Watt It Takes

In the same way that “Climate Change” and “Global Warming” went from scientific terms to colloquial ones, “Decarbonization” is slowly permeating modern discourse. Decarbonization is the process of significantly reducing or eliminating CO2 and other GHG emissions that result from human activity. 

“Human activity” encompasses a lot of different sectors. From agriculture and forestry, to transport and industry, we are emitting a lot of greenhouse gasses. And with the demand for industrial materials only projected to increase as more countries industrialize, emissions from industry are predicted to rise faster than any other emitting sector. 

When I say “industrial” or “industry”, I’m referring to processes used to extract and refine raw materials. These processes include mining, manufacturing, construction and waste processing. According to the U.S. Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency, the industrial sector is responsible for 24% of global carbon emissions and 1/3 of U.S. direct and indirect emissions. 

For many industrial processes, process heating is a critical component. Process heating is used to raise and maintain the temperature of materials in manufacturing processes. Heating materials above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit allows for the transformation of raw materials like limestone, metallic ore, and silica into materials we depend on everyday like cement, iron, and glass. But across the manufacturing sector, process heating is responsible for the largest energy demand and highest greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for over 30% of total industrial emissions. 

Most efforts to decarbonize the industrial sector have historically targeted non-heating operations, but if we could find a way to decarbonize process heat, we stand a chance to make a large dent on total global emissions. My guest today, John O’Donnell, Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Rondo Energy is doing exactly that. 

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Humans produce a lot of trash. How much trash you ask? We produce 2.3 billion tons of trash per year. That’s enough to fill about 800,000 Olympic pools every year. So, what do we do with it all and how does it get managed? Some of it, depending on your municipality, can be composted, some of it gets recycled, but despite our best intentions, most of it ends up in our landfills. In an ideal world, the majority of our trash would be reused and recycled, but recycling, despite its promises, is actually a regressing industry. Counterintuitively, over the last 15 years, recycling rates in the United States have stagnated and even decreased. 

Recycling isn’t stagnating because people don’t want to recycle. In fact, people want to recycle so badly, waste management streams suffer from “wishcycling”, a phenomenon whereby people try to recycle items that not only aren’t recyclable, but actually end up contaminating and ruining potential batches of recyclables. 

At the heart of it, recycling and waste management systems as they exist today face a major incentive problem. Because recycled material is sold in a commodity market, prices for recycled materials like aluminum, paper, plastic, and glass fluctuate a lot. An unreliable market disincentivizes the waste management industry from investing in more efficient sorting systems that could increase overall recycling. 

While it might not seem obvious, recycling has an important role to play in global decarbonization. When materials like aluminum and plastic get recycled, the extraction of new raw materials to replace them is averted, as are the emissions that would have gone into their production. For example, for every ton of aluminum that gets reused, the carbon that would’ve been emitted into the atmosphere to produce more aluminum from new raw materials is never emitted. 

As it stands, society is not capturing the decarbonization potential of recycling. Too much waste is wasted because of human error, a lack of incentives, and waste management systems with inefficient infrastructure. What if AI could revolutionize the way we manage our trash? Instead of exposing human lives to toxic chemicals and other dangers that inevitably find themselves in trash, what if there were technological interventions that could automate sorting, have an outsized climate impact, and make waste assets more valuable all at the same time? Our guest this month, Matanya Horowitz, CEO and founder of AMP, believes all of this is possible. 

*note: In the episode, Emily incorrectly says that AMP has recycled 20 million metric tons of material. The actual number is 2.5 million tons.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

This episode is also brought to you by JP Morgan.

J.P. Morgan is proud to serve companies that are advancing decarbonization across the globe through innovative business and technology solutions. With J.P. Morgan’s unmatched investment capacity, strong support model, and global scale, the Green Economy Banking team delivers the full suite of the firm’s financial products and advisory services to help fuel the growth of green businesses and the industry at large. No matter what stage you're in, you can rely on JP Morgan's expertise and connections to back your boldest pursuits. So take the right risks, while banking with confidence. J.P. Morgan: Let’s build your future together.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Extreme weather events are becoming more and more common. In July, Hurricane Beryl wreaked havoc on the Gulf Coast, causing 3 million Texans to lose power in the midst of a soaring heat wave, which killed 23 people. 

Critics have raised questions about Houston’s power providers preparedness for a disaster like Beryl, and have raised concerns about the long delay in restoring power at a time where access to AC and power could have saved lives. 

