What was announced

Frontier is a buyers' group set up to pay in advance for carbon removal that is meant to last. On 15 October 2026 it said its buyers had signed offtake agreements with 44.01, a company that stores CO2 by turning it into solid rock underground. According to Frontier:

  • Buyers will pay $11.7 million for 20,932 tonnes of CO2 removal, delivered between 2028 and 2031. That works out at roughly $559 a tonne (our arithmetic from Frontier's figures).
  • Purchases were made for Frontier's founding members Stripe, Google and Shopify, and members Autodesk, H&M Group and Workday. Frontier also lists Aledade, Canva, SKIMS, Zendesk, Wise, Skyscanner and Match Group as taking part through Watershed's partnership with Frontier.
  • It is Frontier's first purchase using this method, which it calls in-situ mineralisation.

The process, as Frontier describes it: CO2 separated during biogas upgrading at a wastewater treatment plant is dissolved in water and injected about 1,000 metres down into peridotite, a magnesium-rich rock, at 44.01's site in the UAE. The CO2 reacts with the rock and becomes solid carbonate within one to three years. Injection is metered at the wellhead and a monitoring well checks that the CO2 is turning into rock. Frontier is open that this is a demonstration: the project is meant to show the process can run continuously for years and to firm up its costs.

The story was reported by ESG Today on 16 October; the figures above are taken from Frontier's own release and project page.

Removals versus avoidance offsets

Most credits sold as "carbon offsets" are avoidance credits: they pay for emissions somewhere else not to happen, such as capturing landfill gas. Your own tonnes still went into the air. A removal takes CO2 that is already there back out and stores it. Our post on carbon offsets versus removals sets out the difference in full.

Big buyers pay a large premium for durable removals for three reasons that come through in Frontier's release and the standards:

  1. Permanence. Carbon locked into rock is expected to stay put on geological timescales. Trees can burn or be felled, so nature-based removals carry more risk of the carbon returning to the air.
  2. Net zero rules. The SBTi's Corporate Net-Zero Standard lets companies use only removals to neutralise the residual emissions left after deep cuts of at least 90% for most companies. Avoidance credits don't count towards that.
  3. Building supply. Frontier says its purchases are meant to generate the operating record that can lead to larger, cheaper projects. The buyers are paying partly to bring the price down for everyone later.

What it means for a small UK business

Take an illustrative firm with an office using 30,000 kWh of electricity and 60,000 kWh of gas a year, and diesel vans covering 25,000 miles. At the 2026 government factors its Scope 1 and 2 emissions are 25.21 tonnes CO2e a year. The whole 44.01 contract is about 830 years of that firm's footprint.

The useful number is the residual. After a 90% cut, about 2.52 tonnes a year would be left for removals to deal with at net zero. Cutting comes first because it is cheaper, it shows in your reported figures and it is what buyers and public sector tenders ask about.

What to do now:

  • Measure Scope 1, 2 and your main Scope 3 sources, using the government conversion factors.
  • Set a reduction target and act on the biggest sources, typically heating, vehicles and electricity.
  • If you later fund removals, record the tonnes, the method, the delivery years and the registry or standard, and show them as a separate line, never netted off your emissions.
  • Be careful with wording. Buying removals, especially future deliveries, does not make a business "carbon neutral". See net zero versus carbon neutral.

If you prefer UK projects, our post on the Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code explains what those units are and what you can say about them. The guide to carbon offsetting for business covers how to judge any credit's quality.

How Carbon Recycling helps

Carbon Recycling calculates your gross Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions with the UK government factors, so you know the size of the problem before deciding anything about credits. Its Carbon Reduction Plan charts a path from your baseline to your interim target and on to net zero, with a 90% cut and only the last tenth left for removals. If customers ask whether you use offsets, the free supplier questionnaire answers tool drafts an answer that keeps your emissions and any offsets separate. We don't sell offsets or credits and don't recommend any provider.