Shape the System

About the Guest

Dr. Chris DeArmitt FIMMM FRSC CChem is an independent polymer scientist, author, and founder of the Plastics Research Council — a nonprofit where he and professors from around the world work entirely unpaid to review and share peer-reviewed science on plastics. A specialist in polymer additives and fillers whose clients have included Apple and companies across multiple continents, Chris has spent over seven years and roughly a thousand hours annually reading thousands of studies on plastics, the environment, and human health. His findings are published in two freely available books and endorsed by toxicologists, medical doctors, and professors who have checked the science and found no errors.

Episode Summary

What do you actually know about plastics — and where did that knowledge come from? That's the question Dr. Chris DeArmitt puts to every audience he speaks to, and the answer is almost always the same: the media. In this episode of Shape the System, host Vincent Turner sits down with Chris for a wide-ranging, evidence-first conversation about one of the most misunderstood materials on the planet. The result is an episode that will challenge most of what you think you know — not through opinion, but through peer-reviewed science.

Chris opens by reframing the scale of the problem. Plastics represent just half a percent of all materials and waste we produce. Replacing them with paper, metal, or glass would require roughly double the fossil fuel — not less — because those alternatives demand far more energy to manufacture. And despite the ubiquitous image of a turtle tangled in a plastic bag, Chris recounts successfully pushing the BBC to retract a photoshopped image of exactly that scenario, which he argues has never occurred in nature. The famous "floating island of plastic the size of Texas"? Undetectable by satellite, and contradicted by decades of ocean monitoring data showing a vessel must sail 100,000 miles — four times around the planet — to find a single piece of plastic bag.

On microplastics, Chris is equally direct. Our lifetime ingestion of plastic particles amounts to roughly 0.015 grams over 70 years — a hundred million times below the no-observable-adverse-effect level established in over 2,000 studies spanning 60 years. The WWF's claim that we eat a credit card's worth of plastic each week, he notes, has been refuted by multiple independent studies — and remains on their website regardless. Meanwhile, the most common end-of-life options for plastic — landfill, incineration for energy recovery, or mechanical recycling — are all scientifically defensible, with recycling reducing environmental impact by a further 70% on top of plastic's already lowest-in-class baseline across 93% of applications studied.

Looking forward, Chris draws a clear line between innovations with evidence and those without. Plant-based versions of existing polymers like polyethylene and polypropylene — chemically identical to their fossil fuel counterparts, recyclable in the same streams, with decades of safety data — represent a credible path. Novel biopolymers like PLA, PHA, and seaweed-derived plastics, by contrast, lack life cycle evidence that they reduce environmental impact, regardless of how appealing they sound. The most unsexy innovation he highlights may also be the most significant: down-gauging, the continuous industry-wide effort to use less material to do the same job. A PET bottle that weighed 25 grams a generation ago now weighs around 8 grams — a 60% reduction in material, achieved quietly, without a press release.

Key Takeaways

Notable Quotes

"Everything you know about plastics comes from a source that you don't trust. Maybe it's time to put that aside for 10 minutes and just consider what scientists say about it." — Dr. Chris DeArmitt

"Plastic is actually net fossil fuel and carbon dioxide negative because they make cars lighter, they make airplanes lighter, they reduce food waste, and they insulate your homes." — Dr. Chris DeArmitt

"The World Wildlife Fund tells us that we eat a credit card a week of microplastic. Science says that would take 20,000 years to do." — Dr. Chris DeArmitt

"People think that because it's synthetic, it's like completely alien and different, and it really isn't. There's no property of polymers which is really different to anything natural." — Dr. Chris DeArmitt

"The people with the most passion are doing the most harm because they didn't check the facts before they went off. They're like an unguided missile — they've got a big warhead but no guidance system." — Dr. Chris DeArmitt

Resources

Shape the System is  an independent podcast with support from KPMG High Growth Ventures

More about KPMG High Growth Ventures

Scale up for success. We’re here for that.

We navigate founders and their teams to the services they need to reach their next milestone.

From startup to scale and beyond. No matter where you are right now, we’ll get you the help you need to drive your business forward. We help founders fully realise their potential, as well as the potential of their team and their business, by connecting them to the expertise, skills and resources they need at every stage of their growth journey.