Ever increasing extreme weather events like Beryl require utilities, retail electricity providers (REPs), independent power producers (IPPs), and other energy traders and suppliers to rapidly forecast and adjust supply in order to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective electricity. Traditional electricity demand forecasts, which rely on sparse weather data, analog meter readings, and regression-based historical demand data, are insufficient in the face of such events. 

In order to better respond to extreme weather events, and facilitate the energy transition, we need solutions that turn energy data into action and insights for power providers to prevent outages, provide reliable power, predict demand, and even provide carbon insights. And that is exactly what  Sean Kelley, CEO and Co-Founder of Amperon, is building.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Carbon is everywhere, not just in the air around us, but also in the materials we use everyday.

We talk a lot about reducing the overall amount of carbon in the atmosphere through approaches like avoided emissions or removal. But, what do we do in a world where GHG avoidance and removals are not at the scale required to tackle all of the emissions that come from heavy industry like agriculture and steel?

Research from the Ellen McArthur Foundation shows that switching our energy use to more efficient and renewable sources would only prevent 55% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In order to truly decarbonize, how do we tackle the other 45% of emissions?

Can we recycle carbon dioxide and monoxide? Instead of the linear fossil fuel based - make, use, waste life cycle, what if we could take CO and CO2, produced by heavy industry and turn it into the building blocks of our everyday lives, like the plastic container holding your cosmetics, your clothes, or the fuel powering your flight. 

In a truly circular economy, we could produce many of the materials we need from greenhouse gasses, like carbon, thus eliminating waste and pollution, and reducing greenhouse gasses across the supply chain. 

In order to achieve this vision, we need solutions that take emissions and byproducts of industries like agriculture and steel, and turn them into usable materials. And that is exactly what Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech, is building.  

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

One in ten American families own a Recreational Vehicle, and yet, the RV industry hasn’t seen meaningful innovation in decades, due in part to extreme consolidation and lack of competition. Despite this, 300-500,000 RVs are sold in the US every year, 90% of which are towable. 

Towing an RV can seriously affect the fuel economy of your car. Drivers can expect their gas mileage to decrease about 1-2% for every 100 pounds they tow. The average weight of a large travel trailer is about 6,700 pounds, which means a driver can expect between a 49-74% decrease in gas mileage. 

This means more stops, more money spent on gas, and more emissions.

On top of that, most RVs use propane to fuel generators, which in turn power appliances or amenities, making what should be a peaceful experience outdoors noisier, and the cost of an RV trip even higher, both for a family’s wallet, and for the planet. If you drive an electric car, towing a RV means an extreme reduction in range and therefore an increase in charging stops, which is a challenge for people adventuring in areas without charging infrastructure. 

As the US races towards electrification, more and more people are opting to buy hybrid or electric vehicles. But, for the one in 10 American families that own an RV and may be looking for a better, or even electric, RV experience, they are in serious need of options. 

So, in order to electrify the RV industry, and bring automotive electrification to a new segment, we need a solution that is lightweight, super aerodynamic, and above all, fun. And that is exactly what Toby Kraus, and the team at Lightship, are building. 

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Even if all emissions stopped tomorrow, the excess carbon currently in the atmosphere would take thousands of years to naturally dissipate through processes like photosynthesis, oceanic absorption, or mineralization. In addition to forests, soils, and the ocean, naturally occurring minerals are one of our planet’s most important carbon sinks. 

Over the span of hundreds or thousands of years, carbon dioxide in air and water binds to minerals, and eventually turns to stone, thus removing the carbon from the atmosphere. This process is called mineralization. One of the most abundant types of rocks on the planet is limestone, and it’s one of the unsung superstars of this carbon mineralization process. 

Meanwhile, one of the most exciting advances in the carbon removal industry that has received a lot of attention - and scrutiny - is Direct Air Capture, often referred to as “DAC.” DAC is the process of separating carbon dioxide from ambient air. The Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law specified funding for the deployment of DAC projects in the US, and DAC is getting more interest from companies looking to remove their carbon emissions. But, DAC technologies are typically expensive, energy and land intensive, and use materials that can be difficult to source. 

In order to remove billions of tons of carbon from the atmosphere, we need a DAC solution that is scalable, inexpensive, and designed to leverage natural processes like mineralization via limestone, which has millennia of carbon removal capabilities embedded in its chemistry. And that is exactly what Shashank Samala, Co-Founder and CEO of Heirloom, is building.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

According to the World Economic Forum, if we want to reach a carbon-neutral future, the world will depend on emerging markets to build energy systems that rely on clean energy instead of fossil fuels. However, only one fifth of global clean energy investments are being channeled into emerging markets. 

