity: The Carbon Removal Alliance and the World Economic Forum have published template offtake agreements that reduce legal negotiation from months to weeks. These frameworks address key sticking points including delivery milestones, MRV requirements, credit retirement protocols, and force majeure provisions. Companies using standardized templates report 60-70% faster time-to-contract compared to bespoke negotiations.

Enhanced weathering reaching commercial scale: Companies like Lithos Carbon, UNDO, and Eion have deployed enhanced rock weathering on agricultural land across multiple continents, offering removal at $80-$150 per tonne with co-benefits for soil health and crop yields. This pathway is scaling faster than DAC due to lower capital requirements and integration with existing agricultural operations.

What's Not Working

Price discovery remains opaque and fragmented: CDR prices range from $30 per tonne for biochar of uncertain durability to over $600 per tonne for DAC with geological storage. The lack of a liquid, transparent market makes it difficult for procurement teams to benchmark pricing or justify spend to CFOs. Published price indices like those from CDR.fyi and Puro.earth cover only a fraction of transactions, and bilateral deals dominate the market.

MRV gaps undermining buyer confidence: Several early CDR projects have delivered fewer verified tonnes than contracted, with shortfalls ranging from 20% to 60% of projected volumes. Enhanced weathering projects face particular MRV challenges because measuring dissolution rates in field conditions involves significant uncertainty. Buyers without technical capacity to evaluate MRV claims risk overpaying for undelivered removal.

Regulatory fragmentation creating compliance uncertainty: The EU Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) is still being finalized, the US has no federal CDR credit standard, and voluntary standards from Puro.earth, Isometric, and Verra apply different methodologies. Buyers making multi-year commitments face the risk that credits purchased today may not qualify under future compliance frameworks.

Long delivery timelines misaligned with corporate reporting cycles: Most DAC projects require 3-5 years from offtake signing to first delivery. Companies purchasing removal to meet near-term net-zero milestones discover that contracted tonnes will not be available when needed for reporting purposes. This timing mismatch has caused several high-profile corporate buyers to supplement CDR portfolios with nature-based credits of lower permanence as interim measures.

KPIs for Carbon Removal Procurement

KPI	Getting Started	Scaling	Leading Practice
CDR portfolio volume (tonnes/year)	500-2,000	5,000-20,000	50,000+
Weighted average durability (years)	50-100	100-500	500+
Supplier diversity (number of pathways)	1-2	3-4	5+
MRV verification rate (% of claimed tonnes verified)	60-70%	80-90%	95%+
Price per tonne (weighted average, USD)	$200-$400	$100-$250	<$150
Delivery performance (% on-time, on-volume)	50-70%	75-85%	90%+

The 90-Day Adoption Playbook

Phase 1: Strategy and Stakeholder Alignment (Days 1-30)

Residual emissions assessment: Quantify the emissions that will remain after all feasible abatement measures are implemented. This residual figure determines the volume of CDR needed to reach net-zero. Most companies find residual emissions of 5-20% of their baseline, depending on sector and abatement trajectory. Use the SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard as the reference framework for defining residual emissions boundaries.

Internal stakeholder mapping and education: Carbon removal procurement touches sustainability, finance, legal, and procurement functions. Convene a cross-functional working group and invest in education because CDR is technically complex and most procurement teams have no prior experience evaluating geological storage or weathering kinetics. Brief the CFO on pricing trajectories: CDR prices are expected to decline 40-60% by 2035 as technologies scale, but early movers secure supply and build institutional knowledge.

Budget allocation and approval: Secure a dedicated CDR procurement budget rather than embedding it in general offset spending. Leading companies allocate $10-$50 per tonne of residual emissions as a starting internal carbon price for removal, escalating over time. Frame the investment as a hedge against future compliance costs because carbon removal will likely become mandatory rather than voluntary within the decade.

Market landscape scan: Catalog available CDR suppliers by pathway, geography, price, durability, and MRV methodology. Resources include CDR.fyi's supplier database, Frontier's portfolio disclosures, and Isometric's registry. Identify 10-15 potential suppliers for detailed evaluation.

Phase 2: Supplier Evaluation and Contract Structuring (Days 31-60)

Technical due diligence framework: Develop a scoring rubric covering permanence (how long carbon stays stored), additionality (would removal happen without your purchase), MRV robustness (is quantification based on direct measurement or modeling), and delivery risk (project stage, financing status, permitting progress). Weight permanence and MRV heavily because these factors drive long-term credit value.

