No Quick Fixes for Atlanta Sustainability Startups, Mobility Giants Tackling Systemic Global Problems 

Systems tend to work pretty well for the stakeholders who created them, often causing would-be disruptors to run aground on industrial inertia.

A few Atlanta startups, however, are tackling global problems in the energy space with solutions that create new categories not by going with the flow, but by upending conventional wisdom in their respective industries. 

By no means looking for quick fixes, these environmental innovators have a few things in common: patient investors and founders unwaveringly committed to a vision they see as inevitable. 

Executives shared their optimistic outlooks, both for their companies and the world at large, during a Circular City forum sponsored by Atlanta International School at its sylvan new Sandy Springs campus along the Chattahoochee River. Jump to Michelin and SK

A Smart Dashboard for Building Energy Managers

For Ramtin Motahar of Joulea, it’s as simple as looking at the mathematics of power production.

Joulea’s solution — an operating system to help building managers uncover energy leakages and better direct investments aimed at fixing them — already works by a variety of metrics, from cutting emissions to reducing capital outlays. 

But in the age of AI, the arithmetic gets even easier: Data centers, Mr. Motahar said, already consume 4 percent of U.S. electricity, with the Department of Energy projecting that proportion to rise to 12 percent by 2028. (The entire passenger car market, he points out, is at about 10 percent.)

“Where is that additional 8 percent going to come from?” Mr. Motahar asked on a panel discussion at the event. For Mr. Motahar, it was rhetorical, but he explained anyway:

“Buildings consume about 40 percent — that’s residential, commercial, all buildings — and it’s the largest consumption of energy across all industries.” 

That means portfolio managers stuck with design decisions made decades earlier will be looking for scalable ways to cut consumption and thereby reduce costs, with climate concern as a sort of cherry on top. Joulea gives them that solution, scouring the exterior of the building with drones while using AI to crunch usage data and make real-time recommendations.

“Buildings are the only thing that is tethered to energy, and they’re only as good as their first round of permits or their last round of renovations. 

When your car runs out of charge or gas, you’ve got to go to the local gas station. When you get hungry, as a person, you have to go to the grocery store or go to the refrigerator. Your flight from Atlanta to Seattle has to have the requisite amount of fuel. But buildings are tethered to energy, so they’re only as good as somebody designed them, maybe 40 years ago.”

Mr. Motahar believes that renewables will get to scale, helping solve the supply side of clean power. Demand is another story. 

“You can’t outrun a bad diet. And I think right now, we’re starting to right-size our consumption,” he said. Solutions like Joulea, which is being entertained for pilots in places like Canada and Europe, can help with the belt-tightening.  

In that future world, squeezing out 2-3 percent more efficiency will be the difference between the professional performers of sustainability and the armchair athletes.

See a full story on Joulea here

Powering Up Outdated Water Infrastructure 

Emrgy, an 11-year-old Atlanta startup, is also seeing AI as a potential boon. Instead of selling its hardware alone— hydroelectric turbines that produce electricity when placed in irrigation canals — Emrgy is assembling them into modules and deploying them like a solar developer, landing long-term contracts and power-purchase agreements with utilities. 

“We make much more economic value by selling power on 30-year contracts than we do on selling a piece of equipment one time,” CEO Emily Morris said. 

She added that the sales cycle in Emrgy’s space — the preserve of governments and utilities — can tend to be drawn out.

But hanging around long enough, and spending five years perfecting the hardware, has paid off amid shifts in the global energy equation. 

“Three years ago, when we last raised venture capital, the words ‘AI and data center’ weren’t in my pitch whatsoever. But when you think about how the rules of the game ultimately change, and you look at a map of how data centers are sited where water infrastructure is, it’s uncanny to have our customers telling us, ‘Oh, you know, we want to sell your power to the data center. We want to sell the water you’re conserving to the data center for their goals.’” 

That same slower speed to market may now provide offer a barrier to entry for competitors, along with predictable long-term cash flows that Emrgy can leverage for future investments. 

Aside from power generation, Emrgy’s technology aids in water conservation, helping modernize outdated infrastructure to reduce waste, addressing another major concern over the rise of generative artificial intelligence — water spent in cooling the massive server farms that power it. 

“Most of these water spaces are 100 years old. They’re dilapidated. Half of the water that we divert out of places like the Chattahoochee to deliver to battery factories or to automotive or to food/bev is lost along the way through seepage or cracks or failures in that water infrastructure,” she said. 

See the full story on Emrgy here

A ‘Roku’ for Golf Carts and Other Electrified Vehicles 

For Karlos Walkes, linking XiQ’s solution with long-term carbon emissions takes a bit of a journey, but the co-founder and CEO gets there quickly.

When the company’s patented FleetQi device replaces the keyed ignition in golf carts, it not only boosts convenience; it both the owner and the manufacturer a new superpower: data. 