Our extensive experience in partnering with evolving businesses means that we can provide you with tailored support as well as independent and practical insights.

Whether you are looking to refine your strategy, establish your operations, prepare for a capital raise, expand abroad or simply comply with regulatory requirements, we are here to help.

Links:

Website: About (highgrowthventures.com.au)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kpmg-enterprise-high-growth-ventures/

Contacts: [email protected]

Shape the System is  an independent podcast with support from KPMG High Growth Ventures

More about KPMG High Growth Ventures

Scale up for success. We’re here for that.
We navigate founders and their teams to the services they need to reach their next milestone. 

From startup to scale and beyond. No matter where you are right now, we’ll get you the help you need to drive your business forward. We help founders fully realise their potential, as well as the potential of their team and their business, by connecting them to the expertise, skills and resources they need at every stage of their growth journey.

Our extensive experience in partnering with evolving businesses means that we can provide you with tailored support as well as independent and practical insights. 

Whether you are looking to refine your strategy, establish your operations, prepare for a capital raise, expand abroad or simply comply with regulatory requirements, we are here to help.

Links:

Website: About (highgrowthventures.com.au)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kpmg-enterprise-high-growth-ventures/

Contacts: [email protected]

About the Guest

Carly Hunt is the Head of Strategic Partnerships of Showerkap, a UK-based water technology company tackling excessive water consumption in the hospitality sector. With over 20 years in hotel management — latterly focused on energy, waste, and water reduction programmes — Carly brings rare operational depth to the sustainability challenge she's now helping to solve. Her academic background in sustainable tourism (the subject of her university dissertation) makes her return to this space something of a full-circle moment.

Episode Summary

Water scarcity might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you book a hotel room, but it probably should be. In this episode of Shape the System, host Vincent Turner sits down with Carly Hunt, Head of Strategic Partnerships of Showerkap, to explore how the hospitality industry is one of the heaviest — and least scrutinised — consumers of fresh water on the planet. Hotels can use up to eight times more water than local residents, with individual rooms consuming as much as 1,500 litres per day. Meanwhile, the UK's Environment Agency is forecasting a potential shortfall of 1.4 billion litres per day by 2030, rising to 5 billion by 2050. The numbers are stark, and Carly makes the case that demand reduction — not just supply management — has to be part of the answer.

Carly's entry into this space came through two decades of hotel management, where she discovered that energy and waste were relatively easy to monitor and reduce, but water was almost impossible to measure at any meaningful resolution. That gap led her to Showerkap, the brainchild of inventor Steve Harding, which combines three elements that have never previously been integrated in the water sector: fixture-level IoT monitoring across an entire building, a cloud-based analytics platform, and a novel shower fade timer that delivers a real-time behavioural nudge — without restricting flow.

The pilot results, run across one floor of the Sandman Hotel at Gatwick Airport, were striking. Prior to the intervention, guests were showering for 35 minutes or more — consuming around 245 litres per session. After the shower fade timer was introduced (set to seven minutes), average shower duration across the 20-room eco-floor dropped to just three minutes and 20 seconds. Overall water usage fell by 58%, energy use by 14%, and the projected saving across the full hotel is approximately 2.7 million litres per year. Of the guests who stayed across nearly a year of the pilot, only three declined to participate in the eco-floor — a participation rate that Carly and Vincent calculate at roughly 99%.

The commercial case is deliberately straightforward: Showerkap is targeting a two-year payback period, meaning hotels can effectively finance the installation against the savings it generates. Beyond the headline water and energy savings, the technology surfaces hidden operational value — the Sandman pilot uncovered hot water circulation issues throughout the building and enabled early detection of Legionella risk. The go-to-market strategy currently leans on pilots and case studies to build trust in a space where water has historically been undervalued, with an eye toward expansion into the Mediterranean, MENA, and other water-scarce markets. An upcoming back-of-house research piece, potentially in partnership with the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, is expected to extend Showerkap's evidence base well beyond the bathroom.

