Mission Zero CEO Nick Chadwick: “We need to change where carbon comes from - not eliminate it”

The Decarbonisation Dialogue podcast; the chemist-turned-climate-tech founder explains how direct air capture can create a sustainable carbon supply chain - and why systemic change, not small fixes, is key to tackling climate change.

In episode 38 of The Decarbonisation Dialogue, the Salix podcast, we spoke to Nick Chadwick, Chief Executive of Mission Zero Technologies, about science, scale-up ambition and why tackling carbon at its source could reshape the global economy.

Nick is an environmentally driven chemist and materials scientist.

In our podcast he tells us how, as a creative child, he grew up loving art and painting. He says science appealed because of its inherent creativity and its power to make tangible change in the real world.

Encouraged by a teacher who told him he was “throwing away a lot of potential,” he committed himself to chemistry - a decision that has shaped his career. After completing a master’s degree in chemistry at University of Nottingham, he went on to earn a PhD in Materials Science at University College London.

His doctoral research focused on sunlight-activated materials capable of breaking down contaminants in water - work aimed at sterilising water and removing viruses and pollutants. The project cemented his belief that science should serve a broader purpose.

He says: “Science for science’s sake is interesting, but science for human benefit - that’s what drives me.”

Today, that motivation underpins Mission Zero Technologies, a fast-growing UK climate tech company developing direct air capture systems - technology that removes carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere.

Nick is clear about the scale of the challenge. “Carbon isn’t a bad thing,” he says. “Carbon is what makes up much of the world around us, from the homes we live in to the clothes we wear, the medicines we take and the food we consume. The issue isn’t carbon itself; it’s where we source it from.”

At present, most carbon used in products and fuels comes from fossil fuels. Mission Zero’s proposition is to create a sustainable alternative supply by extracting CO₂ already present in the atmosphere and feeding it back into industrial supply chains.

The process, known as direct air capture, separates carbon dioxide from air, purifies and concentrates it, and supplies it as a usable commodity. The captured carbon can then be used to create building materials, synthetic fuels, aggregates, consumer products, even vodka and yoga mats.

Nick says: “The chemistry to turn CO₂ into products has existed for decades. The bottleneck isn’t conversion. It’s access to a reliable, scalable supply of CO₂.”

Mission Zero now employs around 60 people across research, product development and engineering roles. Its teams operate from custom-built laboratory space under a railway arch in London, alongside deployment sites in the UK and Canada where systems are tested and installed at customer locations.

Despite rapid growth and international operations, Chadwick describes a culture rooted in trust and autonomy. “We try to create an environment where people feel responsible and empowered to make decisions,” he says. “There’s a strong sense of camaraderie.”

Purpose, he believes, is a powerful recruitment tool. “We are here to address what we see as the biggest existential crisis humanity faces - climate change. When that’s your mission, it’s not hard to explain why you come to work each morning.”

Nick also rejects the notion that individuals cannot influence systemic change. He says: “If everyone decides to make change across a population, that’s incredibly powerful.

“Collective action matters.”

As the conversation highlights, Mission Zero’s ambition is not incremental improvement but systemic transformation - shifting humanity’s relationship with carbon from extraction to circularity.