No. 149: Under the Sea

A number of carbon capture projects have caught my eye recently, but this one stands out for its storage model: burying liquefied carbon dioxide under the seafloor in Norway.

The Northern Lights facility has backing from the Norwegian government and major fossil fuel companies. The intent is to ship CO2 from other countries in Europe and store it beneath the North Sea to the tune of 5 million metric tons of CO2 annually. Other countries are exploring similar disposal models, and Norway's approach could lead the way globally.

On the job search front, I found a unique pair of freelance marketing roles with Small Door Veterinary that could become a stepping stone to your own social impact marketing operation. I'm also sharing IDEO's Design Kit this week, which includes a series of methods to support human-centered design – tools you can use to build better products or services for the communities you serve.

~ Greg

What we're reading

Norway is positioning itself as Europe's carbon disposal hub, where carbon dioxide captured across the continent is liquefied and buried beneath the North Sea. (The Washington Post)

• Norway produces the most oil of any country in Europe, and it has launched the world's first carbon shipping port.
  • A Norwegian company has been burying carbon dioxide for the past 30 years. What's new is the introduction of the transportation layer: taking CO2 produced across Europe, liquifying it, and shipping it to Norway where it can be pumped underground.
  • The Northern Lights facility can store 5 million metric tons of CO2 annually, which is about 10% of Norway's annual emissions. It's both a lot and not much: the United States produced 4,772 million metric tons of CO2 in 2024.
• Although Norway might be the first, it's not the only country evaluating this model.
  • Indonesia and Malaysia have underground reservoirs for carbon waste and are working on storage deals with Japan and South Korea. A bit closer to home, the United States has funded a series of carbon transport projects which would ship carbon waste to Louisiana or take emissions from Washington and Oregon and bury them in California.
  • Carbon dioxide is a different kind of waste, but it reminds me of countries dumping their plastics overseas: the geopolitical equivalent of sweeping a problem under the rug. Recently, Malaysia effectively banned the United States from sending more plastic trash.
• This carbon capture approach has its critics, and justifiably so. One of the top complaints about carbon capture is that it removes the incentives to produce fewer emissions because we can simply offset them. In this particular case of burying emissions, the industry needs to prove that millions of tons of stored carbon won't eventually leak back into the atmosphere.
  • I would rather ask us to address the root causes of our greenhouse gas emissions, but some of these industrial transitions are going to take decades or more. There's no right answer: do we go with the less desirable approach that's available today or the better approach that's decades away?
• For now, I'm keen to see how this plays out in Europe and whether the United States signs on to a similar strategy in light of regulatory changes. We clearly have our work cut out for us.

Job of the week

This one is for the marketing gurus who want a role with a bit more flexibility, particularly if you prefer the freelance approach. I've shared roles with Small Door Veterinary in the past, but these are unique: they're looking for a couple of freelance marketers with a focus on content creation or social media management. The Content Creator role sounds really cool if you love animals: you get to visit Small Door practices to interview veterinarians, record pets, and share more about the company's operations.

Both job opportunities are based in New York, NY, but given the responsibilities, I suspect you'll be out and about on a regular basis. Give this one a look if you're hoping to strike out on your own with a social impact marketing career – I could see this as a stepping stone to building a portfolio with social enterprises.

Community roundup

• A survey of executives at large U.S. companies showed that 87% maintained or increased investment in sustainability, but 31% are reducing the amount that they talk about it. (Fast Company)
  • This confirms some of my suspicions that although the political environment has changed, the inertia has not – at least not yet. That's partially because sustainable practices aren't just a values-oriented investment but a value-generation investment.
• A record label called Future Sound of Nature is releasing music based on nature recordings and donating 20% of revenue to conservation efforts. (Grist)
• Two people formed a nonprofit in Connecticut to restore oyster ecosystems that have been overfished, and they have returned 700,000 pounds of oyster shells to Long Island Sound in just two years. Local restaurants donate their used shells to the nonprofit which treats them to avoid contamination before relocating them. Nature does the rest. (CBS News)
  • I love this story because it goes to show you don't need a huge team to make a difference. If you see a problem in your community, find a friend and make something good happen.
• Last week I noted that the Department of Defense had taken a stake in MP Materials, the only rare earth metal mining company in the United States. They popped up again for me this week: it turns out that Apple has invested $500 million in MP Materials as well, and part of their investment is focused on rare earth metal recycling. (Reuters)
  • I tend to think this a good thing – it's a critical resource, and I'm glad to see investment in recycling especially – but the timing strikes me as quite the coincidence. Even Reuters noted that this appears to improve Apple's image in Washington, DC.

