Claude Létourneau brings more than 30 years of experience in technology development and commercialization to his role as President & CEO of Svante. Throughout his career, he has helped turn innovative technologies into commercially viable businesses. We sat down with Claude to discuss the market conditions needed to scale lower-carbon solutions, create durable demand for lower-carbon products, and why Svante sees Carbon Measures as an important part of that effort.

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Svante is focused on scaling carbon capture and removal technologies for biogenic, energy, and heavy industrial sectors. What made Carbon Measures a valuable initiative for Svante to participate in? 

Carbon Measures brings together exactly the kind of multi-stakeholder alignment that is needed to create a sustainable CO₂ marketplace at scale. For Svante, the value of participating lies in helping to shape clearer, more consistent market signals, particularly related to the carbon intensity of products and to how CO₂ emissions are measured, compared, and ultimately valued at the product level.

Today, one of the biggest barriers to scaling carbon management solutions in the biogenic, energy, and industrial sectors is the lack of standardized, comparable data on the carbon intensity of materials and products. Without that transparency, it is difficult for buyers to differentiate between lower- and higher-emissions options, and equally difficult for producers to justify investments in technologies like carbon capture and removal. Carbon Measures is helping to address that gap by advancing a globally accepted framework for product-level carbon accounting to produce data that can be trusted across regions and industries in anticipation of global carbon intensity regulations at the product level similar to what was implemented with the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards established by the U.S. federal regulations that mandate the average fuel efficiency (measured in miles per gallon – mpg) of a manufacturer’s vehicle fleet. Because burning one gallon of gasoline creates a fixed gram of CO₂, fuel economy (mpg) translated directly into an equivalent carbon intensity measure. This led to a credit system where automakers that exceeded the standards earn credits that can be banked, traded, or sold to other manufacturers (B-B) to offset deficiencies.

Since the program started in 1975, the reduction curve of U.S vehicle emissions standards has not been a smooth, steady line allowing for the industry to adjust to market innovation adoption rate, it looks like a staircase with a long flat landing in middles, dropping sharply in the late 1970s, freezing entirely for over two decades, and then driving aggressively after 2011. This led to the introduction of hybrid and electric vehicle innovations in early 2000.

Clear, comparable product-level emissions data can play a catalytic role in shaping change in an industry. It enables design and procurement teams, policymakers, and investors to make more informed decisions, and supports the emergence of CO₂ as a true performance metric alongside cost, quality, and reliability. For Svante’s customers in sectors like cement, steel, pulp and paper, and energy, that kind of transparency can unlock demand for lower-carbon products and create a more compelling business case for deployment.

When companies can clearly see how emissions performance will be recognized and rewarded, it becomes easier to move projects from concept to final investment decision.

By contributing to initiatives like Carbon Measures, Svante is helping to ensure that the framework being developed is practical, science-based, and aligned with the realities of industrial operations. Ultimately, we see this work as foundational to scaling the solutions the world needs: creating a level playing field where low-carbon technologies can compete, and where emissions reductions are measurable, comparable, and valued across global markets.

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Carbon capture is often discussed project by project, but industrial emissions are ultimately embedded in products, supply chains, and procurement decisions. How does Svante think about its role in helping customers reduce the carbon intensity of the products they sell?

At Svante, we think about carbon capture and removal not just at the facility level, but as an enabler of lower‑carbon products across value chains. Ultimately, emissions are embedded into major raw materials like cement, steel, fuels, pulp and paper, and more, so the real impact comes when our suite of technologies helps customers reduce the carbon intensity of what they sell.

Our role is to integrate seamlessly into our customers’ operations (brownfield or greenfield) and provide a scalable, cost-effective pathway to capture CO₂ at the source, without disrupting production. By doing so, we help transform traditionally emissions-intensive processes into lower-carbon ones, enabling our customers to offer products with a smaller carbon footprint. That’s increasingly important as downstream buyers in construction, manufacturing, consumer goods, and more, have Scope 3 targets and are looking for ways to lower the carbon intensity of their supply chains.

