Climastry

Manufacturers are facing margin pressures and no longer have fiscal capacity for additional debt faculties. Companies also need a better way to demonstrate the value that decarbonization creates to monetize their progress. More broadly though, the appropriate amount of climate finance required to avert crisis is not being mobilized.

When any organization goes out to carbon markets they can usually fund energy, nature, or social projects. Recent developments suggest grids are reaching peak green energy integration rates. Nature based solutions are plagued by additionality. Meanwhile, small manufacturers that represent 75% to 95% of globally listed organizational emissions seeking immediate emissions abatement and climate adaptation financing have limited access to sustainability-linked debt.

We're opening a door for all SME manufacturers along the supply chain to access favorable rates through sustainability-linked project financing for capital intensive projects at their facilities for decarbonization, detoxification, energy resilience, and climate adaptation.

We don't view carbon accounting strictly as a governance and compliance tool because those that cannot be regulatorily forced to disclose, require an incentive to undertake this additional governance requirement. Treating carbon and tax credits as market mechanisms to incentivize this keystone sector of the global economy in the near-term is critical to arresting climate change in time to avert worst case climate scenarios.

We scale down sustainability-linked bond mechanics into project financing so that the interest rate for the project debt is tied to the sustainability KPIs of an individual net-zero project.

What makes us unique is piece-rate emissions factors. Emissions factors which are paired to the regression variables in a Life Cycle Analysis. 

Piece-rate emissions factors enable our clients to statistically tie their net-zero projects, to emission rates of manufacturing lines. No one else has this yet but we are making it open source.

Climastry’s CarbonCAD enables manufacturing engineers and business scientists to bring prepare their projects for credit origination as they’re planned and organized while users are digitally assisted by Climastry’s ClimateGPT for document preparation and project decisions.

Ultimately, Climastry successfully enables a sustainability profit center for smaller process-engineering based manufacturing projects to pop up on financial statements. This allows more sustainable and statistically, more expensive project-level decisions to be rationalized and even incentivized.

The demographic that we are serving is SME manufacturers. Within these organizations and facilities we are mainly working with plant managers, functional managers, project managers + engineers, production managers + staff, & business scientists.

As of now, this demographic, which represents 75% - 95% of globally listed organizational emissions has consistently been limited to being supported when accessing funds for decarbonization initiatives. After speaking with our users, many have stated that there is a lack of resources, knowledge, accessibility to alternatives, and funding that have limited their ability to make impactful change within their facilities. Decarbonization initiatives have continuously been easier to access for those who have the time, money, and effort to spare, specifically lager enterprises. While SMEs do not have that, even though they are the keystone to being able to make long lasting impact on the climate crisis. 

Our solution will allow these demographics to be able to access funding opportunities, which they state is the key driver to give them the ability to prioritize decarbonization within their processes. It will also give them the ability to break down their operations to a more granular level, access to alternatives (our partnerships), and the knowledge to confidently make choices that are best for their needs.  

Our team lead, Jake Stevens has been an engineer within manufacturing facilities for the past 10 years. Which is what allowed him to see first hand the barriers that our users face. It is after working first hand within these environments that he was able to identify an opportunity to create valuable change at the source to help combat the climate crisis. 

As for understanding our users needs, we have incorporated as many as we can into our solution. We have an amazing opportunity to incorporate some users as partners due to their innovations that can help others decarbonize their work processes. Allowing our users to be engaged in our growth, providing a platform for them to share their innovations, while being offered assistance along their decarbonization initiatives. Helping them to be able to refine their business needs and simultaneously being able to access new customers, partners, and resources that they previously were unable to.

With the funding granted to us from Innovate UK, that is what allowed us the resources to build our prototype. As of now, it is a platform that is able to be build upon with standard carbon accounting functionalities. Alongside some of our partners, we have begun development of our CarbonCAD functionality as well.