Key Takeaways

Notable Quotes

"Water is one of the most vital resources on earth. And we all know that. And we rarely treat it that way because we automatically run a tap and it's there." — Carly Hunt

"Reducing showers by just a couple of minutes can save 20 litres. And if those small actions become millions, then think of the impact that would have." — Carly Hunt

"We always say that water intrinsically is linked to everything. We can't do anything without water." — Carly Hunt

"We don't want to force anyone to change, because that doesn't work. You have to effectively give them the tools to actually do it themselves." — Carly Hunt

Resources

Shape the System is  an independent podcast with support from KPMG High Growth Ventures

More about KPMG High Growth Ventures

Scale up for success. We’re here for that.
We navigate founders and their teams to the services they need to reach their next milestone. 

From startup to scale and beyond. No matter where you are right now, we’ll get you the help you need to drive your business forward. We help founders fully realise their potential, as well as the potential of their team and their business, by connecting them to the expertise, skills and resources they need at every stage of their growth journey.

Our extensive experience in partnering with evolving businesses means that we can provide you with tailored support as well as independent and practical insights. 

Whether you are looking to refine your strategy, establish your operations, prepare for a capital raise, expand abroad or simply comply with regulatory requirements, we are here to help.

Links:

Website: About (highgrowthventures.com.au)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kpmg-enterprise-high-growth-ventures/

Contacts: [email protected]

About the Guest

Lewis Dunnigan is the CEO and co-founder of Bygen, an Australian deep-tech company reimagining how activated carbon is produced. Lewis came to the problem through his PhD research at the University of Adelaide, where he and his team recognised the commercial potential of their work and spun out the company. He brings both the scientific depth of an academic researcher and the commercial pragmatism of a founder who has already shipped product to customers on multiple continents.

Episode Summary

Activated carbon is one of the most widely used industrial materials on the planet — and one of the least talked about. It filters your drinking water, treats industrial gas emissions, recovers gold from ore, remediates contaminated land, and even plays a role in pharmaceutical processing and energy storage. In this episode of Shape the System, host Vincent Turner sits down with Lewis Dunnigan, CEO of Bygen, to unpack what activated carbon actually is, why the way it's currently made is both costly and environmentally damaging, and how Bygen's production technology is changing the equation.

At its core, activated carbon is a highly porous solid material — visually indistinguishable from barbecue charcoal — but with a surface area so vast that a single teaspoon contains the equivalent of a football field. That porosity is what makes it such a powerful filtration medium: contaminants in liquids and gases are physically attracted to and trapped by the densely bonded carbon atoms inside. The problem is that making it the conventional way requires heating raw materials to around 1,000 degrees Celsius using fossil fuels like LPG or diesel — a process that is both expensive and carbon-intensive. The two dominant global feedstocks, coal and coconut shell, each carry their own environmental and social baggage.

Bygen's core innovation integrates the two-stage production process — charcoal production and activation — into a single system that generates excess heat rather than consuming it. By combining both steps and developing alternative activation chemistries that operate at lower temperatures, Bygen has effectively eliminated the largest operating cost in conventional activated carbon manufacturing: the external energy input. The result is a cleaner, cheaper production process that uses sustainable feedstocks — including almond, walnut, and hazelnut shells, as well as wood — sourced locally to wherever the plant is built. Bygen already has a plant running on walnut shells in Northern California, and a truck was loading activated carbon for a water treatment plant during the recording of this episode.

The company operates a licensing model, partnering with feedstock owners — such as large nut-processing or cracking facilities — who gain a way to convert a low-value byproduct (selling for perhaps $30–40 per tonne as cattle feed) into a high-value product worth around $4,000 per tonne. For end users like water treatment plants, Bygen competes not on price against cheap Chinese coal-based imports, but on quality, reliability, and service. The North Star is 200,000 tonnes of activated carbon produced annually using Bygen's technology — roughly 5% of the current global market of around 4 million tonnes per year — requiring five new project deployments per year and approximately 1 million tonnes of feedstock. The next 12 months are focused on building the team and capital base to make that deployment rate a reality.

