New Ventures Podcast

Listen to George Kibala Bauer, Director Digital Utilities, GSMA for a fascinating tour across Asia and Africa, as he talks about how private sector businesses are learning and experimenting and how the deep industry experience of the GSMA  is helping to build these businesses. The GSMA Foundation has been running the donor funded Mobile for Digital Utilities Innovation Fund and has provided c...

While refrigerants cool commercial and industrial facilities they heat up the atmosphere. The refrigerant gases leak and while they stay in the atmosphere for a shorter term than carbon dioxide, they heat up the atmosphere to  a much greater degree.  This Catch 22 problem will become worse in a heating world. Luckily solutions exist. One solution is to move to natural refrigerants (...

Microbes can mimic cows  and you can pick and choose milk ingredients you can make in a cell factory. Lactoferrin is a protein in human milk, animal milk, and other bodily fluids. Colostrum, the first milk made after a baby is born, is higher in lactoferrin. It is made from whey but only 1-2% of whey protein is lactoferrin. Getting lactoferrin is resource intensive. It involves...

P4G Partnering for Green Growth and Global Goals 2030 has been supporting pioneering partnerships in the areas of clean energy, water and sanitation, sustainable agriculture, sustainable cities  and circular economy. Here she recounts some of the successful partnerships: 1. Creating a credit worthy market intermediary in Zambia for promoting renewable energy. 2. Deploying digital solutions fo...

Developed nations can use their climate finance commitments to help emerging nations develop vibrant and innovative approaches to address climate challenges. In this podcast, Robyn McGuckin Director of Partnerships at P4G makes the following points: 1. Public funds should support partnerships that bring innovative approaches to pressing problems. 2. Grant support to projects should be accompanied...

It is possible to add revenue lines with upcycled products CRUST Group makes beer from bread and rice that would be otherwise wasted. It also makes a sparkling drink from the parts of fruits that would otherwise be lost. As it has learnt to make and sell these products, it also offers to partner with customers to take their food waste and convert that to a sustainable product. This helps their par...

The recipes were tested in an empty kitchen in the Central Business District of Singapore. As the foodie haven Singapore locked down in the early days of the pandemic, the team of Tindle took an empty kitchen up and turn out recipes which they tested with top chefs. The recipes were developed in 2020, the product was launched in 2021 and in 2022 the company is launching its products in US, UK and...

The clean energy transition will need more efficient methods of energy storage. A Singapore based company is making progress. Flow batteries have the following advantages: Better performance (both in terms of storage capacity and lower degradation over time) Operational safety Lower carbon footprint. Listen to Dr. Avishek Kumar of VFlow Tech explain how the advantages help in large scale applicati...

In this podcast, Emir Nurov , Co-founder of Resync,  explains how digitalization technologies helps three types of customers. First, they can help building owners take control of both the energy consumed and energy produced (given that many buildings are now also producing energy). The Resync system helps building managers both by alerting them to important decisions that need to be taken and...

Consumers can send powerful signals from their spending habits. Let’s first say what sustainability is not. It is not about spending more money. It is not about feeling guilty. And there is no one way to achieve sustainability. Sustainability is being thoughtful about what you eat and what you buy. As sustainable consumers,  we need to be consciously deciding where and how to spend your money...

Voluntary carbon markets are an important part of the transition path to a low carbon economy as companies reorient their businesses and technologies. No wonder then that carbon prices have been rising steadily in the carbon exchange that is being built by AirCarbon. AirCarbon is a Singapore based company building an exchange for the world's most global commodity : carbon. Using a clever&nbsp...

Getting close to the customer experience and targeting early adopter markets. For many people across the world, Thai is the preferred cuisine for a Netflix evening takeout or a special dinner. Smith Taweelerdniti,  founder of Let's Plant Meat, is developing plant based meat for Thai dishes. The trick he says is to try and meet the whole customer experience of savourin...

