Our Goal Our Methods How We Engage

How We Work

We focus on projects that remove, store, or prevent greenhouse gas emissions.

Short and long term impact

We develop and support carbon containment strategies with large-scale implementation potential. Our short-term goal is to support the capture and abatement of short-lived climate pollutants such as methane and HFCs with the equivalent climate benefit of 100 million tons of CO2 by 2030 at an average cost of less than $25 per ton. Our long-term goal is to support the removal and mitigation of the equivalent of 1 billion tons of CO2 by 2050 at an average cost of less than $75 per ton.

Working with partners

We partner widely, and look for inspiration for climate solutions from academics, practitioners, past efforts, and parallel fields. Our solutions are informed and shaped from the outset by the practitioners, entrepreneurs, and companies that will help bring them to scale. We also support the ideas and solutions of others that meet our internal project criteria.

Our Methods

Carbon Containment Methods

Our projects support the containment of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases through capture, storage, use, or destruction. This includes carbon dioxide removal, abated and avoided emissions, and other negative emissions technologies.

Containment

Holding CO₂ in a stable state (for example buried wood) and preventing new carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere through decay or combustion.

1
Processing

Eliminating emissions through safe, durable, and verifiable methods that use or destroy the gas.

2
Avoided Emissions

Preventing emissions from entering the atmosphere through reductions and avoided emissions.

3

Containment

Holding CO₂ in a stable state (for example buried wood) and preventing new carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere through decay or combustion.

1

Removal
Removing carbon from the air or water. Includes photosynthesis, Direct Air Carbon Capture (DACC) and aqueous carbon removal via enhanced weathering.

Capture
Gathering emissions from a point source. Includes emissions from mines and landfills, as well as bioenergy and carbon capture.

Storage
Safely and durably holding carbon. Includes underground injection of CO₂ and wood carbon preservation.
Processing

Eliminating emissions through safe, durable, and verifiable methods that use or destroy the gas.

2

Use
Using CO₂ or CH₄ as a product, fuel, or for another valuable end use. Includes bioenergy and mass timber.

Destruction
Destroying greenhouse gases by combustion, incineration, or oxidation. Includes using existing technologies such as flares and regenerative thermal oxidation.
Avoided Emissions

Preventing emissions from entering the atmosphere through reductions and avoided emissions.

3

Abatement
Reducing emissions using new strategies or approaches to lessen emissions from an activity or process.

Low-Cost

Verifiable

Scalable

Practicable

Novel or Neglected

Resource-Efficient

Safe & Benign

Regulatorily Feasible

Project Vetting and Criteria

We screen our projects against a rigorous and comprehensive list of criteria. Among other considerations, these criteria help us evaluate the risks and advantages of any project, whether the project can reasonably be expected to scale up beyond an initial pilot, and whether the carbon removed or stored by the project can be verifiably measured.

Project Economics

From the start, we evaluate projects to ensure they are scalable and can be deployed at low-cost. New projects and technologies are designed with economics considered from the outset. Carbon market analysis and carbon pricing projections are important components of this appraisal. We also review neglected technologies where changing market conditions might now allow for deployment.

Project Life Cycle and Impact

When reviewing and designing solutions, we consider ecological, human, and industrial systems. This work uses a full life cycle perspective, applying techno-economic, environmental, and social impact assessments. We prioritize engagement with community members where our solutions will be sited. Understanding the priorities of these stakeholders is key to the equitable implementation of climate solutions.

How We Engage

Engaging in Emerging Carbon Markets

Efficient and transparent carbon markets are critical for scaling and implementing greenhouse gas reduction, removal, and storage. Our team engages with these nascent markets in several ways, including participation in integrity initiatives and project methodology reviews.

We ensure that our projects' removals or reductions can be rigorously measured, reported, and verified — essential characteristics for high-quality credit generation. Our team also monitors developments in the voluntary carbon markets including major buyers, key suppliers, and emerging marketplaces.