Supplier shortlisting and site visits: Narrow to 5-7 suppliers across at least 3 pathways. Conduct virtual or in-person site visits for shortlisted projects. Verify that physical infrastructure matches development timelines. Request third-party MRV audit reports and reference buyer conversations.

Portfolio construction: Design a portfolio that balances cost, durability, delivery timeline, and co-benefits. A common structure allocates 30-40% of volume to high-permanence pathways (DAC, BiCRS), 30-40% to medium-permanence pathways (enhanced weathering, biochar), and 20-30% to nature-based removal with strong MRV (coastal blue carbon, reforestation with monitoring). This tiered approach manages risk while building exposure to frontier technologies.

Contract negotiation using standard frameworks: Use the Carbon Removal Alliance template or Frontier's contract structure as a starting point. Key terms to negotiate include milestone-based payment schedules (avoid paying 100% upfront), delivery guarantees with penalties for shortfall, MRV requirements specifying acceptable verification bodies, credit retirement mechanisms, and provisions for technology or methodology updates.

Phase 3: Execution and Governance (Days 61-90)

First purchase execution: Execute initial offtake agreements with 2-3 suppliers. Start with smaller volumes (500-2,000 tonnes) to build internal processes before scaling. Structure contracts with options to increase volume in subsequent years as confidence grows and budgets expand.

MRV integration and monitoring: Establish a process for receiving and reviewing MRV reports from suppliers. Designate an internal technical lead or engage a third-party advisor (firms like Carbon Direct, Sylvera, or BeZero Carbon specialize in CDR quality assessment) to review verification reports. Set up quarterly supplier review calls to track delivery progress against milestones.

Registry and retirement protocols: Select a carbon removal registry (Puro.earth, Isometric, or CDR.fyi) for credit issuance and retirement. Ensure credits are retired against specific corporate emissions in auditable fashion, linked to your GHG inventory and sustainability reporting. Avoid double-counting by establishing clear retirement documentation.

Governance and scaling roadmap: Present first-quarter results to the cross-functional working group and executive sponsors. Document lessons learned including supplier performance, MRV quality, and internal process bottlenecks. Build a 3-5 year scaling roadmap that increases CDR volume in line with the corporate net-zero trajectory, diversifies the supplier portfolio, and targets price reduction through multi-year commitments and aggregated purchasing.

Common Adoption Failures and How to Avoid Them

Failure: Treating CDR as interchangeable with traditional offsets. Procurement teams applying offset purchasing habits to CDR underestimate the technical complexity and due diligence required. CDR contracts involve delivery risk, MRV uncertainty, and technology-specific considerations that offsets do not. Mitigation: Build dedicated CDR procurement expertise or engage specialist advisors for the first 12-18 months.

Failure: Over-concentrating in a single pathway. Companies that bet entirely on DAC face delivery risk if construction timelines slip, while those that buy only biochar may find their portfolio lacks the permanence required by evolving standards. Mitigation: Maintain a minimum of three CDR pathways in the portfolio and cap any single supplier at 40% of total volume.

Failure: Ignoring co-benefits and community impact. CDR projects operate in communities that may have concerns about land use, water consumption, or industrial development. Projects that skip community engagement face permitting delays and reputational risk. Mitigation: Include community benefit requirements in supplier evaluation criteria and favor projects with transparent stakeholder engagement records.

Key Players

Established Leaders

• Microsoft: Largest corporate CDR buyer globally with over 5.5 million tonnes contracted through 2030 across multiple pathways. Published detailed annual carbon removal reports that serve as industry benchmarks.
• Stripe: Co-founded Frontier and pioneered the advance market commitment model for CDR. Committed over $15 million annually to early-stage removal purchases since 2020.
• Swiss Re: Largest corporate CDR purchase by an insurer, using removal credits to neutralize residual emissions. Contracted with Climeworks and other DAC providers for high-permanence removal.
• Airbus: Committed to purchasing 400,000 tonnes of CDR through 2030 to address hard-to-abate aviation emissions.

Emerging Startups

• Climeworks: Swiss DAC company operating the world's largest DAC plant (Mammoth, 36,000 tonnes/year capacity in Iceland). Secured over $600 million in equity and project financing.
• Lithos Carbon: Enhanced rock weathering company deploying crushed basalt on farmland across North America. Raised over $80 million and delivered verified removal to Microsoft, Stripe, and Frontier.
• Charm Industrial: Converts biomass waste into bio-oil injected into geological storage for permanent sequestration. One of the first CDR suppliers to deliver verified tonnes at scale to Frontier buyers.
• Isometric: CDR verification and registry platform providing independent scientific assessment of removal claims. Backed by leading climate tech investors.

