Over the weekend, Swift flew straight from the last show of the Tokyo leg of her Eras Tour to Las Vegas to catch her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, win the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers. Los Alamos, New Mexico,-based Spiritus estimated the 12-hour, roughly 5,500-mile trip generated about 40 tons of carbon emissions. On Saturday, in what could turn out to be a brilliant marketing stunt, the company announced it would pull the equivalent amount of CO2 from the atmosphere to offset Swift’s trip, using its proprietary technology.
Given the current cost of direct air capture carbon removal, which is about $600 to $1,000 per ton of CO2, Spiritus estimates the price tag on Swift’s emissions is about $28,000. But CEO Charles Cadieu said it’s all “worth it” for the substantial buzz the move has drummed up, not only for Spiritus, but also for the carbon removal industry more broadly.
“This is one of those moments where there’s such global attention to Taylor’s flight and the emissions,” Cadieu said. “People, to their credit, have some skepticism around offsets. If we just moved that conversation to removal, we can get more public opinion support for it, we can get more governmental support, more corporations seeing that distinction and realizing that that’s where they “they should be putting their money.”
Spiritus removes carbon directly from the atmosphere using what it refers to as a “carbon orchard” and materials known as “sorbents” that pull CO2 from the atmosphere. Once the CO2 is has been removed, it is sequestered underground. Cadieu said Spiritus has a “very clear path to getting to less than $100” per ton in terms of the price of carbon removal, but the company isn’t there yet, meaning its stunt with Swift’s emissions will still be likely to be costly. Spiritus has raised $11 million in funding, from VC firms including Khosla Ventures, an investor in DoorDash and Affirm.
For other companies looking to take a page out of Spiritus’ marketing book and piggybacking off of a big name like Taylor Swift’s, Cadieu advised sticking to core values.
“Getting your name out there and attaching to these events is a great opportunity, but you really need to go back to your core values as to why you’re doing it, how does that action align with what you’re trying to do in the world, and how other stakeholders might view your actions as being net positive,” he said.
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