Renewable Carbon – the next strategy for addressing climate change?

We’ve all heard of renewable energy, but what is “renewable carbon?" There’s a growing movement to transition away from fossil fuels, which means finding fossil-free materials to make things from – including chemicals, plastics, rubber, and construction materials.  

The answer will be finding carbon from non-fossil sources, and then ensuring this carbon is used over and over again, without releasing it to the atmosphere – in a process both circular and climate neutral.

A recent report from the Nova Institute for Ecology and Innovation states: “More and more companies want to move away from fossil carbon, but they need alternative carbon sources, which are called ‘renewable carbon’.”

The Renewable Carbon Initiative defines renewable carbon as “all carbon sources that avoid or substitute the use of any additional fossil carbon from the geosphere. Renewable carbon can come from the biosphere, atmosphere or technosphere – but not from the geosphere.”  

The vision is for all fossil carbon used in making chemicals and plastics today to be completely substituted by renewable carbon -- that is, carbon from alternative sources like biomass, CO2 and recycling of plastics already in existence.

So just as the energy sector is beginning to transition from oil&gas to renewable energy, so the chemicals and plastics industry will need to transition to renewable carbon.  

This will be a mega-trend for investors to watch, as it could create a huge demand for emerging green-tech companies that are making “feedstocks” from carbon capture, biomass and recycled plastic. At the same time, the transition will require capital investments from chemical and plastics majors, as well as infrastructure and policymaker support. 

The Renewable Carbon Initiative (https://renewable-carbon-initiative.com/) provides an excellent graphic that illustrates the model of renewable carbon, which works alongside renewable energy.

Make no mistake, this is a real mindset change for the chemicals and plastics industry, transforming business models at their most fundamental level. 

It will be interesting to see which companies are willing to back up their climate-change goals with the capital and strategic reprioritization to shift their feedstocks from fossil to renewable carbon.

Owner and principal Catherine C. Keenan provides consulting expertise to accelerate transformations in organizations through a business-centric approach that builds value with customers, employees and stakeholders. She has led B2B companies and organizations in Corporate Responsibility, Sustainability, Communications, Change Management, Strategy Development, Mergers and Acquisitions programs, and Leadership Engagement.