Decarb Connect

Steve Meller, Founder and CEO of CH4 Global, joined Alex to talk about the scale up of his company which is focused on massively reducing methane emissions from cattle using a seaweed technology.

Steve Meller brings experience from the corporate, entrepreneurial and academic world to his leadership of CH4 Global – all are playing their part from the selection of the tech, the selection of the team and the essential core of a product that is commercially profitable from first sale. Listen to hear how Steve has led the scale up from research and lab development through their current project to construct their first commercial-scale facility.

Agriculture accounts for 12 gigatonnes of co2-equivalent methane – whether you’re focused on ch2 or co2, listen in to learn how CH4 Global is scaling and their focus on real impact tied to a strong commercial. Steve talks with Alex about their capital efficient approach focused on validating the science, demonstrating commercial-scale production, and ensuring positive economics for farmers. He also discussed strategic partnerships for further scaling, critical to accessing the global market for his product.

Key points of discussion:

Selecting an approach, technology and team that can deliver an outsized impact by 2030

Building a cost-effective and profitable platform without subsidies

Scalability of on-land production of seaweed

Timeline to their first commercial facility to be completed in 2024

You’ll also hear how CH4 Global raised $55M to date through angel, seed, and venture funding and their next steps in terms of funding rounds.

Show links:

Follow Alex Cameron on LinkedIn and find how to get involved with the membership and work of Decarb Connect

Connect to Steve Meller and the work of CH4 Global

Learn about CH4’s work so far and their great video overviews of methane and the agricultural climate issue

Learn about our Sponsor: Janno Media

Many thanks to our production partner and sponsor Janno Media for their support in delivering this podcast. They continue to facilitate great conversations that connect us with our audience, and their skills and expertise mean we can concentrate exclusively on generating great content to engage, inform and inspire.

Want to learn more about Decarb Connect?

Our global membership platform, events and facilitated introductions support the acceleration of industrial decarbonization around the world. Our clients include the most energy-intensive industrials from cement, metals and mining, glass, ceramics, chemicals, O&G and many more along with technology disruptors, investors and advisors.

Explore our Decarbonisation Leaders Network (DLN), where members share insights and experiences as they accelerate their net zero plans. Check out our full offering and learn more about our members, summits, reports and webinars.

If you enjoyed this conversation, take a look at the discussions about industrial decarbonisation taking place across our global event series. In 2024 you could join us at conferences in Manchester, Houston, Berlin (June), Toronto (November) or at any number of meet ups, site tours and virtual meetings.

Listen in to this conversation between Fred Clerc, Interim MD of Urban Future Lab (part of NYU Tandon School of Engineering), and Alex Cameron, Founder of Decarb Connect as they talk about the accelerator program UFL runs and its outsized performance results. UFL has welcomed 170 companies into its accelerator programs the last few years, and these have gone on to raise more than $2.5bn and have an 85% success rate.. great stats by anyone’s measure.

You’ll hear about the hardtech landscape that Fred and team focus on and what they have learned in the last few years about the drivers of success for climatetech. UFL works with early stage companies helping hem scale both the tech/IP of their solution, but also the commercial partnerships and business models they need to scale essential climate tech through series A, B, C and beyond.

Key topics:

• How can we overcome the blocks to scaling complex, but essential, decarb hardware solutions?
• Who should be stepping into the lead investor role?
• What are we seeing change in the approach of private and philanthropic capital?
• What changes and opportunities is Fred seeing in the investor community?
• With a focus on their c2v cohorts, what pattern is the UFL team seeing in the companies that are able to go beyond Seed/Series A and really get to scale?
• Examples of key tech that has been through the program and on to funding/scale success

Show links:

Connect with Fred Clerc and the team at Urban Future Labs

Learn more about the portfolio of tech companies working with UFL

Follow Alex Cameron on LinkedIn and find how to get involved with the membership and work of Decarb Connect

Connect with Urban Future Labs across their social links: Newsletter Sign Up • Linkedin • Instagram

Learn about our Sponsor: Janno Media

Many thanks to our production partner and sponsor Janno Media for their support in delivering this podcast. They continue to facilitate great conversations that connect us with our audience, and their skills and expertise mean we can concentrate exclusively on generating great content to engage, inform and inspire.

Want to learn more about Decarb Connect?

