This Personal Care Brand Backed By Leonardo DiCaprio’s VC Firm Turns Carbon Emissions Into Soap

A growing number of brands have partnered with organizations to offset their carbon footprints. CleanO2 takes climate efforts a step further by capturing carbon before it’s emitted into the environment and turning it into body products.

Seventeen years ago, co-founders Jaeson Cardiff, Kathi Fischer and Scott Forgrave invented the proprietary CarbinX device that captures carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas heating systems and transforms it to potassium carbonate or pearl ash. A CarbinX device is designed to capture six to eight tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, equivalent to the carbon reduction of 300 trees. The Calgary-based company has shipped 26 CarbinX units to date for commercial and residential buildings in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Minneapolis. A device has even reached Japan. An improved version of CarbinX is set to launch by the end of next year and will double the amount of carbon emissions the device captures.

When Cardiff first approached Fischer with the idea of creating soap, she rejected it. “I said, ‘I don’t want to be a soap company,’” she recalls. Potassium carbonate is an inorganic compound commonly used in the food industry, and Cardiff, Fischer and Forgrave considered making wine. Glass was an option, too. But those options required a ton of heat, and they ultimately pivoted to soap. Cosmetic formulator and CleanO2 soap creator Michelle Regel says, “From a marketing perspective, a carbon emissions perspective, getting a message out, soap just checked a lot more boxes than all the other things.”

CleanO2’s soap come in seven scents and retails for $8. Enviro Mint with spearmint, pearl ash and chlorophyll, and unscented Eco Aloe are the bestselling scents. “Normally, people who can’t have scented things due to sensitive skin or because they can’t tolerate a fragrance get the plain Jane version of everything, but the Eco Aloe has a beautiful creamy lather from the aloe and coconut milk,” says Regel. “They get this decadent bar which makes them feel a little special.”

The pearl ash aids the lathering effect, she explains. “We use it as a value-added ingredient that goes in to make the soap better, and in our case, the potassium carbonate acts like a water softener,” says Regel. “So, when you test the lather of our bars of soap against the lather of a different soap that doesn’t have the pearl ash in it, you will tell that there is a definite more slippery, silky feel.”

An $8 body wash, $8 hand wash and $8 scrub hand bar round out CleanO2’s assortment. Haircare products, powdered laundry detergent and and a stain remover stick are slated to be released in the fall. Regel says, “We find that removing the water from some of our products helps with the carbon footprint, and there seems to be a big demand from a lot of our consumers.”

CleanO2 has raised a total of $2.5 million in funding. Last month, it announced a $2.1 million round led by Leonardo DiCaprio-backed Regeneration VC. Other investors include Export Development Canada, Duke Street Investments Inc., TIRI Group and Local Investment YYC Cooperative.

CleanO2 has an omnichannel approach to distribution. Its products are available on its website along with at retail in select Safeway, Sobeys and Canadian Tire stores. Distribution in the United States is currently in the works, and CleanO2 aims to expand internationally to Europe and Japan. The company also wholesales carbon-captured auto and cleaning products to industrial and commercial customers.

Fischer says CleanO2 has so far opted not to buy expensive advertising in favor of sparking organic buzz among its target audience of “informed, educated, eco-conscious” parents. It uses social media to spread brand awareness and has displays at stores to catch people’s attention. The sleeves for the soaps that boldly proclaim, “Soap made by carbon captured by CleanO2,” are meant to stand out on the shelf.

Regel thinks CleanO2’s climate innovation story is an important differentiating factor for the brand. “We are the only manufacturers of carbon-captured soap, so that gives us an edge in the market,” she says. “The soaps are handmade, artisanal, cold-processed premium products, and people really like that. That’s our unique value proposition.”