Accenture has developed a digital plant solution for Climeworks that supports the company in removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air more efficiently. The digital plant solution is part of a multi-service collaboration between Accenture and Climeworks and spans strategy, design, digital engineering, technology and cloud.
Climeworks, a global leader in direct air capture, offers carbon dioxide removal as a service to companies and individuals. Its newest plant in Iceland, called “Orca,” will capture 4,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, making it the world’s largest climate-positive facility to date. The CO2 is put into underground storage provided by Carbfix, where it will turn into stone in less than two years.
Accenture and Climeworks began working together after leaders of the two companies met on a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in 2018. By then, Climeworks was well on its way to scaling its technology. Accenture offered to collaborate with the company on the next stages of its growth. A team of Accenture volunteers was formed to help Climeworks, later becoming part of the Accenture Development Partnerships program, which supports organizations working for good to positively impact the world.
“Our vision is to inspire one billion people to remove carbon dioxide from the air,” said Daniel Egger, chief commercial officer, Climeworks. “To bring it to life, we keep strengthening our offering for consumers and corporate clients – and Accenture has been playing a key role.”
Stéphane Piqué, who leads Accenture’s work for Climeworks and Accenture Industry X in Switzerland, said, “We began collaborating with Climeworks because we believe in their mission. It quickly became clear that Accenture could provide value in key areas of this exceptional company. The work we’ve done is a testament to making sustainability our greatest responsibility, and helping clients infuse it across their businesses. We’re looking forward to continuing to contribute to Climeworks’ success – for the next generation and ourselves.”
Accenture is supporting Climeworks’ fight against climate change across the following areas:
- Strategy and Go-to-Market – Accenture industry and sustainability experts supported research in key business areas such as: What are the use cases for CO2capture? In which industries and markets can it be sold? Is the Climeworks offering compelling to customers and corporate clients?
- Ecosystem – Accenture introduced Climeworks to a broad set of clients and alliance partners interested in CO2removal technology. This was instrumental in, for example, starting Climeworks’ relationship with Microsoft, who is now both an investor and client.
- Design – designaffairs, part of Accenture, designed Climeworks’ new plant in Iceland to represent the symbiosis of nature and technology that Climeworks’ direct air capture stands for. The plant was named a 2021 winner of the prestigious “Green Good Design Award.”
- Digital Engineering – The digital plant solution, engineered by Accenture’s Industry X group, allows Climeworks to monitor and detect anomalies in the CO2removal process in real-time. These insights enable Climeworks to adjust the plant to factors like weather conditions and optimize its energy consumption. For example, the solution reduces the efforts needed to collect and evaluate operational information by approximately 50%. It also shortens the time from data-recording to reporting of key performance indicators by about a factor of 100.
- Technology and Cloud – While the digital plant solution is already running on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, Avanade, a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft, is supporting Climeworks in moving its IT systems to the cloud, including its journey-to-cloud strategy and migration roadmap.