Our global membership platform, events and facilitated introductions support the acceleration of industrial decarbonization around the world. Our clients include the most energy-intensive industrials from cement, metals and mining, glass, ceramics, chemicals, O&G and many more along with technology disruptors, investors and advisors.

If you enjoyed this conversation, join us at Decarb TechInvest in Boston (September 10-11, 2024) or take a look at the discussions about industrial decarbonisation taking place across our global event series..

Join Alex Cameron, Founder of Decarb Connect and Anne Lyck Smitshuysen, partner in DynElectro for a discussion about how scaling climate tech can make new hardware platforms cost effective and profitable, even in early stages. Anne is a fuel cell specialist and a member of the Forbes 2023 30 under 30 list – she holds a Masters in Physics and Nanotechnology and is focused on bringing unique Power-to-X technologies to market which produce carbon-neutral green fuels.

So much to check out in this conversation, including:

• How do we change and challenge the perception that climate tech can’t be economical of profitable

• What does Anne’s experience of the funding a start up tell us about how to prove to investors that new tech risk is being managed effectively and that early scale developments will be delivered on time?

• What is the market for the green fuels created by their Power-to-X platform?

• Hydrogen is a market that already sees high demand, synthetic fuels will add to this demand so what does this mean for price, risk and opportunity?

• How does DynElectro compete in the electrolyzer market – specifically, what is it about the tech that allows them to make green fuels competitively?

• What are the projects and partnerships have they formed (both with investors like Yara Growth Ventures and other stakeholders)

Show links:

• Connect with Anne Lyck Smitshuysen and learn more about DynElectro’s projects and the associated climate/energy benefits
• Get in touch with Alex Cameron and find how to get involved with the membership and work of Decarb Connect in industrial decarbonization
• Check out some recent news articles about DynElectro’s 11m Euro grant for their next electrolyzer project

Learn about our Sponsor: Janno Media

Many thanks to our production partner and sponsor Janno Media for their support in delivering this podcast. They continue to facilitate great conversations that connect us with our audience, and their skills and expertise mean we can concentrate exclusively on generating great content to engage, inform and inspire.

Want to learn more about Decarb Connect?

Our global membership platform, events and facilitated introductions support the acceleration of industrial decarbonization around the world. Our clients include the most energy-intensive industrials from cement, metals and mining, glass, ceramics, chemicals, O&G and many more along with technology disruptors, investors and advisors.

Explore our Decarbonisation Leaders Network (DLN), where members share insights and experiences as they accelerate their net zero plans. Check out our full offering and learn more about our members, summits, reports and webinars.

If you enjoyed this conversation, take a look at the discussions about industrial decarbonisation taking place across our global event series.

If scaling essential decarb tech is something you’re focused on, join us at Decarb TechInvest in Boston from September 10-11 2024 or in Toronto (November) for Decarb Connect Canada. Keep an eye on all our meetings and events at www.DecarbConnect.com

In this episode, Eva Musso – Head of Sustainability and Government Relations for BASF Canada, talks with Alex about why BASF Canada has had such a strong focus on employee and supply chain sustainability engagement programmes and the value of this activity to the business.

Sustainability cannot be the remit of just one person, but many companies find the scale of the issue and the busyness of staff can be a block to meaningful engagement. So have Eva and her team achieved great results?

We explore:

• How Eva’s background in Government brought a different lens to the challenge
• The context and goals for the engagement element of her sustainability strategy
• The goals the Sustain YOU program and employee response
• The most innovative projects to come out of the Site Emission Reduction Challenge and why making it an employee-led competition made a difference

· How employee-driven programs shift the culture of sustainability within a global corporation

· How partnering with external organizations like Bull Frog Power & Iron and Earth, link to sustainability objectives

· How to engage suppliers to align with BASF’s decarbonization targets – and the role of BASF’s digital application for calculating the cradle-to-gate Product Carbon Footprint (PCF)

For further links and information, check these links out:

Show links:

Connect with Eva Musso on LinkedIn and explore the BASF Canada sustainability site

Follow Alex Cameron on LinkedIn and find how to get involved with the membership and work of Decarb Connect

Join Eva and Alex in Toronto where she will be speaking at Decarb Connect Canada (Toronto, November 2024)

Recommended Links from BASF Canada:
Bull Frog Power

Iron and Earth

PCF

Clean Commuting Program

Learn about our Sponsor: Janno Media

Many thanks to our production partner and sponsor Janno Media for their support in delivering this podcast. They continue to facilitate great conversations that connect us with our audience, and their skills and expertise mean we can concentrate exclusively on generating great content to engage, inform and inspire.

