From concept to field reality — including the concept.
Co-founded ECIi with Columbia University physicist Peter Eisenberger to demonstrate that carbon removal can work as real, deployable projects. Not just theory. Together we established ECIi as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and built the organization from the ground up: strategy, development, communications, fundraising materials, and organizational structure.
Including a CO₂-to-dry-ice project, designed from just the idea through to field reality. From the chemistry of CO₂ capture and utilization to partnerships built from scratch with Carbacid, East Africa's largest CO₂ supplier, the Women Farmers Association of Kenya, the Kenya Livestock Producers Association, and the World Vegetable Center. In the field test, farmers reported reduced spoilage and saved product, from poultry to produce, translating directly into protected income. Designed to avoid the methane emissions of food waste at scale.
"Nadia developed ECIi's Kenya project single-handedly — the concepts, marketing, and communication were all hers. The project drew the attention of both the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and the IFC, the World Bank Group's private sector arm." Dr. Ron Chance · Senior Science Advisor, Avnos Inc. · Board Advisor, ECIiDirect Air Capture CO₂ Utilization Project Development
Built to advance direct air capture and energy equity and climate security through serious convening. Designed and organized multi-month workshops leading to international alignment summits and published reports. Bringing together researchers, policymakers, industry, and affected communities across sectors that rarely share a common language.
Peter Eisenberger describes our partnership directly in his book Designing Earthlings. A published, permanent record of the work we built together.
Published reports: Mobilize Now: Scaling Up Direct Air Capture (2020) and Energy Equity and the Climate Crisis: Summit Report (2022).
Direct Air Capture Energy Equity Climate Security CoalitionCommunications for Global Thermostat, one of the first commercial direct air capture ventures, alongside Peter Eisenberger. Later rebuilt his Columbia course presentations for Closing the Carbon Cycle and Earth and Human Interactions. Deep immersion in the science at the source.
Direct Air Capture Science Communication Course DevelopmentCommercials are precision. Movies and series are the art of the narrative arc. Every second, every word, every frame accountable. Music videos taught compression. Film trains you to reach people who weren't already convinced, which is exactly what outreach and communications require. Co-produced, wrote, and edited Skateistan. Cinema for Peace Award for Best Documentary. The same disciplines that make a documentary work make science communication land.
Narrative Strategy Audience Analysis DocumentaryTrained as a laboratory chemist — hands in the work, not theory. That foundation gave me something that never left: comfort at the molecular level, with how atoms behave, with the difference between what a process promises and what it can actually deliver. It is the reason I can engage with DAC researchers and engineers on their own terms, and the reason I can tell when a claim is real.
Chemistry Scientific Fluency Foundation"Life has an extraordinary way of leading us down unexpected paths, and I am immensely grateful to have Nadia by my side on this momentous journey towards a more sustainable future."
— Peter Eisenberger · Physicist · Co-founder, Global Thermostat & ECIi · Designing Earthlings, 2024