Verification of carbon credits takes time and effort, so only large project developers have been able to invest in the upfront costs of carbon credits. Solstream's algorithm tracks  the small quantities of solar electricity produced by millions of solar home systems distributed across vast rural areas and converts them into carbon credits. These credits are now digital assets which can b...

In this podcast, Troy Carter, co-founder & CEO of Earthshot Labs talks of putting together an international collaboration to help learn what it takes to protect nature. Earthshot Labs is pioneering a high tech solution to help empower  communities with small scale, low-tech and high-touch fixes to the ecological crisis. With the use of simulations they would learn about what nee...

If you are an innovator in clean energy, smart grids, carbon markets and electric vehicles anywhere in the world there are four reasons you should consider being in Singapore. IP Protection. R&D support. Green finance. Supportive customers. And the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore should be on your list of organizations to visit. In its capacity as an industry association, it wants...

There is something beautiful about timber that makes it the construction material of choice for some of the iconic tourism projects . Add to that, the efficiency that comes from prefab constriction. For timber to have its rightful place in the sustainable world, digital technologies will have to tell you exactly where it comes from and about how its cultivation is protecting nature...

To understand the international nature of  new food, you can follow the career of Eugene Wang. He took his Taiwanese Buddhist family's recipe to California ten years back to make seafood substitutes. The New England crab cakes made from plant protein are his personal favorite. Then he came back to Singapore where space is at a premium to work on making protein powder by fermenting m...

Not all companies can say exactly where they are on their path to a net zero carbon footprint. Siemens can.  And the technology it uses to do so is now also available to others. Listen to this podcast with Sunil Yadav, Head Building Performance & Sustainability to know the four components of the solution that Siemens has for buildings and data centers. Togeth...

In a warming world, the need for cooling will only rise. nEXERGY , a company founded by Lekha Patmanathan helps customers in Singapore and the ASEAN region use ClimaCheck, to monitor cooling systems. Cooling solutions are expensive equipment and squeezing performance out of them not only helps companies manage their expenses but also avoid expensive upgrades. Electrical utilities have partnered wi...

Net zero pledges by large global corporations should help grow this market. Balancing quality of projects with streamlined processes and transparent information is key. Anton Root, Head of Research at Allied Crowds , a company that enables finance for the SDGs demystifies the market for us. The market size of voluntary carbon offset markets in land and forestry is small but changing fast...

If quality clean technology products exist, results based financing can help create markets for them How can you ensure that markets do not collapse when incentives are withdrawn? In this podcast, Martijn Veen Global Head of Energy at SNV  tells us how. There are four things really: There has to be a  data driven mechanism to allocate incentives. The processes have to be clear...

Why should industrial and commercial customers in ASEAN adopt microgrid solutions? Canopy Power, the company founded by Sujay Malve, has been setting up microgrids for remote resorts in the Asia Pacific region. Customers have been benefiting from the money saved from diesel. But post pandemic, Sujay hopes that a focus on attracting sustainability conscious customers seeking a staycation would driv...

What can Singapore tell us about urban sustainability? Ken Hickson has been working in Singapore since the early 1980s. He published his first book on sustainability in 2009. In a weak moment, he would say "give up" because it is "like banging your head". But the moment quickly passes. In this inspiring podcast, Ken, who just celebrated his  77th birthday, talks about busi...

Crowdfunding can be a powerful tool. Not, however, if you think of it as the next cool thing. In my conversation with Davinia Cogan she provides the following advice. Entrepreneurs will have to do the ground work and prepare for a campaign. Incubators will have to really understand their companies and support them with fundraising over several years. And foundations will have to work clo...

Crowdfunding is a serious option for funding clean energy businesses The  market took a bit of a hit last year but is still in a very respectable shape Davinia Cogan, who has literally written the  book on crowdfunding for clean energy access talks about the different types of crowdfunding and how the markets have reacted to covid. In Davinia's words her interest in crowdfunding was piqu...