Connecting Innovators with Practitioners

Sometimes, the biggest breakthroughs come from having the right people around the table. Our team draws upon deep connections in the private sector, scientific, and investment communities to implement our projects.

Sponsored Research

We sponsor research with leading experts in carbon containment, with a focus on unlocking scientific and technical knowledge that could reduce costs or expand scale of climate solutions.

As a mission-driven nonprofit organization, it is the policy of the Carbon Containment Lab to pay no more than 10 percent overhead fee to sponsored research projects being conducted by partners as directed by the Carbon Containment Lab (as of April 16, 2024).

Meeting collaborators in the field. CC Lab, 2022.

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Frequently Asked Questions

We use “carbon containment” to refer to activities that remove, mitigate, and/or sequester carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. We focus on carbon containment methods that either enhance or are additional to natural processes such as photosynthesis.

The CC Lab is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that advances the design, testing, and implementation of novel and neglected carbon containment. We seek to support not just one stakeholder but entire ecosystems with rigorous research, analysis, and initiative-building.

In our first four years, we’ve:

— Run nationwide field experiments to test the viability of methods that delay or prevent the decomposition of woody biomass and partnered with leading practitioners to pilot these methods

— Helped raise awareness to support the reduction of methane emissions at active and abandoned coal mines in the US

— Developed and published a draft methodology for the generation of emissions reductions from the recovery and destruction of hydrofluorocarbon refrigerants

— Conducted feasibility assessments and formed regional partnerships for a carbon sequestration hub in the Pacific Northwest

— Sponsored research with leading Yale labs to develop novel technologies for carbon removal, methane destruction, and fluorocarbon decomposition

You can visit our Biologic, Geologic, and Anthropogenic Program pages to learn more about these and other past and ongoing projects. We are excited to accelerate our pace and expand our reach in 2024 and beyond.

The CC Lab selects areas where clear, tractable bottlenecks are holding back large-scale emissions reduction or removal efforts. We investigate either emission sources (such as cooling equipment) or technology categories (such as ex situ carbon mineralization), looking for high-impact, system-level problems that an independent nonprofit is uniquely suited to solve. Then we assess potential projects against a set of eight criteria: low-cost, verifiable, scalable, practicable, novel or neglected, resource-efficient, safe and benign, and regulatorily feasible.

We are always looking for interesting problems and opportunities to take up. In addition to novel systems, we also consider neglected or transferable solutions. If you think there’s a carbon containment method we should be considering, please email info@cclab.org.

We set our goals for carbon containment quantitatively, measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e): a near-term goal of 30 million MTCO2e contained by 2030, and 500 million MTCO2e contained by 2050. Though these targets are highly ambitious, we are confident that by maintaining a portfolio of high-potential solutions we will be able to achieve them.

Yes! We are always eager to broaden our network of collaborators. If you are interested in working with the CC Lab, or gathering more information about us, please email info@cclab.org.

The CC Lab is funded entirely with individual gifts and grants.

The CC Lab was founded within the Yale School of the Environment in 2020, and spun out into an independent entity in February 2024. We did so to seek more flexibility in deploying our time and resources to our projects. To learn more about the spin-out and our relationship to Yale moving forward, you can read a Yale School of the Environment Q&A with our founder Dean Takahashi here.

Currently, the CC Lab is not a grant-making organization, although we have funded external research, experimentation, and testing when it aligns with our project goals.

The CC Lab neither is nor plans to be a carbon credit registry. We are also not validators, verifiers, or developers of carbon credit projects. However, we believe that efficient and transparent carbon markets are critical for scaling and implementing greenhouse gas reduction, removal, and storage. Our team engages with these nascent markets in several ways, including participation in integrity initiatives and project methodology reviews.

Although we engage with carbon market stakeholders in pursuit of our goal of scaled carbon containment, we do so as an independent nonprofit without financial interest.