Zurich-based Direct Air Capture (DAC) startup Climeworks announced today the delivery of the first-ever third-party certified carbon dioxide removal (CDR) for corporate customers, including Microsoft, Shopify and Stripe.

The carbon removal was performed at Orca, Climework’s Iceland-based Direct Air Capture facility, and currently the world’s only commercial DAC and storage plant, with capacity to remove 4,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

DAC technology, listed by the IEA as a key carbon removal option in the transition to a net zero energy system, extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere for use as a raw material or permanently removed when combined with storage. According to the landmark IPCC climate change mitigation study released last year, scenarios that limit warming to 1.5°C include carbon dioxide removal methods scaling to billions of tons of removal annually over the coming decades, with DAC positioned to potentially account for a significant portion of the total.

Founded in 2009 by Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher, Climeworks has emerged as the leading DAC provider. Last year, the company raised nearly $650 million in an equity funding round aimed at scaling its DAC capacity. The company has since started construction of “Mammoth,” a new 36,000 tonne-capacity DAC facility.

Climeworks has stated that it aims to scale up its CO2 capture capacity to multi-megatons by 2030, and to reach gigaton scale by 2050.

Gebald said:

“On Climeworks’ journey to gigaton scale, providing our first corporate customers with CDR services is an exciting milestone we’re proud to reach with the rigorous validation of a certifying 3rd party. It demonstrates we want to do the right things but also do them the right way.”

The certification for Climeworks’ Direct Air Capture and storage methodology was provided by independent quality and assurance provider DNV. According to Climeworks, the certification means that the services were performed following the validated methodology, and ensures that allocations to customers cannot be double-counted.

Stacy Kauk, Head of Sustainability at Shopify, said:

“Developing a rigorous methodology and sharing it publicly is a critical step to build trust with carbon removal buyers like Shopify – it gives us confidence that what we’re paying for is actually happening.”