How smart buyers are winning at CDR procurement
Carbon removal isn’t a box to tick in 2049. It’s a supply chain risk in 2025.
If you’re still treating carbon removal procurement as a future concern, you’re already behind.
Smart buyers aren’t waiting around for perfect conditions. They’re moving fast to lock in high-quality carbon removal through well-structured strategies that reflect the realities of today’s market.
→ What are strategic buyers doing differently?
→ How are they balancing cost, credibility, and risk?
→ What can you learn from them?
We unpacked these questions in our recent webinar, “Mastering carbon removal procurement: How to design effective RFPs and secure high-quality carbon removal” and the takeaways offer a playbook for companies serious about getting ahead in carbon removal procurement.
Supercritical’s CEO, Michelle You, was joined by Chris Minter, Global Sustainable Supply Chain Lead at Zurich Insurance, and Emily Jackson, Senior Vice President of Sustainability at The Economist. They provided insight into how they’re approaching their CDR procurement strategy, how it’s evolved in recent years, what their internal alignment process looks like, and more.
▶️ Watch the full webinar replay here
Or, read on to discover what forward-thinking buyers are doing right now.
1. Don’t treat carbon removal like traditional offsets
In 2020, Microsoft announced it would stop buying carbon offsets entirely. And in 2023, Google followed suit. Why the trend? Too many traditional offsets were unverifiable, short-lived, or already accounted for—more about optics than actual climate impact.
Today, the market is shifting away from cheap, flimsy avoidance offsets to rigorous, permanent carbon removal. But most high-quality CDR supply is still in development.
In this market, quality isn’t a differentiator, it’s a prerequisite. Buyers can’t afford to get this wrong. Without clear answers on permanence, MRV, financial viability, and project governance, you’re not just buying carbon removal, you’re buying reputational and delivery risk. The burden of due diligence sits squarely with the buyer.
Access is just as critical as quality. Unlike the traditional offsets market, there’s no deep, liquid supply of high-quality CDR credits ready to buy off the shelf. Supply is limited and timelines are long. Most of the best credits are spoken for before delivery. That’s why leading buyers are securing multi-year offtake agreements, to guarantee access, manage cost, and send demand signals that help scale the market.
2. CDR supply moves fast; your RFP needs to keep up
On paper, RFPs make sense: invite competition, standardize responses, pick the best deal. But in the carbon removal market, where supply is limited and availability changes fast, poorly structured RFPs can slow down procurement.
CDR RFPs need to reflect real market dynamics, supplier capacity, and how quickly high-quality credits are being sold. If they don’t, they risk stalling procurement, frustrating suppliers, and leaving buyers empty-handed. In the worst case, by the time a lengthy RFP process wraps, the credits are gone, snapped up by a buyer who moved faster.
We’ve seen buyers issue carbon removal RFPs and end up negotiating with multiple brokers offering the same credits from the same supplier, only to find those credits sold by the time they finish internal approvals. This isn’t just inefficient. It creates operational complexity and reputational exposure at exactly the moment companies are trying to build credibility.
Done right, an RFP can be a useful tool. But in this market, it needs to be fast, focused, and built on criteria that reflect real CDR risk: permanence, delivery track record, MRV standards, and exclusivity of supply. The buyers who get this are securing credits, while others are still chasing paperwork.
Here’s what leading buyers are doing differently in their RFPs:
They’re shortening procurement timelines to match market realities
They’re building in scoring criteria that actually reflect CDR risk and impact (permanence, MRV standards, co-benefits, delivery track record)
They seek a diverse view of the market, not just that provided by a single broker or intermediary
And they’re using partners like Supercritical to source pre-vetted projects with up-to-date availability
3. Questions to ask (and red flags to watch for)
In a market still defining its norms, leading buyers know that the difference between a high-integrity project and a reputational liability often comes down to the questions you ask upfront.
Volume matters, but quality is what defines credibility. And quality isn’t just about the method. It’s about the underlying assumptions, the operational plan, and the financial viability of the project itself.
Here’s what leading buyers are asking before they commit:
What’s the carbon removal mechanism, and is the MRV methodology third-party verified?
Does the project pose any environmental risks or deliver measurable co-benefits?
How are local communities involved? Is there clear evidence of shared benefits or economic empowerment?
For biomass-based methods, how will feedstock be sourced, secured, and scaled over time?
Has the supplier demonstrated the operational excellence and financing needed to actually deliver?
