In carbon removal, we talk a lot about scale–tons of rock, tons of carbon, systems, and industries. At Eion, that all boils down to people rolling up their sleeves. From farmers and ranchers to truckers and barge operators, distributors, rock pulverizers, agronomists in the field, and scientists in the lab—each is committed to a good day’s work moving rocks to safely and permanently pull carbon out of the air.
2023 is when Eion evolves from an idea to a commercial business capable of making a massive dent in cleaning up the atmosphere. Our culture and people set the trajectory and make it possible to build the business Eion aspires to become—one that moves rocks and removes carbon, yes. But also the kind of business that benefits local communities for generations to come.
That starts by being thoughtful about who we work with and the values that define us. To us, values aren’t just words on the wall; they shape the impact Eion will have beyond our lifetimes. So what are Eion’s values?
Consciously Unlearn
The way of doing things up until now is not necessarily the best way of doing things. Assumptions about how it “should be done” come from all sorts of past personal or professional experiences, they’re options, and none have to be the determinate way forward.
A company is a microcosm of this. Moving from an idea to commercializing science innovations to innovating operations and finance for scale means we are constantly reinventing. Calcifying around V1 is a limitation.
Ultimately, shedding limiting beliefs opens up the possibility of not just doing slightly better but radically better, making the future grander than we can imagine today. Or, in the words of Mama Gena, “May your dreams come true, or something even better than your dreams come true. Imagine that there exists something larger than yourself and your imagination.”
Shared Excellence
When we look at organizations that do outstanding work, from Beyoncé to Trader Joe’s to John Deere, they all have one thing in common: Everyone involved sets a new bar for excellence. Teammates are intrinsically and passionately motivated to set the bar higher, higher, and higher still. In this state, even mistakes build trust by reaffirming a shared desire to iterate, recreate, and reexamine how to level up.
Do the Right Thing. Don’t be Righteous.
Be humble enough to be cautious but not so timid that we don’t take steps to address the challenges at hand. We’re building on sound science, proven methods, and people working tirelessly but often likely not perfectly. We reach upstream and downstream, touching agriculture and science, across the supply chain, with carbon removal industry players and rural communities. We won’t always be perfect for everyone, but our consistent motivation will be to do the right thing and keep pushing forward.
Share Your Toys
At any given moment, someone is looking for a new, better way of doing a thing—stretching in some direction, gaining fluency, finding new tools. Self-development is necessary, and competition is helpful, but the real magic comes from bringing the learnings back to the team. Collective strength makes magic within the metaphoric walls of Eion and among the network of partners, businesses, and communities we’re becoming interdependent with, as well as the entire carbon removal ecosystem that we embrace as colleagues.
A quote from Lou Gerstner captures it perfectly, “Until I came to IBM, I probably would have told you that culture was just one among several important elements in any organization’s makeup and success — along with vision, strategy, marketing, financials, and the like… I came to see, in my time at IBM, that culture isn’t just one aspect of the game. It is the game. In the end, an organization is nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.”
This company is all about people, and we want more people to add what they got to what we got so we can make 2023 the year it all came true.