We also see our role as supporting the broader ecosystem needed to make those lower-carbon products visible and valuable in the market. This includes contributing to efforts related to standardized measurement, reporting, and verification of product-level emissions. When customers can credibly demonstrate reduced carbon intensity, it strengthens their competitive position and helps unlock demand from climate-conscious procurement programs and investors.

In this way, Svante is deploying carbon capture and removal technology while also helping to bridge the gap between industrial decarbonization and market recognition. By enabling our customers to produce verifiably lower-carbon products, we’re contributing to the creation of supply chains where emissions performance is transparent, comparable, and increasingly a driver of purchasing decisions.

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Where do you see product-level carbon intensity data becoming most commercially important: customer procurement, project finance, policy compliance, claims substantiation, or value-chain collaboration?

Policy compliance and claims substantiation remain foundational, as they ensure credibility and trust, while value chain collaboration will grow in importance as data becomes more standardized and available.

Our perspective is that product-level carbon intensity data is most commercially impactful today by implementing carbon intensity regulations, similar to CAFE regulation, at the manufacturer level for industries such as cement, power generation, steel and petrochemicals. This must be coupled with a carbon credit system for both B-B (within the specific industry) and G-G (within bilateral trade agreements). We need to create a sovereign asset class for Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) credits.

Durable CDR projects, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) or direct air capture and storage (DACCS) are a key tool for meeting carbon intensity regulations as they represent the gold standard for carbon credits, due to their permanence of carbon storage, and ability for this carbon removal to be effectively measured and verified.

Rather than purchase carbon removals and immediately retire them, the Government should become an anchor CDR buyer and holder of strategic CDR assets, similar to strategic reserves (oil & gas) or finance (gold), and could be deployed later in an international transfer as part of a strategic bilateral trade agreements and/or as an economic export opportunity.

Government procurement is where we’re already seeing demand signals emerge, as buyers need credible, comparable data to choose lower-carbon materials, which directly drives market pull for our customers’ products.

On the project finance side, investors and lenders look for clear evidence that emissions reductions translate into durable revenue and/or competitive advantage.

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What needs to become more standardized or repeatable for carbon capture projects to become scalable infrastructure?

To scale carbon capture and removal from individual projects into repeatable infrastructure, a few things need to become much more standardized.

First is measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV); we need consistent, trusted ways to quantify captured CO₂ and link it to product-level emissions. Without that, it’s difficult to compare projects or unlock broader market demand.

Second is project design and delivery. Standardized modular approaches, such as the approach we take with our partners, SAMSUNG E&A, help reduce engineering complexity and costs while shortening construction timelines and making deployment more predictable across sites and sectors.

Third is commercial frameworks, including contracts, CDR off take structures, and carbon accounting methodologies. Clear, repeatable models reduce risk for both project developers and investors, which is critical for scaling finance.

Finally, policy and permitting processes need to be more predictable across jurisdictions. Streamlined approvals and consistent incentives can significantly accelerate timelines.

Together, these elements help move carbon capture from bespoke, one-off projects to scalable, financeable infrastructure that can be repeated and deployed globally.

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Carbon capture projects often involve long investment horizons, multiple counterparties, and complex infrastructure planning. How important is credible, comparable product-level emissions data when it comes to securing financing, building customer confidence, and supporting deployment decisions? 

Credible, comparable product-level emissions data is critical to unlocking carbon capture and removal at scale in a regulated carbon intensity market.

On the financing side, it links emissions reductions to real economic value, giving investors confidence that lower-carbon products can secure demand, premium revenues, or policy support, and help de-risk long-term investments.

On the customer side, it provides the transparency required to make procurement decisions and back up their own decarbonization claims.

More broadly, it supports industrial adoption by creating a shared, trusted basis for comparing products across the value chain.

In short, strong product-level data turns emissions performance into a market signal – enabling commercialization, strengthening investment confidence, and accelerating deployment.

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Svante has emphasized applications in sectors such as pulp and paper, ethanol, waste-to-energy, cement, and other industrial markets. What makes a sector ready for near-term carbon capture deployment, and what factors determine whether projects can scale?