Key Takeaways

Notable Quotes

"Despite these great use cases, the way that it's been made for the last hundred plus years is very, very harmful to the environment. And it's also very expensive." — Lewis Dunnigan

"The production method basically generates excess heat rather than requiring lots of additional energy input. And that basically means that we completely eliminate that major cost of conventional producers." — Lewis Dunnigan

"We don't really want to get involved in a pricing war. We can focus really on quality, on reliability, on customer service — and that's basically how we break into the market." — Lewis Dunnigan

"Australia has such an amazing research background that is so poorly translated into commercial outcomes. Being able to be one of the companies that can help show that is possible brings us all a lot of satisfaction." — Lewis Dunnigan

"There's no point working 18-hour days if you're not applying it in the right way. If you can apply your time based on your experience and your knowledge more effectively, you don't need to do that." — Lewis Dunnigan

Resources

Shape the System is  an independent podcast with support from KPMG High Growth Ventures

More about KPMG High Growth Ventures

Scale up for success. We’re here for that.
We navigate founders and their teams to the services they need to reach their next milestone. 

From startup to scale and beyond. No matter where you are right now, we’ll get you the help you need to drive your business forward. We help founders fully realise their potential, as well as the potential of their team and their business, by connecting them to the expertise, skills and resources they need at every stage of their growth journey.

Our extensive experience in partnering with evolving businesses means that we can provide you with tailored support as well as independent and practical insights. 

Whether you are looking to refine your strategy, establish your operations, prepare for a capital raise, expand abroad or simply comply with regulatory requirements, we are here to help.

Links:

Website: About (highgrowthventures.com.au)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kpmg-enterprise-high-growth-ventures/

Contacts: [email protected]

Jason Rolland is the CEO of Carbon Inc, a leading additive manufacturing company focused on production-grade 3D printing. Trained as a polymer chemist, Jason completed his PhD at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill under Carbon co-founder Joe DeSimone, where he developed a deep interest in translating materials science into real-world impact. His career sits at the intersection of chemistry, entrepreneurship, and advanced manufacturing, with a particular focus on making 3D printing viable for end-use products at scale. At Carbon, he has helped shift the industry from “rapid prototyping” to true digital manufacturing.

In this episode of Shape the System, host Vincent Turner sits down with Jason Rolland to unpack how additive manufacturing—specifically polymer-based 3D printing—is reshaping the way physical products are designed, made, and distributed. Rather than framing 3D printing as a novelty or prototyping tool, the conversation explores its emergence as a genuine manufacturing alternative to injection moulding and foams.

Jason walks through the limitations of traditional manufacturing, particularly where cost efficiency comes at the expense of performance, customisation, and waste. Using examples from footwear, helmets, bike saddles, wheelchair cushions, and dental products, he explains how lattice geometries and advanced elastomers unlock new performance characteristics—such as targeted cushioning, breathability, and durability—that simply aren’t possible with conventional methods.

The discussion also touches on broader system-level implications: on-demand production, reduced tooling, faster iteration cycles, and more localised manufacturing. From Adidas’ fully 3D-printed Climacool shoe to millions of custom dental parts produced each month, the episode highlights where the economics already work—and where they’re heading next.

3D printing is moving from prototyping into true manufacturing, producing end-use parts that match or outperform traditional materials.

Lattice structures enable performance gains—variable stiffness, breathability, and impact protection—that foams and injection-moulded parts can’t achieve.

Customisation at scale is already real in sectors like dentistry, with millions of unique parts produced every month.

Digital manufacturing reduces reliance on tooling, enabling faster design iteration and lower inventory risk.

The biggest barriers to adoption today are awareness and application development speed, not material performance.

“It’s no longer okay for something to be cool just because it’s 3D printed. It actually has to serve function and do something better.” — Jason Rolland

“Nobody actually cares about all the cool tech that’s behind it. They care about the part that comes out of the printer.” — Jason Rolland

“You can intrinsically have stiffer regions and softer regions within the same part just by changing the geometry.” — Jason Rolland

“The success of the year isn’t how many shoes you sell—it’s how much inventory you have left over.” — Jason Rolland

“There’s almost no industry that can’t benefit from what we’re doing.” — Jason Rolland

Carbon Inc — https://carbon3d.com/?utm_source=shapethesystem.org

Shape the System is  an independent podcast with support from KPMG High Growth Ventures

More about KPMG High Growth Ventures

Scale up for success. We’re here for that.
We navigate founders and their teams to the services they need to reach their next milestone. 

