Trailblazer | Wren

Trailblazer Carbon Removal Portfolio

Specialization
Engineered carbon dioxide removal
Cost per tonne
$401.71
Last update
Apr 29, 2026

Trailblazer is a portfolio of cutting-edge carbon dioxide removal technologies

The Wren Trailblazer Portfolio helps scale nascent carbon dioxide removal technologies that sequester and permanently store carbon for thousands of years.

Trailblazer customers offset today while supporting future durable carbon dioxide removal. The portfolio matches one certified tonne of greenhouse gas avoidance with one in-progress tonne of durable carbon dioxide removal.

The majority of carbon offsets result from activities that reduce or avoid greenhouse gas emissions. Yet, to limit global warming to 2°C, we need to both drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere.

When it comes to permanent carbon dioxide removal, we have a long way to go. In 2025, just under 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide have been durably removed via engineered pathways—a drop in the bucket compared to the 10 gigatonnes of carbon removal that will be needed per year by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of climate change.

Carbon dioxide removal technologies pull carbon from the atmosphere and permanently store it in geological, terrestrial, or ocean reservoirs.

The good news: Solutions that permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere are out there. However, they need help to grow their operations in order to meaningfully contribute to gigatonne-scale removal.

Capital is needed today to fund research and development, develop robust monitoring, reporting, and verification frameworks, and build infrastructure to carry out removal activities. That’s why Wren created the Trailblazer Portfolio.

The Trailblazer Portfolio sends a demand signal to carbon dioxide removal suppliers and provides them with catalytic capital to accelerate their operations.

Contribute to Trailblazer

Explore the projects

Biochar carbon removal
Biochar

Landfill methane abatement
Technology

Carbon Removal Alliance
Policy

Refrigerant destruction
Refrigerants

Enhanced rock weathering
Rock weathering

Underground biomass storage
Technology

Enhanced weathering on rice paddies
Technology

How we built the portfolio

Over 85% of the Wren Trailblazer Portfolio is allocated toward carbon dioxide removal technologies. The remaining portion goes to policy initiatives that will help accelerate the pace of carbon dioxide removal deployment and to traditional certified carbon offsets.

We include traditional, certified offsets in this portfolio because most carbon removal technologies won’t remove the carbon from the atmosphere for a few years, since they are small, budding companies that need time to complete the carbon removal activity and measure and verify how much carbon they removed.

Trailblazer allows you to offset your emissions today while supporting permanent carbon removal that will happen over the next few years. Once the proper measurement, reporting, and verification have taken place, Wren will notify you and count that permanent tonne you’ve helped remove toward the ‘tonnes offset’ metric on your dashboard.

In short, Trailblazer customers offset two tonnes over time. One tonne is avoided today, and one tonne is removed in the future.

Learn more about Wren's carbon certification process.

A sample of carbon-rich bio-oil being tested in the lab.

How we choose projects

Every project in the Trailblazer Portfolio has the potential to meaningfully contribute to gigatonne-scale removal. We carefully vet each project, consult external experts, and leverage peer-reviewed research to help validate our decisions.

These are the principles we use to create the Portfolio:

Scientific certainty of the removal pathway. We look for projects that are committed to developing robust monitoring, reporting, and verification frameworks that align with cutting-edge science. We want our partners to maintain collaborative relationships with research institutions and third-party auditors so that we know with a high degree of certainty the removal activities are delivering the intended results.
Potential for scale. We look for projects that have a clear pathway to reduce the cost per tonne to below $100. We also want projects to have the capacity to grow their operations significantly and be unconstrained by resource availability. For example, if the solution relies on biomass, we want to see a plan to sustainably source enough biomass to scale quickly and equitably.
Maximization of co-benefits. We look for projects that offer additional benefits for people and the planet beyond carbon dioxide removal. For example, we look for projects that create sustainable jobs for local communities or increase crop yields for smallholder farmers.
Potential for systems change. We look for projects that have a clear theory of change. By taking a step back and thinking about a project within the larger context of the system it operates in, we can understand how a project or solution will help build the kind of sustainable and equitable future we wish to see.

An added benefit to supporting the Trailblazer Portfolio is that it gives you the chance to accelerate these essential removal pathways in a way that would be hard to do alone. By acting together, we can send a clear demand signal to these companies. For example, when we sign a long-term offtake agreement with a small company, they can leverage that information to help them raise capital from investors. Now that’s real systems change.

A truck spreads crushed rock on a rice field.

