Watershed, the leading enterprise sustainability platform, today announced a first-of-its-kind partnership with Frontier, the advance market commitment to accelerate the development of permanent carbon removal technologies. The partnership will broaden access to climate-critical permanent carbon removal technologies by enabling buy-in for Watershed customers at a wider range of commitment sizes.
Boom Supersonic, Canva, SKIMS, and Zendesk are the first Watershed customers to participate in Frontier as part of a new phase of expanded access to Frontier’s permanent carbon removal solutions. The Watershed-led cohort includes companies at new scales, in diverse geographies, and across sectors including apparel and aerospace. All Watershed customers will have the opportunity to participate in Frontier through the partnership, supercharging cross-economy access to high-potential carbon removal technologies and companies. The participation of Watershed customers will set a new standard for ambitious climate action for companies across the economy.
“Our unprecedented partnership with Frontier means that companies of all sizes will be able to meaningfully buy into the most promising permanent carbon removal pathways – paving the way for a thriving sector whose success is critical to hitting climate goals,” said Watershed co-founder Christian Anderson. “This is the next phase in Watershed’s mission to help companies across sectors, geographies, and scales uplevel their climate ambition. We’re excited to lead the way alongside Frontier and our customers to spearhead the future of carbon removal technology.”
Access to carbon removal solutions is a key part of Watershed’s enterprise sustainability platform, which helps businesses measure, report, and act on their carbon footprint. The partnership builds on Watershed's existing suite of high-integrity carbon removal options offered to customers in the Watershed Marketplace. Watershed customers have purchased carbon removal from over 30 different nature-based and permanent carbon removal projects, from direct air capture and bio-oil sequestration to reforestation and biochar.
“Watershed’s partnership with Frontier enables a fast-growing network of companies in the Watershed Marketplace to support the nascent carbon removal ecosystem,” said Nan Ransohoff, Head of Frontier. “We hope this makes it much easier for any company, regardless of size or sector, to make high-quality permanent carbon removal part of its corporate climate program, alongside emissions reduction.”
As the world’s leading companies double down on reaching ambitious climate goals, scaling permanent carbon removal solutions is a critical piece of the equation. Greenhouse gas emissions can be drastically reduced by electrifying transportation, transitioning to renewable energy, and stopping deforestation, but more than a quarter of today’s emissions may need to be removed.
While permanent carbon removal technologies have developed significantly in recent years, they require further investment and market support. Frontier’s advance market commitment structure aims to accelerate the development of permanent carbon removal by guaranteeing future demand, sending a strong demand signal to researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors that there is a growing market for these technologies.
“Boom is committed to building a sustainable supersonic future by driving impact at scale,” said Kathy Savitt, President of Boom Supersonic. “We are participating in the Frontier program through our partnership with Watershed to accelerate permanent carbon removal across industries, taking another step toward our commitment to net zero by 2025.”
“If humankind is truly going to halt climate change we are going to need a host of solutions to tackle the problem. We're thrilled to be supporting Frontier's mission to scale a portfolio of world-class carbon removal solutions as part of this, and we're proud to be the first Australian participant to do so. At Canva, we're passionate about solving the world's biggest problems and hope our involvement in climate action will inspire other organizations to develop their own sustainability practices. It’s only through collective action that we can preserve our planet for future generations,” Cameron Adams, co-founder and chief product officer, Canva.
“Innovation is at the core of everything we do at SKIMS, so it’s important for us to invest in like-minded partners that are bold and revolutionary. Joining Watershed and Frontier’s collective impact for carbon removal is SKIMS’ first step in approaching the far-reaching implications of climate change, and we couldn’t have aligned with better partners to lead us,” said Jens Grede, Co-Founder & CEO, SKIMS.
“At Zendesk, we believe that permanent carbon removal is indispensable for a successful transition to a net zero future. Accelerating and scaling the early stage carbon removal technologies is a key part of Zendesk’s climate strategy, and we are excited to partner with other leaders in the Frontier and Watershed communities in this journey,” said Shengyuan Su, Sustainability Director at Zendesk.
Frontier’s supplier companies leverage technologies including biomass burial, direct air capture, enhanced weathering, and more. Frontier has a rigorous, science-backed vetting process for their suppliers. They control for length of carbon storage, physical footprint, cost, scalability and capacity, net carbon negativity, additionality, scientific verifiability, environmental justice concerns, and safety and legality. Frontier’s founders are Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey Sustainability. For more on Frontier’s portfolio of technologies, visit https://frontierclimate.com/portfolio.
Press Contact: Amelia Penniman (amelia@watershed.com)