Key Investors and Funders

• Frontier (Advance Market Commitment): $1 billion+ buyer coalition including Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, McKinsey, and JPMorgan Chase, aggregating demand to de-risk early CDR projects.
• Lowercarbon Capital: Climate tech venture fund with significant CDR portfolio including investments in Charm Industrial, Heirloom Carbon, and Running Tide.
• US Department of Energy: Allocated $3.5 billion for DAC hub development through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, funding four regional DAC hubs across the United States.

Action Checklist

• Quantify residual emissions using SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard methodology
• Convene a cross-functional CDR working group spanning sustainability, finance, legal, and procurement
• Secure dedicated CDR procurement budget with executive approval
• Complete a market landscape scan of 10-15 potential CDR suppliers across multiple pathways
• Develop a technical due diligence scoring rubric covering permanence, additionality, MRV, and delivery risk
• Shortlist 5-7 suppliers and conduct technical reviews or site visits
• Design a diversified CDR portfolio across at least 3 pathways
• Execute initial offtake agreements using standardized contract frameworks
• Establish MRV review processes with internal or third-party technical oversight
• Set up registry accounts and credit retirement protocols linked to GHG inventory
• Build a 3-5 year CDR scaling roadmap aligned with corporate net-zero targets

FAQ

How much should a company expect to spend per tonne of carbon removal? Prices vary widely by pathway and permanence. Enhanced weathering and biochar range from $50-$200 per tonne. BiCRS sits at $100-$300 per tonne. DAC with geological storage costs $400-$600 per tonne as of early 2026, though prices are declining rapidly as capacity scales. A diversified portfolio typically yields a weighted average of $150-$300 per tonne.

Should procurement teams join a buyer coalition like Frontier or buy directly? Both approaches have merit. Coalitions like Frontier reduce due diligence costs, provide access to pre-vetted suppliers, and offer volume aggregation that smaller buyers cannot achieve alone. Direct procurement gives buyers more control over supplier selection, contract terms, and co-benefit requirements. Many companies use a hybrid approach, purchasing 50-60% through coalitions and 40-50% through direct bilateral agreements.

What happens if a CDR supplier fails to deliver contracted volumes? Well-structured contracts include delivery milestones with cure periods, volume shortfall penalties, and termination clauses. Buyers should also maintain a diversified supplier base so that shortfall from one provider can be partially offset by increasing orders with others. Portfolio-level delivery risk should be modeled at the time of contract signing using supplier track records and project maturity assessments.

How does CDR procurement interact with SBTi and other standard-setting frameworks? The SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard requires companies to neutralize residual emissions through CDR to achieve net-zero status. SBTi is developing detailed guidance on qualifying CDR purchases, expected to emphasize permanence, additionality, and robust MRV. Companies that build procurement capabilities aligned with SBTi criteria now will be well-positioned when final guidance is published.

When should a company start CDR procurement relative to its net-zero target date? Start 5-10 years before the target date. DAC projects have 3-5 year delivery timelines, and enhanced weathering requires 1-2 years from contract to first verified delivery. Early procurement also locks in supply at lower prices before the anticipated demand surge. Companies with 2040 net-zero targets should be contracting first CDR volumes by 2026-2028 at the latest.

Sources

1. CDR.fyi. "The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal: 2025 Market Report." CDR.fyi, 2025.
2. Frontier. "Frontier Climate: 2025 Annual Report on Advance Market Commitments." Frontier, 2025.
3. Microsoft. "Microsoft Carbon Removal: Lessons from an Expanding Portfolio." Microsoft, 2025.
4. Science Based Targets initiative. "SBTi Corporate Net-Zero Standard v2.0." SBTi, 2025.
5. Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market. "Core Carbon Principles: Assessment Framework." ICVCM, 2025.
6. Smith, S. M. et al. "The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal." University of Oxford, 2024.
7. International Energy Agency. "Direct Air Capture: A Key Technology for Net Zero." IEA, 2025.
8. Carbon Removal Alliance. "Standardized Offtake Agreement Framework for Carbon Dioxide Removal." CRA, 2025.