Want to learn more about Decarb Connect?

Our global membership platform, events and facilitated introductions support the acceleration of industrial decarbonization around the world. Our clients include the most energy-intensive industrials from cement, metals and mining, glass, ceramics, chemicals, O&G and many more along with technology disruptors, investors and advisors.

If you enjoyed this conversation, find out about our portfolio of events in US, Canada, UK and Europe – or explore our Decarbonisation Leaders Network (DLN), and learn why more than 200 members from the energy-intensive sectors have joined to share insights, meet partners who can accelerate their net zero plans and why it’s the fastest growing network of its kind.

• (00:01) - Introduction
• (00:02) - Eva Background and Journey into Environmental Science and Sustainability
• (00:03) - Joining BASF
• (05:41) - Engaging Employees and Stakeholders in BASF's sustainability mission
• (07:35) - Measuring the impact of sustainability work
• (08:58) - The Sustain You Program at BASF: Its goals: education, engagement, and recognition.
• (11:28) - Initial Engagement and Statistics from the Program
• (13:49) - Corporate Engagement off the back of the program
• (14:52) - BASF's Site Emission Reduction Challenge
• (16:04) - The Impact of implementing an Emissions Reduction Challenge
• (19:24) - BASF's Decade of Action contest
• (20:20) - How this program motivated employees
• (23:00) - How these programs have fostered a cultural shift towa...

40bn tonnes a year of GHGs is a massive issue that people on all sides of the political spectrum are committed to tackling. But are our international policies up to the task? Can we get around the historic lack of investment in energy that has both created a reliance on key products/markets and is now effectively pushing some countries to spend even more on fossil fuels? And is it realistic to make the big switch to renewables or do we have to rethink and re-engage with existing fuel mixes?

Craig joined the podcast earlier in the year and talked about the Carbon Paradox, which at the time theorised that underinvestment in energy, too much focus on renewables and future shortages of nat gas would simply lead to more use of dirtier fuels. A few months on, now with a War in Ukraine to contend with, and we are seeing just that – more reliance (not less) on fossil fuels.

So what’s the answer? Join us to get Craig’s assessment of the decarbonisation landscape and to hear his perspective on gas and nuclear as an essential part of any sustainable energy mix. Alex and Craig discuss the need for durable policy, and dig into Craigs assessment that more, not less, development of gas is needed.

We also explore the emerging role of the US as the single largest “buyer of co2” with the updated $85 per tonne price point – does this not only jumpstart US decarbonisation but also help them leapfrog other nations and regions, perhaps drawing in investment from those markets?

Learn more about Craig Golinowski

Learn more about Carbon Infrastructure Partners, a private equity fund manager focused on investing in carbon capture projects to meaningfully reduce emissions

Find out more about Decarb Connect and our founder Alex Cameron

To stay updated on Decarb Connect’s podcast, summits, reports and webinars, join the Decarb Connect Newsletter

Listen to more Decarb Connect podcast episodes

Follow Decarb Connect on LinkedIn

We are always looking for different voices and perspectives on the energy transition – get in touch If you’d like to take part.

Decarb Connect supports the acceleration of industrial decarbonization around the globe. We share insights and facilitate collaborations across the emerging decarbonization ecosystem. We look specifically at the most energy-intensive industrials from cement, metals and mining, glass, ceramics, chemicals, O&G and many more and help connect them to technology disruptors, investors and advisors.

Through the Decarbonisation Leaders Network (DLN), our members (a cross-sector network of those leading decarbonisation in energy-intensive industries) share insights and experiences as they accelerate their Net Zero plans. Check out Decarb Connect’s offerings and learn about the Decarbonisation Leaders Network members, meetups and benefits.

If you enjoyed this conversation, take a look at many more conversations and discussions about industrial decarbonisation taking place across Decarb Connect’s global event series.

Contact us to learn more or to get involved in the podcast series: [email protected]

Many thanks to Janno Media for their support and expertise in the edit and production of our series.