“Imagine a Roku that you use for your television. It’s almost the equivalent. This device will allow the vehicle to do more and allow the user to do more with their vehicle because they’re demanding more,” Mr. Walkes said. 

XiQ’s carbon-reduction plans bet that that if their zero-emissions vehicles are more capable, more consumers will forego trips in their gas-guzzling cars, or — the holy grail of sustainability — get rid of their cars altogether. 

With more workers ready to give up long commutes, developments around the world are being built around micro-mobility solutions, giving the people what they want: closer community and less time in the car.

“With our device and our technology, not only can we enable the usage of the vehicle to impact their lives in more positive way, but we can get the data. This is an invisible market.”

In Europe, where the green economy gets more of a top-down push, the potential is easily seen. Monaco, for instance, is looking to require electrification and tracking on the ritzy boats entering its marinas, Mr. Walkes said. But the Middle East presents huge opportunity. 

“Because development is unchecked, there’s very little regulation, so they’re able to build very rapidly with no real zoning restrictions, and all of these buildings, whether they’re commercial or real estate, they all use these carts, these vehicles, and they want that to enable them to manage the users, the vehicles, the data.”

XiQ, which is eyeing a United Arab Emirates distributor, is ready to oblige. 

See the full story on XiQ here

How Michelin (France) and SK (Korea) Innovate on Environmental Responsibility

It may seem unnatural to look to a tire producer for lessons on sustainability, but Michelin is making real inroads in reducing its own footprint (tire tracks?) even as it makes hitting the gas just a bit more green for its customers. 

Ninety percent of a tire’s environmental impact comes from its time installed on the car, says Olivier Brauen, vice president of circularity and business transformation for the France-based giant that operates a factory in South Carolina and boasts 30,000 employees around the U.S. 

That means efforts to responsibly produce a tire (5 percent) and recycle it (5 percent) are important but subordinate to improving the efficiency of the main product. 

“A few percent multiplied by 250 million vehicles in the U.S., that’s a lot. So reducing fuel consumption or increasing the range, maximizing the life of the product, generates a lot of positive benefits,” Mr. Brauen said, noting that the company has invested some $400 million in metro Atlanta. 

Michelin has instituted its own net-zero goals geared toward balancing people, planet and profit, and it bought a subsidiary that recovers key materials from recycled tires, reducing emissions not only from transport and logistics but from the sourcing of inputs. 

“If we have the raw material next door, instead of sourcing from Indonesia for natural rubber, or Saudi Arabia for fossil-based solutions, it’s there. So the more you can recycle, the more you can create local jobs, so it’s better for the economy and with less impact on the environment.”

But that equation, while seemingly a no-brainer, can be challenging in the U.S., where disparate environmental regulations across 50 states can lead to considerable balkanization. 

“If you think about circularity, the word ‘scale’ is super critical, and this fragmentation in the U.S. is a real problem,” Mr. Brauen said. 

For SK Battery America, the Commerce, Ga.-based factory that reports to South Korea’s SK On, producing electric vehicle batteries has been vital for helping auto makers meet their goals, now shifting with the priorities of a new administration. 

But much more is yet to be done in ensuring that the full life cycle of a battery reaches circularity, and designing with recycling in mind is a “growing conversation,” Christian Bokich, SK Battery America’s government affairs and communications director, said at the event. 

While awaiting forthcoming innovations that will make for cleaner sourcing of battery minerals, SK Battery is recycling scrap metals shavings into its supply chain while shifting its battery chemistry away from nickel cadmium and toward more lithium iron phosphate to reduce strategic exposure and environmental risk.  

“I think for us, the most important thing is transitioning our original materials right now to countries that are not controversial,” Mr. Bokich said. 

SK has also landed deals that will see the Commerce plant pivot to making battery energy storage systems to offset declining electric vehicle demand. 

Even with less robust government commitment to climate goals, the panelists were optimistic that corporate efforts will be buoyed not only by consumer preferences but also by the demands of a younger workforce bringing environmental idealism into their companies. 

“It’s embedded in us. We want to have a world which will last for future generations. We just have to revive that ethos,” Mr. Brauen said. “Our employees are telling us that they are happy to work with Michelin because ‘you have this plan and you do what you promise.’ There’s a lot of green-washing out there. It’s so easy to over-promise and under-deliver.” 

And all regulation does not equate to headwinds for the clean-energy sector, Ms. Morris reminded the crowd of about 80 guests at the new AIS campus.

“We feel actually quite opportunistic in this moment, because hydroelectric power is still very much focused on by the current administration. All clean energy subsidies for hydro are preserved through 2033, so we’re really well positioned in this administration, but again, in four years, things could potentially swing back the other direction. We’re focused on what is perfectly within our control to manage and ultimately set ourselves up for long-term success.”

While Mr. Motahar, a new father again in recent months, gave the audience a fresh framework for thinking about our responsibility to the world:

“We call it ‘Mother Earth.’ But I feel like we take better care of our children than we do our mothers. So maybe we should call it ‘Child Earth.'”