From startup to scale and beyond. No matter where you are right now, we’ll get you the help you need to drive your business forward. We help founders fully realise their potential, as well as the potential of their team and their business, by connecting them to the expertise, skills and resources they need at every stage of their growth journey.

Our extensive experience in partnering with evolving businesses means that we can provide you with tailored support as well as independent and practical insights. 

Whether you are looking to refine your strategy, establish your operations, prepare for a capital raise, expand abroad or simply comply with regulatory requirements, we are here to help.

Links:

Website: About (highgrowthventures.com.au)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kpmg-enterprise-high-growth-ventures/

Contacts: [email protected]

Mike Haydon is the CEO of Off The Grid Shop, a business focused on solar, batteries, and decentralised energy solutions. With more than 15 years in the renewable energy sector, Mike has built his career around the idea of energy sovereignty—helping households and businesses stay powered, resilient, and in control. His background spans off-grid systems, peer-to-peer energy trading, and software-driven energy orchestration. Today, he’s working to rebalance who benefits from Australia’s energy transition.

In this episode of Shape the System, host Vincent Turner sits down with Mike Haydon to unpack a deceptively simple question: do we still need electricity grids? The answer, as Mike explains, isn’t about abandoning the grid—but rethinking how it’s used, who it serves, and who captures the value created by rooftop solar and batteries.

Mike shares his journey from early solar installations to building a decentralised energy model that lets everyday households sell excess energy directly to businesses. The conversation explores why feed-in tariffs have failed consumers, how smart meters and software are reshaping energy markets, and why rooftop solar is already Australia’s largest generation source during the day.

The discussion also looks ahead. From peer-to-peer trading and carbon credits to blockchain-ready meters and the rise of energy “orchestration,” Mike outlines where the next three to five years are heading. Throughout, a clear theme emerges: the future of energy isn’t just hardware—it’s software, transparency, and communication.

Rooftop solar is already the number one generation source in Australia during the middle of the day, but households see little financial upside.

Energy retailers can resell household solar at 50–60× the price they pay consumers.

Businesses that use most of their power before 5pm can save 20–30% by shifting to decentralised and wholesale energy models.

Smart meters, with five-minute interval data, are a critical enabler of peer-to-peer energy trading.

Long-term winners in energy will be those who master software, data, and customer communication, not just generation assets.

“For us, it was never about feed-in tariffs. It was always about energy sovereignty.” — Mike Haydon

“Rooftop solar, in the middle of the day, is the number one generation source in Australia.” — Mike Haydon

“Energy security and being connected to the grid aren’t opposites—they can coexist.” — Vincent Turner

“The energy retailers are making all the profit from assets they didn’t pay for.” — Mike Haydon

“The biggest opportunity is control and flow of energy—it’s orchestration.” — Mike Haydon

Off The Grid Shop — https://www.theoffgridshop.com.au/?utm_source=shapethesystem.org

Shape the System is  an independent podcast with support from KPMG High Growth Ventures

More about KPMG High Growth Ventures

Scale up for success. We’re here for that.
We navigate founders and their teams to the services they need to reach their next milestone. 

From startup to scale and beyond. No matter where you are right now, we’ll get you the help you need to drive your business forward. We help founders fully realise their potential, as well as the potential of their team and their business, by connecting them to the expertise, skills and resources they need at every stage of their growth journey.

Our extensive experience in partnering with evolving businesses means that we can provide you with tailored support as well as independent and practical insights. 

Whether you are looking to refine your strategy, establish your operations, prepare for a capital raise, expand abroad or simply comply with regulatory requirements, we are here to help.

Links:

Website: About (highgrowthventures.com.au)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kpmg-enterprise-high-growth-ventures/

Contacts: [email protected]

Johan Tijssen is the CEO of Hempblock International and a long-time builder and entrepreneur with more than 25 years’ experience working with hemp-lime (hempcrete) construction systems. Originally from the Netherlands, Johan moved to Australia and became deeply interested in why modern housing had become so complex, fragile, and uncomfortable. Through years of hands-on building, experimentation, and R&D, he developed an interlocking hemp block system designed to simplify construction while dramatically improving thermal comfort, fire resistance, and durability. Today, Johan works with owner-builders, architects, and developers globally to rethink how walls—and homes—are built.

