ClearCO2 — A startup using carbon accounting to reverse climate change
Living in the age of data-driven innovation can mean almost endless possibilities for addressing the greatest of tasks. With the narrative so strong right now for planet survival and the role human consumption plays within that, solutions are breaking through which can benefit all. No longer deemed impossible, food businesses can look at their impact, make positive change and in the process generate additional revenues and reverse climate change.
Applied Data Incubator launched in 2022 and is delighted to have within its six month Berlin-based program, three exciting startups. Among them is ClearCO2, a startup that wants to make sustainable choices a real option. Let’s take a trip together and meet the team and discover their vision for the near future.
Sylvie Chin is the driving force behind ClearCO2, a spin-off of the existing ClearKarma movement which she has been working on for some ten years. The intention is the need for consumers to be able to make trusted food choices and to heal a broken food system. Her personal life story relates to this ambition and is intertwined with a need to restore nature and climate with more sustainably produced food. When she saw the opportunity to enter the Applied Data Hackathon in March 2022, the gateway for the Applied Data Incubator, she seized it with both hands.
“I was asking at the time, how do consumers make a sustainable choice, and then work through how I could help support their buying decisions.” Sylvie shares. During the hackathon she teamed up with Barak Shalom, who holds a bachelors in Mathematics and Computer Science and after a period in the Israli army studied a Ms.C degree in Bioengineering with a focus on Bio-informatics. They were joined during the hackathon by engineers Ravi Kiran and Vivek Kumar and began working on their startup which aimed to help SMEs reduce their carbon emissions. Barak describes why he joined the hackathon, “I saw it as a great opportunity to meet and work with new people. Sylvie and I clicked the first time we met and we shared a passion for enabling companies along the food supply chain to save a gigaton in carbon emissions. We are ambitious!” Sylvie adds, “We want to be the next carbon unicorn! Through our platform we are allowing others to make the needed sustainable buying decisions.”
Sylvie paints a picture of what it was like hacking together for the chance to enter the Applied Data Incubator’s six month program in Berlin. “We were working on our project constantly and were able to track progress in a setting that was organized and accelerated. Whilst I was involved in our topic before, the hackathon allowed for a fresh look.” The team and project were successful in the hackathon and given the opportunity to enter the Incubator. Ravi and Vivek met during the Hackathon but would not join and so Antje Oltmanns aka Anna Blume, a full stack UX/UI expert and software developer who has worked in sustainable food circles, became part of the team. They then began their journey in the Applied Data Incubator in April 2022 at The Drivery — the coworking space in Berlin.
What does ClearCO2 provide?
ClearCO2 offers a platform that empowers SMEs to profit from carbon accounting, buy from sustainable suppliers and reverse climate change. Their initial focus is the food service sector but equally the suppliers who already operate in the sustainable space. Their vision is for companies to generate revenues by selling carbon credits and by centralizing all data required for measurement, audit, certification and aggregation, they can support the reduction of carbon footprints and generate certified credits. Sylvie describes this, “We are not just measuring, we are monetizing efforts towards sustainability by generating carbon credits. It is a methodology for businesses to save and make money. They could even go into tax credits. We make it easy and painless.” Barak adds onto this by explaining that by leveraging machine learning, text mining and natural language processing, much can be completed automatically and, importantly, conveniently. “In the hackathon we used a single use case of a pizza as a proof of concept. Now we can apply that to entire menus, food products and the overall food supply chain.” With a dashboard in the making, decision makers can see where they can save energy, which ingredients are sustainable and then break down components (ingredients) and processes (equipment/energy usage). Ultimately businesses can see their energy consumption and translate this to carbon emissions.
“There are a lot of regulations fast approaching and the world holds the need to go net zero by 2050. If businesses are not aligned on this, they will have a problem.”
A personal connection
Each of the team holds a personal connection to the vision of what ClearCO2 is working hard to achieve. Barak shares that it was only after moving to Germany that he became more environmentally aware. “Just seeing how the trash is separated and that sustainability is in everyday conversations opened my eyes. I knew ClearCO2 was a real passion for me when I hacked over a weekend because I wanted to, not because I needed too. That for me was the sign that I needed to stay a part of this adventure.”
For Anna Blume she has focused much of her career on ecosystem building related to combining technology with human needs. “If data is transparent and accessible it provides an insight for reflection and the ability to build a better world. As a UX designer you figure out a lot of these things, such as how data is presented, transferred and modulated. I now apply this to ClearCO2 with the team.” Anna originally found out about the opportunity to join the startup from a WhatsApp message from Sylvie. “We have operated in similar networks for some time and we knew something was in the air for change. I quit my job and now we have a blue ocean of possibility in front of us.”
Sylvie’s personal story is one of determination. “I come from a refugee background and this helped me develop resilience. My father died when I was 19 years old and so I had no choice but to support my family financially. This meant studying and working at the same time, which was difficult but it made me who I am today. My father’s death was related to his lack of knowledge around foods that could damage his health. This motivated me to look at ways to provide information about healthy food.” Sylvie made this her personal mission in life and to ensure others don’t suffer the same fate of losing a loved one. “I’ve led departments at large corporations, on the digital transformation front, but always came back to wanting to be an entrepreneur. Food, technology, data and customers are my passions.”
Applied Data Incubator
The ClearCO2 team are highly appreciative of the startup program built for data-driven innovators. Whether the parallels with other teams or simply gaining startup experience for some team members, they liken it to a crash course in everything the team needs to know and do. “We all enjoy participating in the workshops and the progress you see is a benefit.” Sylvie shares before Anna adds, “Even in a UX Design workshop, my field, I don’t get bored and the insights from every session are good. It doesn’t always matter if you already know something, because it can help everyone in a team understand who does what task and how much time it takes to work on it.” This sharing of knowledge is at the forefront of what Applied Data Incubator strives to achieve.
Why is ClearCO2 important now?
“It’s such an interesting time for data-driven startups. Every business is needing to go digital now, especially in relation to sustainability. They need to show their data or it’s too late.” Anna shares. “There is a transformation for everyone and we see ourselves as an enabler. Digitization should not be seen as a daunting task and we are there to help. The food supply chain is a space for innovation and whilst it is still quite conservative, positive change is starting to happen.” Sylvie adds. The team of three shares that some companies may not know where to start because of the amount of space to enter in every direction but they do need to act soon.
Sylvie concludes that with trust and traceability, there is no risk of greenwashing. “Through automation, data, integration and communication we are making the process clear and simple. We will approach the decision makers of both food service providers and suppliers and explain that their customer is now seeking sustainable options. There are a lot of regulations fast approaching and the world holds the need to go net zero by 2050. If businesses are not aligned on this, they will have a problem.”
