CREW Carbon-Microsoft deal pushes carbon removal commitments past $40 mln

12 / 08 / 2026

By Marwa Nassar - -

CREW Carbon has signed an offtake agreement with Microsoft for up to 23,602 durable, verified carbon removal units (CRUs), pushing the company’s total committed carbon removal to more than $40 million.

The agreement adds Microsoft to CREW’s growing portfolio of corporate carbon removal buyers, including JPMorgan, Google, Autodesk and Stripe through Frontier.

Wastewater technology drives carbon removal:

CREW’s patented wastewater alkalinity enhancement (WAE) technology integrates into existing wastewater infrastructure to improve treatment performance while permanently removing carbon dioxide.

The company says its technology is the world’s first and only verified carbon removal solution from wastewater alkalinity enhancement to date.

Developed at and backed by Yale University, the technology uses strategically sourced alkaline minerals, including calcium carbonate, to optimize conditions such as pH and alkalinity at individual wastewater treatment plants.

The approach is designed to improve biological treatment performance, reduce chemical use and lower the carbon footprint of plant operations while permanently storing CO2.

Existing infrastructure, scalable solution:

CREW says its technology can be deployed within existing wastewater infrastructure without requiring the federal funding or permitting support typically needed by other carbon removal approaches.

Its corporate buyers are backing carbon removal solutions that combine rigorous measurement, reporting and verification (MRV), scalable deployment within existing infrastructure, operational benefits for customers and permanent storage pathways.

“This agreement with Microsoft is a major milestone for CREW and further validates our approach to delivering high-quality, durable carbon credits while we optimize wastewater treatment performance,” said Dr. Joachim Katchinoff, CEO and co-founder of CREW.

“We’re proud to expand our carbon removal with an organization as committed as Microsoft to carbon removal solutions.”

Closed-system MRV:

CREW uses a closed-system approach that monitors wastewater treatment plants at both the inlet and outlet to quantify engineered carbon removal.

The company tracks removals through plant-level monitoring and downstream modeling, with results verified by independent registries.

“Microsoft’s offtake agreement with CREW supports the advancement of a novel, wastewater-based approach that is highly durable and measurable,” said Phillip Goodman, Carbon Removal Portfolio Director.

“CREW has shown that carbon removal in the wastewater sector is implementable and scalable with high Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) certainty.”