In this episode of Shape the System, host Vincent Turner speaks with Johan Tijssen about what’s fundamentally broken in the way we build houses—and why walls are at the centre of the problem. Johan contrasts today’s lightweight, multi-trade wall systems with thicker, simpler, and more durable approaches used historically, arguing that modern construction has traded long-term performance for short-term speed and perceived cost savings.

Johan shares his personal journey from traditional building into hemp-based construction, after discovering hempcrete’s unique properties: insulation, fire resistance, breathability, and longevity. From there, he explains how Hempblock International evolved the material into a modular, interlocking block system that removes on-site mixing, reduces trade complexity, and enables faster, more accessible builds—even for owner-builders.

The conversation explores the practical realities of construction economics, labour shortages, bushfire risk, and health issues like mould and humidity. Johan also outlines a bigger vision: scaling hemp construction into social housing, large developments, and even Olympic-scale projects, while regenerating soil and sequestering carbon through industrial hemp farming.

Modern wall systems rely on multiple materials and trades, increasing cost, coordination risk, and long-term failure points.

Hemp block walls deliver R-values up to 4.8, over 3 hours fire resistance, and natural humidity regulation in a single system.

The interlocking hemp block approach allows walls to be built at roughly 10 minutes per square metre, with minimal specialised skills.

Hemp-lime walls petrify over time, improving durability rather than degrading like many petrochemical-based materials.

Scaling hemp construction could support carbon-negative housing, healthier indoor environments, and regeneration of polluted soils.

“Walls are really like a complex system… and they require lots of different trades and moving parts.” — Johan Tijssen

“I was totally fascinated by the fact that this one wall thickness would do everything—insulate, fireproof, and perform over time.” — Johan Tijssen

“You’d be with a sledgehammer for half an hour before you get a hole in a hempcrete wall.” — Johan Tijssen

“Hemp and lime petrify over time. There are no petrochemicals that break down.” — Johan Tijssen

“The success is when people love where they live and feel safe, healthy, and comfortable in their own homes.” — Johan Tijssen

Hempblock International — https://hempblockinternational.com/?utm_source=shapethesystem.org

Shape the System is  an independent podcast with support from KPMG High Growth Ventures

More about KPMG High Growth Ventures

Scale up for success. We’re here for that.
We navigate founders and their teams to the services they need to reach their next milestone. 

From startup to scale and beyond. No matter where you are right now, we’ll get you the help you need to drive your business forward. We help founders fully realise their potential, as well as the potential of their team and their business, by connecting them to the expertise, skills and resources they need at every stage of their growth journey.

Our extensive experience in partnering with evolving businesses means that we can provide you with tailored support as well as independent and practical insights. 

Whether you are looking to refine your strategy, establish your operations, prepare for a capital raise, expand abroad or simply comply with regulatory requirements, we are here to help.

Links:

Website: About (highgrowthventures.com.au)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kpmg-enterprise-high-growth-ventures/

Contacts: [email protected]

Shape the System is  an independent podcast with support from KPMG High Growth Ventures

More about KPMG High Growth Ventures

Scale up for success. We’re here for that.
We navigate founders and their teams to the services they need to reach their next milestone. 

From startup to scale and beyond. No matter where you are right now, we’ll get you the help you need to drive your business forward. We help founders fully realise their potential, as well as the potential of their team and their business, by connecting them to the expertise, skills and resources they need at every stage of their growth journey.

Our extensive experience in partnering with evolving businesses means that we can provide you with tailored support as well as independent and practical insights. 

Whether you are looking to refine your strategy, establish your operations, prepare for a capital raise, expand abroad or simply comply with regulatory requirements, we are here to help.

Links:

Website: About (highgrowthventures.com.au)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kpmg-enterprise-high-growth-ventures/

Contacts: [email protected]

Neal Rickner is the CEO of Airloom, a US-based clean energy company reimagining how we harness wind power. Neal began his career as an F-18 pilot in the US Marines before transitioning through Columbia Business School into a decade at Google and Google X. There, he worked on breakthrough energy and technology initiatives, including airborne wind systems. His unique mix of military discipline, commercial insight, and innovation leadership positions him perfectly to lead Airloom’s mission to deliver low-cost, scalable wind energy.

