Decarb Connect North America gathers 300+ leaders from the most energy intensive industries to address urgent challenges in industrial decarbonization
“Decarb Connect North America is the event for senior leaders who don’t see decarbonization and CO2 as a brick wall, but who instead see a blank sheet of paper that they are determined to draw a solution on.‘
The event brings together industry leaders, policy experts, financiers, and tech innovators—all focused on how to reduce energy costs, drive efficiency, build out CCUS and how to drive forward industrial CO2 management.
In 2025, the event welcomed more than 40 speakers including: Paul Gauche, Deputy Director of IEDO, providing clarity on the DoE’s priorities, emphasizing funding strategies, technology advancements, and strengthening U.S. supply chains for global competitiveness. Breakout discussions and roundtables allowed deep dives into critical themes, including carbon utilization, Scope 3 strategies, infrastructure scaling, RNG, and DAC. The event sees extremely strong audience engagement in the panel discussions which covered:
- Driving demand for low-carbon materials through value chain collaboration
- Optimizing 45Q and financial incentives for carbon capture projects
- Industrial energy efficiency and electrification strategies
- Creating cost-effective and impactful circularity programs
- Building a low-carbon future and the workforce to support it
One of the defining strengths of Decarb Connect events is the industrial leadership in the room. in 2025, over 30% of attendees came from steel, mining, lime, cement/aggregates, glass, chemicals, and refining. Industry speakers included: Celanese, Dow, Lhoist, ArcelorMittal, Cabot Corporation, BASF, OCI Global, Evonik, U. S. Steel, and MLC—who shared not only their successes but also the challenges they face in this industrial transition.
“Decarb Connect is THE conference that brings diverse stakeholders in the decarbonization space together to collaborate, brainstorm and share ideas about how to meaningfully move the needle.”- David Perkins, SVP Sustainability and Public Affairs, Heidelberg Materials
2024 Highlights
Decarb Connect North America brought together over 250 attendees including industrial manufacturers, government participants and leading investors, tech companies and our Next Gen Award shortlist. 59 speakers were joined by sponsorship partners including: Shell Energy, Drax, Fluor, Johnson Matthey, CAC Specialist, McDermott, Partners in Performance, Carbon Recycling International, ClimeCo, Climate Investment, Gaffney Cline and Howard Energy Partners.
This short highlights film gives a snapshot of the energy, enthusiasm and commitment our attendees brought to the event. We can’t wait to welcome you all in 2025!
Key themes we focused on in 2025...
CO2 Infrastructure
Painpoints being addressed include:
Understanding where governments are going to support when there is no infrastructure?
What storage hub options are available?
Green Procurement
Painpoints being addressed include:
Navigating demand signals from buyers of green materials
Balancing investment costs with a ‘green premium’
Understanding quality requirements for greener products- what is the buyer willing to accept?
Permitting
Painpoints being addressed include:
How to streamline the permitting process with EPA?
How to avoid permitting delays in areas where there is no delegate authority on granting EPA permits?
How to access class 6 permits for storage wells?
Scope 3
Painpoints being addressed include:
Understanding the scope 3 commitments of customers- how much teeth do these commitments have?
Calculating an accurate scope 2 footprint
Understanding Scope 3 as a means to understanding where to focus your decarbonization efforts in the supply chain
Workforce
Painpoints being addressed include:
Understanding the talent needs for an energy transition workforce?
Aligning the existing workforce on decarbonization objectives- e.g. quality team versus sustainability
Navigating a lack of workforce in areas – e.g. CCS pipeline building, analysing scope 3
Understanding where to build out a team internally/source externally
Reaching FID
Painpoints being addressed include:
How to source enough cash flow to support plans?
How can industrials make the returns on decarbonization projects more attractive?
How can 45Q impact the ability of industrials to reach FID?
How to manage the inflationary environment?
Understanding the benefits of doing low-interest loans from the government?
Companies which have attended Decarb Connect North America 2024
Download the 2024 Post-Show Report below
What Attendees Say...
“A very well organized event, with attention to all details that make the difference. Excellent level of speakers both in terms of seniority and expertise from a broad range of industries, NGOs, funds and policymakers…well designed networking connections provided by the organizer”
Faidon Prokopios, Manufacturing Decarbonization Director, Titan Cement
“The event was excellent! The policy discussion and end-user perspectives were especially timely. It‚ was great to see that, regardless of the circumstances, sustainability continues to be driven by customers.”
Huiyi Jackson, Senior Director, Clean Energy Technologies and Policy, Edison Electric Institute
“This is a great event for learning about what hard to abate industries are doing to decarbonize and meet people offering solutions.”
Fiona Woody, Director of ESG, MLC
“This is an excellent forum of industrial representatives to discuss all aspects of sustainability topics. A good mix of individual presentations as well as panel discussions. Also a great networking opportunity. Has room to add more informational booths as well as a poster set up of the technical info that could not be presented due to time constraints.”
Syed Suhail Akhtar, Head of Process Decarbonization, NA, Holcim
“This was one of the best-organized conferences I have been to in years. I was highly impressed with the quality of speakers and attendees and made some valuable contacts.”
May Akrawi, CEO, Undesert
Featured Speakers from 2025
Fiona Woody
Director of Sustainability & ESG MLC
Dennis Wilson
Vice President, ESG Managing Director Saint-Gobain North America
Guillaume Lambotte
Chief Scientist Boston Metal
Paul Gauche
Deputy Director of the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office US Department of Energy (DOE)
Brenda Petrilena
Senior Director Global Decarbonization & Project Management U.S. Steel
Casey Nault
Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Chief ESG Officer Coeur Mining
Jaimee Farrin
Global Sustainability Director Cabot Corporation
Kevin Norfleet
Global Sustainability Director Celanese
Vikas Bhararthwaaj
Managing Director Morgan Stanley
Partnership Opportunities
At Decarb Connect, we offer a plethora of opportunities across our global platform to meet your objectives, whether you want to find new leads, evaluate new partnership opportunities, amplify your leadership position or enhance your brand positioning, our packages are completely bespoke to meet your objectives. We combine our events, reports, webinars, podcast and leadership network opportunities to create a package that compliments your wider marketing strategy and surpasses your expectations.
About the Organiser
Decarb Connect is a resource hub and network of senior leaders tasked with tackling decarbonization strategies within energy intensive industries.
We are unique as we focus on all of the foundation industries and create products that support them in overcoming the multifaceted challenge of decarbonizing whilst working to unlock new opportunities with key stakeholders from technology, financing and investment, policy, consulting and much more.
Our mission is simple. Accelerate decarbonization and reduce emissions globally. We all play different roles in this journey and we believe ours is to work with decarbonization leaders on bringing them together to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and importantly forge partnerships that tackle the biggest issues.
We focus on those with complex challenges to solve. Our global platform combines a unique membership network of decarbonization leaders, industry renowned conferences, webinars, industry reports, podcasts and more.
If you are a stakeholder within industrial decarbonization and the green revolution, we will have something that supports your journey.
