The founders

Same passion, same vision

Julien

After training in finance at the International School of Responsible Management, Julien quickly turned his attention to sustainable development and took over operational responsibility in France for one of the world's leading developers of large-scale solar systems. An entrepreneur at heart, he worked for 8 years as a property developer in the Bordeaux region, where his projects were at the crossroads of design, timber construction and bioclimatic design. His passion for paulownia led him to found IKIWOOD

Vivian

Vivian trained as an architect. Since 2008, he has been involved in the development of engineering and construction/promotion companies. His fierce desire to have a positive impact on the environment prompted him to change direction and become involved in climate protection. He co-founded an association to promote collective mobilization and support SMEs in their decarbonization trajectories. He joined Julien the day after he bought his first plot of land.

OUR STORY

A SHARED VISION

We share a vision of making an impact using living technology.

We see our paulownia plantations as a low-tech, low-cost, easily deployable solution for capturing CO2 on a large scale.

We capture a tonne of CO2 for less than €100, when the best capture technologies range from €125 to €335/t (source: IAE). Our by-product is not CO2, but a wood with almost infinite uses that can provide other decarbonizing services.

By 2025, we plan to be able to deploy our plantations in arid zones by irrigating our trees with solar desalinizers. The aim is to limit conflicts of use with food-producing land and help combat desertification. Even in this configuration, our carbon capture costs would remain well below those of DAC or CCS capture technologies.