In this second installment of OpenAir Weekly Adam chats with superstar collector/OpenAir technical director Chris Chung about VIOLET – what it means, where the idea came from, and where it’s all headed as of October 2020. VIOLET, OpenAir’s founding mission which got us rolling last year, will be the world’s first and only miniature open source direct air carbon capture (DACC) machine.

Chris is one of the key contributors to the project and his energy, creativity, leadership and general commitment to getting sh*t done are keeping us on track and moving us forward to our goal. In this conversation Chris and Adam get into the origins of VIOLET, and discuss the significance of the project within the broader context of both open source/maker culture and Direct Air Carbon Capture (DACC) R&D.

Enjoy!

In our very first episode Adam chats with OpenAir co-founder Chris Neidl (@neidl_c) about our inaugural policy advocacy efforts related to low carbon concrete in New York – where it came from, why it’s relevant to carbon removal and DACC, where things currently stand, and how its starting to spread to other places.

1:50 – Why OpenAir is involved in low carbon concrete

4:48 – Origins of New York State LECCLA legislation

6:23 – What the LECCLA bill would do as law

8:20 – CCU /Low carbon concrete and cement 101

13:00 – “The math in the sky” – why carbon removal and DACC are essential

18:44 – Getting to carbon negative (positive?) concrete

20:57 – Binging action: the open, informality of OpenAir’s concrete activism

24:40 – Joining the Collective

Links:

– The NYS Low Embodied Carbon Concrete Leadership Act (LECCLA) bill shorturl.at/wFQ67 – LECCLA explainer video: justification and policy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfmwM…

– LECCLA campaign site: www.openaircollective.cc/leccla (sign up and join!)

– “Can the concrete jungle sink carbon?” American Prospect piece about LECCLA and why it matters (Feb 2020). https://prospect.org/environment/can-…

– “Minimizing CO2 in Concrete Today” – Twenty-Something minutes with Zach Grasley [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9qcz…