On this daily tech podcast, I enjoy exploring how technology is transforming our world. But what if tech could actually change the world for the better?

Meet a global CleanTech 100 company making it easy and profitable for building owners to help stop climate change. Carbon Lighthouse is on a mission to stop climate change by making it easy and profitable for building owners to eliminate carbon emissions caused by wasted energy.

The company’s unique approach to Efficiency Production goes deep into buildings to uncover and continuously correct hidden inefficiencies that add up to meaningful financial value and carbon elimination that lasts.

Established in 2010, the company has served over 500 buildings, cutting the carbon emissions equivalent of three power plants and delivering an average financial return of 14%. Our clients include Tesla, Kilroy Realty, Durst, Related, Stanford University, Wilson Meany, and Dostart Development.

Transforming the way energy is used in commercial buildings is one of the most impactful ways to make a difference. Commercial real estate contributes 20% of US annual carbon emissions. At Carbon Lighthouse, they approach the challenge by first focusing on reducing and cleaning the energy consumption of the built environment.

I wanted to learn more about how to amplify the environmental impact of each engagement; their non-profit arm participates in government auctions to reduce the supply of pollution permits available to power plants in the United States.

Brenden Millstein, CEO at Carbon Lighthouse, joins me on this daily tech podcast. I learn more about how two Berkeley natives not only became fast friends; they went on to become lab partners in middle school and later donned coats and goggles together in the physics department at Harvard University.

They discovered they had everything they needed right in front of them, both the means and the motivation to form a catalyst for change.