Financing the development of distributed renewable energy projects has been slow and challenging for interested investors and project developers. In order to facilitate the growth of distributed renewable energy in emerging markets, and connect financiers, equipment providers, and project developers who see the immense opportunity in decarbonizing growth in emerging markets, we need a platform where all stakeholders get what they need to finance, build, and track the performance of these projects.  

That’s exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes guest, Emily McAteer, co-founder and CEO of Odyssey Energy Solutions, is building. 

At Odyssey, Emily and her team are building a new kind of platform to make it possible for distributed renewable energy projects to launch in emerging markets, by connecting financiers, equipment providers, and project developers, and providing the remote monitoring and control needed to assess performance.

Emily joined the podcast to speak about her journey from Concord, Massachusetts, to working on Wall Street, to the lecture that would change her life, to founding Odyssey and building a platform that’s responsible for the deployment of ~ 2.5 million standalone solar systems and positively impacting the lives of 15 million people. 

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft and Shell Ventures.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Residential energy use accounts for about 20% of greenhouse emissions in the U.S., making it one of the most important sectors to decarbonize. As the world electrifies and consumers become more climate-conscious, energy will become one of the next consumer engagement frontiers. 

The WattBuy platform connects clean energy providers with residential customers, helps consumers save money on their energy bills, and helps companies engage customers with insights and provide enhanced offerings and services.

In this episode, Emily Kirsch sits down with WattBuy Co-Founder & CEO Naman Trivedi to learn more about founding the company, WattBuy’s mission to decarbonize the grid, and building a platform that has generated 20 gigawatt hours of renewable energy for homeowners and renters, and helped them save upwards of $4M on their energy bills.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft and Shell Ventures.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

Some experts are calling 2024 the “make or break year” for the voluntary and compliance carbon markets, which were rocked by a shaky 2023. To usher in a new era of effective and impactful carbon markets, the verification process needs a major tech update, and a serious credibility boost.

Marion Verles founded SustainCERT to be the first fully digital carbon project verification platform and Scope 3 emissions verification solution.

The team at SustainCERT is employing a novel approach to verify a project’s impact on the carbon cycle, and it starts with building a digital platform where project developers and suppliers can enter, track, and adjust their projects in accordance with valuable data insights.

SustainCERT has raised $47M, has a team of more than 100, and has developed what they describe as the first fully digital carbon project verification platform and, more recently, a Scope 3 emissions verification solution. I spoke to Marion about her journey, from her childhood in the south of France, to founding her first company in Cambodia after starting her career in finance, to launching and leading a digital-first verification platform.

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft and Shell Ventures.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments.

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.

On November 17th, 2023 the average global temperature was temporarily 2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrialization, an event with ominous climate implications. To slow global climate change, we need to find ways to supercharge natural carbon removal processes like ocean alkalization, and do it in a way that is good for the planet. 

That’s exactly what this month’s Watt It Takes Guest, Ben Tarbell, Co-Founder and CEO of Ebb Carbon, is doing.

The team at Ebb is approaching carbon removal in a way that is both novel and as ancient as the ocean itself; integrating with existing facilities that process seawater, they use electrochemistry to remove acidity, and return the alkaline seawater to the ocean where it can then absorb more carbon.

Ebb has raised $23M, has a team of 40, and is deploying their carbon removal system. I spoke to Ben about his journey, from his childhood spent obsessed with building and engineering, to his career in solar, to prototyping the Ebb System in a bathroom-less empty warehouse, to opening Ebb’s first site and starting to meaningfully remove carbon via the ocean. 

Sponsors

Watt It Takes is brought to you by Microsoft and Shell Ventures.

The $1 Billion Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund is investing in innovative technologies that have the potential for meaningful, measurable climate impact by 2030. To date, Microsoft has allocated more than $700M into a global portfolio of over 50 investments including sustainable solutions in energy, industrial, and natural systems. Visit microsoft.com/en-us/corporate-responsibility/ to learn more about Microsoft’s progress toward their impact commitments. 

Shell Ventures specializes in unlocking deployment opportunities to help their portfolio companies scale, access customers and commercialize their solutions. Visit shell.com/ventures to learn more about how they can help your company reach the next level of growth.

About Powerhouse and Powerhouse Ventures

Powerhouse is an innovation firm that works with leading global corporations and investors to help them find, partner with, invest in, and acquire the most innovative startups in clean energy, mobility, and climate.

Powerhouse Ventures backs seed-stage startups building innovative software to rapidly decarbonize our global energy and mobility systems. You can learn more at powerhouse.fund, and you can subscribe to our newsletter at powerhouse.fund/subscribe.

To hear more stories of founders building our climate positive future, hit the “subscribe” button and leave us a review.