Verification

Methods to permanently remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are varying stages of technological readiness. In some cases, the measurement, reporting, and verification frameworks are still being developed by scientists and researchers. Each partner we work with is required to verify their impact against a peer-reviewed methodology and utilize a third-party auditor to validate their work prior to issuing any carbon removal certificates that can be used toward an offsetting claim.

Our partners work with companies like Carbonfuture, EcoEngineers, Carbon Direct and Puro.earth.

Is this portfolio for you?

The Trailblazer Portfolio is designed for individuals eager to play an active role in accelerating market demand for carbon dioxide removal technologies. It’s ideal for those able to allocate more capital toward climate action and for those keen to offset their emissions through cutting-edge permanent removal methods.

The cost of this portfolio is high because the companies involved have not yet achieved economies of scale in their operations and are still actively working on reducing their costs. This is true for the majority of carbon dioxide removal suppliers. The price per tonne of carbon removed via these methods ranges between $100 and $2,054. As the market matures and suppliers grow their operations, we expect the cost per tonne to fall.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between permanent carbon dioxide removal and traditional carbon offsets?

Traditional offsets are generated from activities that either remove CO₂ from the atmosphere (e.g. via planting trees) or avoid greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. by capturing and destroying potent GHGs like refrigerant gases). While these solutions are critical for climate change mitigation and adaptation, natural climate solutions that remove carbon from the atmosphere are at risk of reversal - for example, if a wildfire burns all the trees that were planted, the carbon removed is released back into the atmosphere. To end the climate crisis, we need to remove and permanently store billions of tonnes of CO₂ by 2050. While avoiding GHG emissions and temporarily storing carbon in natural systems is still extremely important, all pathways to limit global temperature increases to 1.5°C and 2°C include some form of carbon removal technology. This is why Wren created the Trailblazer Portfolio. It’s designed for individuals who recognize the dire need for permanent removals and want to help drive demand for these critical solutions.

When will the carbon be sequestered?

Most carbon will be sequestered within 1-5 years from the contract date between the supplier and Wren. In general, each supplier has a different timeline for when their removal activities will take place and how long the removal process will take. In some cases, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is slowly removed over years (e.g. enhanced weathering), while in other cases the CO₂ is immediately removed once the activity is complete (bio-oil sequestration). The pre-purchase agreements Wren signs with these suppliers protect against delivery risk, meaning when you purchase one tonne of permanent CO₂ removal, it’s guaranteed to occur. When the activity is complete and the removal is verified using appropriate methods, Wren will notify you.

How does Wren vet projects?

Wren evaluates the suitability of projects for inclusion in the Trailblazer portfolio with criteria similar to what is used to evaluate projects in our Classic Portfolio. Every project Wren funds (Trailblazer or Classic) is evaluated against 250+ indicators that can help us understand risks additionally, permanence, and leakage, the monitoring reporting and verification (MRV) methods, what co-benefits a project is expected to provide, and a project’s potential for systems change. For Trailblazer projects, we go a step further and assess a project's potential to scale, the efficiency of the removal (in terms of cost and energy), and technological readiness level.

Since many carbon removal technologies are still nascent, Wren also leverages industry expertise for guidance. This includes conducting stakeholder interviews, tracking funding deals, attending webinars, and staying up-to-date on new research.

Why is carbon removal so expensive?

The cost of permanently removing 1 tonne of CO₂ via engineered pathways ranges between $105 to $2,054. 1 tonne of CO₂ permanently removed via the Trailblazer portfolio costs $400, which reflects the average cost of all the projects included in the portfolio. For example, if you use the Trailblazer portfolio to offset 1 tonne of your CO₂e emissions, 5% of those funds could go to a project that requires $1,000 to permanently remove a tonne of CO₂, 15% goes to a project that costs $750, 20% to a project that costs $350, and so on, averaging out to $400 per tonne.

In practice, there are very few projects that fall into the <$200 range. Getting to that price point requires increasing production to lower costs (think about economies of scale), and companies need demand signals to justify that increasing production. The contracts or letters of intent we sign with project developers help to secure that demand, and contributions to the Trailblazer portfolio in turn inform the quantity of tonnes we can commit to purchasing.

High costs are also driven by the need for research and development, lab testing, pilot projects, and the development of measurement, reporting, and verification frameworks. Each technology and company has a unique set of needs and the readiness of the technology varies between and within the removal category. Wren is primarily focused on funding solutions that are in the pilot, demonstration, and commercialization stages and have a clear pathway to scalability that will decrease costs to under $100 per tonne of CO₂ permanently removed.

Can I make a one-time contribution to Trailblazer?

Yes, we are now accepting one-time contributions to Trailblazer through our " offset anything" tool.