These questions are critical to reducing delivery risk, avoiding greenwashing accusations, and building internal confidence across procurement, legal, and finance teams.
Red flags to watch out for:
🚩 Vague or boilerplate MRV descriptions
🚩 No visibility into project financing or operational team
🚩 Overreliance on future revenue or optimistic permanence claims
🚩 Projects listed on multiple marketplaces with different terms or prices
🚩 For spot credits, no evidence of customer delivery track record
🚩 For offtakes, lack of evidence of operational excellence or delivery capability
Supercritical’s vetting protocol goes beyond registry-level requirements, scoring each project against over 100 criteria, from permanence and additionality to governance and co-benefits, so buyers can act with confidence.
The best buyers aren’t just asking “How much?” They’re asking “How real?” And they’re building procurement strategies that reflect that.
4. Don’t be afraid to start small
You don’t need a Microsoft-sized budget to build a credible carbon removal strategy. The most effective companies aren’t necessarily the biggest. They’re the ones who start. They treat carbon removal not as a one-off purchase, but as a growing line item that evolves with their goals, budgets, and internal confidence.
These buyers build flexible portfolios. They use spot purchases to stay flexible, build internal alignment, and support different methods as their strategy matures. And they use multi-year offtakes to lock in high-quality supply at predictable prices, and send long-term demand signals to the market.
You don’t need to get it perfect from day one. The point is to get started. Waiting for the ideal market condition often means waiting too long. By then, supply is gone or prices have risen, and the window to act affordably has closed.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to carbon removal procurement. But there is such a thing as too late.
Takeaways:
CDR RFPs are not plug-and-play. They need to reflect real market dynamics, timelines, and supplier availability.
You don’t need to buy big, but you do need to buy smart. Flexible portfolios help diversify and manage risk, and build confidence over time.
Quality beats quantity. Procurement that starts with the right questions ends in stronger results.
Delay is the most expensive choice. Net-zero goals are getting closer. Prices are rising. Supply is tightening. Getting started matters more than getting it perfect.
Forward-thinking buyers aren’t waiting for market maturity. They’re creating it.
In a market this young, the actions of early buyers have an outsized impact. By buying some CDR now - whether with spot or locking in offtakes - asking the right questions, and treating procurement as a strategy, not a scramble, they’re ensuring access to high-quality supply while setting new standards for credibility.
In our recent webinar, our guest speakers shared insights valuable to organizations with a variety of sizes and goals:
Zurich shows what’s possible with long-term thinking and catalytic capital.
The Economist shows how to move pragmatically, with structure and intention, even on a smaller scale.
Want to learn from them?
▶️ Watch the full webinar: Mastering carbon removal procurement – How to design effective RFPs and secure high-quality carbon removal.
📘 Coming soon: The Carbon Removal RFP Playbook – Our upcoming PDF guide for buyers who want to build a better procurement process.
What’s new at Supercritical?
🌇 Upcoming: The CDR Leadership Forum at London Climate Action Week
We’re convening the leaders shaping the future of carbon removal at one of the most anticipated events of the year. Join us for bold conversations, rooftop networking, and insights from CDR pioneers at Google, Puro.earth, Capgemini, Charm Industrial, and Exomad Green.
June 25 | London | Register now
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A 10-year offtake and 1.24 million tonnes of CO₂. This is what climate leadership looks like. Exomad Green is the first biochar project on track to deliver megatonne-scale removal. Supercritical is the exclusive distributor of Exomad Green’s 2025 spot credits, and you can also access multi-year offtakes with Exomad at accessible prices. Learn more and secure supply.
📘 New report: How to structure a good biochar offtake
Stable supply, fair pricing, and smart contracts. Our latest guide unpacks what a high-quality biochar offtake should look like and how to avoid the pitfalls.
🧠 Latest articles and insights
Debunking the CDR price myth. Don’t wait for the market to drop. Even as production costs fall, prices are rising, driven by supply constraints, rising demand, and policy shifts. Leading buyers are locking in pricing now.
How to do offtakes right: Lessons from the experts. Learn what separates strategic buyers from the rest.
Betting big on carbon: Can offtakes scale CO₂ removal? Why forward contracts are the key to gigatonne-scale carbon removal.
🚀 Coming soon: Our first BECCS project goes live
Biochar has been leading the charge, but BECCS is the biggest CDR category globally. Our first BECCS project is about to launch on the Supercritical marketplace, offering buyers access to one of the most permanent and scalable removal solutions. Watch this space.