Climeworks is pioneering direct air capture (DAC) technology to permanently remove CO₂ from the atmosphere. As both OEM and owner-operator, they face the dual challenge of designing frontier technology for high reliability while defining maintenance practices for equipment operating in Iceland's harsh conditions. High uptime is critical to reducing carbon removal costs and achieving profitability.

Doug's career spans maintaining critical rotating equipment on ExxonMobil's offshore platforms, commissioning gas turbines and centrifugal compressors for Solar Turbines Australia, and scaling manufacturing as Director of Manufacturing at Tesla, directly reporting to Elon Musk. He now applies these lessons to making carbon removal economically viable at Climeworks.

• What is direct air capture and how it works
• How to overcome the challenges of designing and deploying first-of-a-kind technology
• Influencing R&D and equipment design to deliver a safe and reliable product
• How to build a maintenance & reliability team to service nascent technology in remote locations
• Convincing the executive team to see high availability as a value, not a cost