A sector is ready for near-term deployment when CO₂ streams from post combustion flue gas are highly concentrated (12-20% CO₂) and well-understood, capture can be integrated without disrupting operations, and there is a clear pathway to CO₂ monetization value through policy regulations, nearby CO₂ storage infrastructure, and market demand for lower-carbon products.

Scalability depends on several factors, including how repeatable projects are across multiple sites within an industrial sector, how quickly they can be delivered, procurement demand, and financing structures.

Ultimately, if we want to build markets, we need projects that aren’t one-offs, but designed to scale from the outset – technically, commercially, and across sectors.

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What is one misconception about carbon capture that you think industrial buyers or value chain partners need to move beyond?

One common misconception is that carbon capture and removal are purely a cost or compliance burden, rather than an asset. We need to stop treating it as a liability and a cost to be minimized.

It enables industrial producers to deliver verifiably lower-carbon products, which are increasingly in demand as buyers decarbonize their supply chains. When paired with credible, product-level emissions data, carbon capture and removal becomes a way to differentiate in the market.

Shifting our mindsets from CCUS being a “cost center” to instead a value center, is key to accelerating adoption.

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You've spoken about the importance of "cracking the code" on CO₂ monetization. What kinds of market signals, policy frameworks, or industry collaboration are still needed to make lower-carbon products commercially scalable? What role can initiatives like Carbon Measures play in this?

Cracking the code on CO₂ monetization is about creating durable, bankable demand for lower-carbon products supported by carbon intensity regulations at the product-level.

We need stronger and more consistent market signals such as strong carbon pricing, targeted incentives, carbon credits systems and procurement policies that clearly reward emissions reduction over the long term. Further, it’s also critical to have credible, standardized data so those reductions can be measured, trusted, and compared across markets.

This is not something any one company can solve alone. It requires alignment across the value chain (producers, customers, governments, and capital providers) on how carbon is accounted for, valued, and contracted. That’s what ultimately enables projects to scale.

Initiatives like Carbon Measures are essential because they help establish this common foundation. By advancing comparable product-level emissions data and transparency, you support the creation of real market pull. That’s what gives investors confidence, unlocks capital, and ensures companies investing in decarbonization are consistently recognized and rewarded.

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You joined Svante in 2017, before carbon capture became part of the mainstream industrial and energy conversation. What changes have most surprised you over that period, and what gives you confidence about where the industry is headed next? 

I always tell my team that “I live in the future”. I was living in the future back then, too.

In 2017, carbon capture and removal were still largely seen as a niche or sci-fi-like futuristic solution. Today, it’s moving firmly into the mainstream with more CO₂ storage infrastructure, but we’re still in the early stages of developing a CO₂ marketplace and scaling, even though we are ready for commercialization today.

What’s changed is the recognition that managing CO₂ isn’t possible without carbon capture and removal and storage. What’s still evolving is how we make it repeatable, financeable, and driven by real market demand.

Carbon management will only scale if it creates a compelling business case involving private-public. From my perspective, the next phase is about execution at scale, and that includes standardizing projects, aligning policy and markets, and ensuring that lower-carbon products are truly valued. That’s how we move from momentum to commercial deployment, and ultimately to impact.

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For others considering joining Carbon Measures, what advice do you have for them from your own deliberations?

My advice would be to begin with a clear view of the role you want to play in shaping the CO₂ marketplace versus simply observing it or managing the impact of carbon intensity regulations.

Carbon Measures is about building the foundations of the carbon management industry by measuring the carbon intensity of products and services at scale, so the most valuable contributions come from those willing to help advance practical, aligned approaches to product-level emissions data and market signals. That means bringing a perspective grounded in real projects, voice of the customers, and carbon intensity measures & reduction curve implementation challenges.

I’d also emphasize the importance of collaboration and openness. No single company will solve this alone. The more we can align on credible, comparable data and consistent frameworks, the faster we can create the durable demand signals required for scale.