The Crazy Rock Lady: How Eion is Turning Crushed Rocks into Climate Gold

You’ve heard of carbon capture machines, but what if one of the most powerful tools for removing CO₂ from the atmosphere isn’t high-tech at all—just crushed rock and rain? Meet Ana Pavlovic, CEO of Eion and the self-described “Crazy Rock Lady.” Her company is pioneering a process called enhanced rock weathering, which uses the natural properties of a green volcanic mineral called olivine to pull carbon dioxide out of the air and lock it away—permanently. The best part? They do it on farmland, replacing conventional agricultural lime with olivine. The result is a two-for-one win: healthier soil for farmers and long-term carbon removal for the planet. It’s nature’s chemistry, accelerated—and rigorously measured using Eion’s core technology, what they call a “soil fingerprinting” measurement technique. In this episode, Ana explains how Eion is turning geology into climate cash, why they’re focusing on agriculture instead of oceans, and how they secured a $33 million carbon removal deal from Frontier, the coalition backed by Stripe, Shopify, and Meta. We also talk about farmer adoption, measurement challenges, and why Ana believes carbon removal can be both scientifically credible and scalable. So if you’re interested in the wild new world of carbon markets, the surprising magic of crushed rocks, and what it takes to scale a climate startup from idea to impact, you’ll dig this conversation. Let’s rock. Discussed in this episode The 2020 Beerling paper: “Potential for large-scale CO2 removal via enhanced rock weathering with croplands” Eion’s $33 million deal with Frontier and its deal with Perdue.  Eion’s patent application for a soil fingerprinting verification technique  Our 2022 episode on enhanced rock weathering with Kelly Erhart from Vesta. Ana recommends reading Ministry for the Future. More about Anastasia Pavlovic Anastasia Pavlovic brings deep expertise in global operations and software with a passion for driving global change through local impact. Before joining Eion, Pavlovic led operations, commercialization, and growth for the Agoro Carbon Alliance, which works with farmers to sequester carbon in soil. Prior to the Alliance, Pavlovic commercialized software solutions in the US and Canada for Yara's Digital Farming organization. She has worked for venture-backed software companies scaling agtech and security products around the world. From West Virginia, Pavlovic holds dual B.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Systems Engineering.