Civic corner

• Lawmakers are pushing to qualify "extreme heat" as a major disaster under the Stafford Act, which means FEMA would respond to it. The Stafford Act establishes which disasters qualify for federal aid, and adding heat is important because more people die from extreme heat than hurricanes, tornadoes, and floods. (Inside Climate News)
  • This isn't the first time that lawmakers have tried to pass this kind of bill. Given that FEMA is on the chopping block, I tend to think that if the bill passes, it's going to increase strain on an agency that's already struggling financially and politically.
• Also on the could-be-a-law-someday front, a different group of lawmakers has authored four bills designed to reduce the impact of harmful chemicals in beauty products by improving supply chain transparency, prohibiting toxic chemicals like formaldehyde and phthalates, and adding disclosures to packaging about harmful ingredients. (NPR)
• The EPA has announced that it is eliminating its research arm, the Office of Research and Development. Some of the roles will transition to other parts of the EPA, but we don't know how many yet. (Grist)
  • The ORD currently has 1,115 employees, which represents 7% of the EPA's workforce. This effectively ends the group's independence and puts its research activities at risk, and by extension, improved EPA regulations.
• It has been a while since we've discussed the endangerment finding, but the EPA has drafted a plan to remove it. The endangerment finding is the foundation for regulating greenhouse gas emissions for automobiles, factories, power plants, and more. (NYT)
  • Eliminating the endangerment finding would likewise eliminate the greenhouse gas limits on those industries.
  • A spokesperson confirmed that the draft was sent to the White House on June 30th. We're now into the latter half of July, so keep your eyes peeled for a public notice.

Hot job opportunities

• Sr. Director, Marketing – Yerba Madre – Los Angeles, CA
• Senior Product Manager – Grove Collaborative – Remote
• Product Operations Lead - Airtable – Thesis – Portland, OR
• Partnerships & Events Manager – Verdical Group – Remote, CA
• Senior Director of Business Development/Sales – Project Canary – Remote
• Retail and Brand Experience Manager – Cabot Creamery – Waterbury, VT
• Manager of Customer Implementation – Osano – Remote
• Vice President, People – Butterfly Network – New York, NY
• Sustainability Specialist – Paladin, Inc. – Lexington, KY
• Founding Data Engineer – Airys – Remote

Resource of the week

IDEO is a nonprofit design company that popularized the idea of human-centered design. Human-centered design – 0r design thinking – places emphasis on empathizing with the users of your product or service and iterating on their feedback.

IDEO put together a Design Kit with the methods they use to facilitate human-centered design. You can use the Design Kit when you're trying to solve a social impact problem, and in fact, IDEO has compiled a set of case studies related to healthcare, education, and financial stability that could inspire your own projects and show you how to use the methods in the Design Kit.

The next time you have a community-facing or client-facing project, I'd recommend checking out the website for ideas. I'm always a fan of adding tools to the toolbox.

Test your knowledge

I love when two impact topics collide, which is why I'm such a fan of agrivoltaics where farming and ranching meet renewable energy. I first came across the topic on How to Save a Planet a few years ago, but recently I've seen additional instances in the news.

The Rural Energy for America Program included grants for farmers to add solar panels to their farms, some of which was frozen earlier this year. The program has been around for over 20 years, and the Inflation Reduction Act doubled the maximum amount of grant funding for a given project.

Currently, the USDA has put a hold on grant applications to work through the backlog of applicants and use "the remaining time in FY25 to implement the Secretary’s direction to disincentivize solar panels on productive farmland for future application windows." It's a bummer, but I remain optimistic: the reason the backlog is so large is because REAP is so popular with farmers, and they already sounded the alarm with their elected officials when grants were frozen earlier this year.

This week, I'm taking us back in time ever so slightly to last month's World Refugee Day. Do you know how it got its start?

What organization is responsible for designating June 20th as World Refugee Day?

Email me your guess, and I'll send one lucky winner a couple of One Work stickers!

I finally made it out to the campground last week, and it was fantastic. I realized I hadn't stayed overnight since I was backpacking in high school, and I can't wait to go again. Sometimes you just need to escape, you know?