In this episode of Shape the System, host Vincent Turner talks with Airloom CEO Neal Rickner about a radical rethink of wind power. While most people picture towering three-bladed turbines dominating windy landscapes, Neal explains why that long-standing model—though effective—is reaching its practical limits. Wind’s “first generation” has been a success, but further scaling it is hitting physical, logistical, and economic barriers.

Airloom’s solution represents what Neal calls “Wind 2.0.” Instead of building ever-larger vertical turbines, Airloom uses a ground-level, track-based system resembling an oval stadium or roller coaster. Attached wings capture the wind, pulling a continuous belt that drives generators at the corners. Built from standard steel and aluminium components, the system is modular, easy to transport in shipping containers, and can be installed without cranes—dramatically reducing costs and opening up new sites for generation.

Neal shares how Airloom’s design achieves roughly half the cost per swept area compared to traditional turbines, enabling deployment in regions that lack the infrastructure for massive towers. The conversation dives into the physics, economics, and engineering trade-offs that underpin this breakthrough approach, including insights from Neal’s past at Google X and how Airloom integrates lessons learned from decades of conventional wind development.

As Airloom builds its first megawatt-scale pilot in Wyoming, Neal reflects on both the challenges and excitement of scaling a technology that could make wind power cheaper and more widely accessible than ever before.

Traditional three-blade turbines dominate wind energy but face limits due to cost, size, and infrastructure constraints.

Airloom’s design uses a horizontal, track-based architecture—cutting swept-area costs by around 50%.

The system is made from 95% steel and aluminium, using only 58 unique parts versus about 1,500 in a standard turbine.

Airloom’s modular sections fit in standard shipping containers, eliminating cranes and simplifying global deployment.

The company is building a megawatt-scale pilot in Wyoming, aiming for a commercial demonstration by mid-2026.

“Energy is our prosperity and our security—it’s where I’ll spend the rest of my career.”
— Neal Rickner

“We’ve sort of painted ourselves into a corner with wind. The machines keep getting bigger and bigger, and that creates absurd challenges.”
— Neal Rickner

“Airloom is like a roller coaster for wind—it’s lower, modular, and simple to build with common materials.”
— Neal Rickner

“We’re building swept area—the thing that makes money—for half the cost.”
— Neal Rickner

“I’m an impact junkie. I want to do something that matters—and gigawatts of low-cost wind energy can change the world.”
— Neal Rickner

Airloom Energy
 

Shape the System is  an independent podcast with support from KPMG High Growth Ventures

More about KPMG High Growth Ventures

Scale up for success. We’re here for that.
We navigate founders and their teams to the services they need to reach their next milestone. 

From startup to scale and beyond. No matter where you are right now, we’ll get you the help you need to drive your business forward. We help founders fully realise their potential, as well as the potential of their team and their business, by connecting them to the expertise, skills and resources they need at every stage of their growth journey.

Our extensive experience in partnering with evolving businesses means that we can provide you with tailored support as well as independent and practical insights. 

Whether you are looking to refine your strategy, establish your operations, prepare for a capital raise, expand abroad or simply comply with regulatory requirements, we are here to help.

Links:

Website: About (highgrowthventures.com.au)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kpmg-enterprise-high-growth-ventures/

Contacts: [email protected]

Shape the System is  an independent podcast with support from KPMG High Growth Ventures

More about KPMG High Growth Ventures

Scale up for success. We’re here for that.
We navigate founders and their teams to the services they need to reach their next milestone. 

From startup to scale and beyond. No matter where you are right now, we’ll get you the help you need to drive your business forward. We help founders fully realise their potential, as well as the potential of their team and their business, by connecting them to the expertise, skills and resources they need at every stage of their growth journey.

Our extensive experience in partnering with evolving businesses means that we can provide you with tailored support as well as independent and practical insights. 

Whether you are looking to refine your strategy, establish your operations, prepare for a capital raise, expand abroad or simply comply with regulatory requirements, we are here to help.

Links:

Website: About (highgrowthventures.com.au)

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/kpmg-enterprise-high-growth-ventures/

Contacts: [email protected]