Currently working with 11 beta testers for our pilot cohort. We also have 87 facilities in the queue to work with once launched 

We are looking to work with partners and people who are willing to share knowledge that will help address the climate crisis. The issue that our company is addressing is one that affects us all. In order to be able to give our best effort towards this goal, it will take people and partners from all walks of life working together. 

Solve has created a community that aims to do just that and then some. With your vast community that is global, the knowledge that you have curated with partners, organizations, and companies is endless. As for specific aspects that our company would benefit from receiving help from would be financial, legal, and market barriers. Those three areas are ones that will be continuously growing and adapting at a rapid pace and the urgency to address the climate crisis grows. Being able to adapt to that on a global scale will require a lot of moving parts and expertise. Which we recognized that we do not have, just yet. If given the opportunity to be able to speak and partner with those who do, it will help bridge that gap for us as we continue to scale.

Climastry uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to reduce the energy demand of carbon and energy intensive manufacturing processes. Building a digital twin of plants, they simulate plant operations. Climastry software identifies energy reduction potentials and advises their customers how to optimize energy efficiency. As a first product, Climastry developed CarbonCAD, a repeatable and scalable product optimizing emissions efficiency in production. 

Our CarbonCAD enables engineers to simply emissions model their manufacturing processes. CarbonCAD’s UI enables drag and drop emissions modeling with a toolbox AutoCAD users will feel right at home using. What makes us unique is piece-rate emissions factors. Emissions factors which are paired to the regression variables in a Life Cycle Analysis. 

Generally, we can enable factory engineers to halve emissions by 2030 at net-zero cost. This is associated with a range of material savings - largely through electrification of chemical and heated processes.

Following IFRS rules, our investment to return ratio is currently ~ 1:3.  

Paving the way for a better planet and minimizing the climate crisis.

Next year:

1. Encourage companies to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycles

Next five years:

1. Help companies reduce energy consumption and their energy costs to support profitability
2. Reduce energy demand in carbon and energy-intensive manufacturing processes

We are monitoring our progress and impact through key performance indicators, associated with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) - SDG 9,12 and 13. 

Specifically:

• SDG 9.4: By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities, indicators include CO2 emission per unit of value added
• SDG 12.6: Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycles, indicators include number of companies publishing sustainability reports
• SDG 13.2: Integrate climate change measures into national policies, strategies and planning, indicators include total greenhouse gas emissions per year and number of countries with nationally determined contributions, long-term strategies, national adaptation plans and adaptation communications, as reported to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

We're scaling sustainability-linked financing for SME manufacturers, that is: debt whose interest rate is linked to the sustainability KPIs. Climastry's use of AI and ML algorithms to reduce energy demand in carbon and energy-intensive manufacturing processes has the potential to have a significant economic impact. By optimizing energy efficiency, companies can reduce their energy consumption and their energy costs, which can lead to increased profitability. Our technology has the potential to bring significant economic benefits to the manufacturing industry, including cost savings, improved brand reputation, and increased competitiveness. It's difficult to determine a general economic impact given the range of intangibles impacted that were listed and tangibles such as reduced tariffs abroad and increased margins on products.

Our product has a very significant future of work component. While facility engineers are welcome to model the emissions on the line the organization structure of the manufacturer may allow for a new role we are promoting: business scientist. This role is a blend between a business analyst and a data scientist. We see the average salary for this role to be around $140k.

Abroad we are market players and in the US we are market builders.  

We are a team that is very aware that the opportunity to all be working together on one goal is a testament to all of the different paths in life, we have all walked in order to cross paths at this very moment. Our team spans across The States from Illinois, D.C, & New York, while our CTO resides in the UK. We are a group of individuals who have all met by chance and have found a community in sharing all of our backgrounds in order to move forward together. As we have continued to build out our team, we like to remind ourselves that it is individuals that help created a community that ultimately creates a supportive environment for all parties to thrive. 

Diversity, equity, and inclusivity is what has helped make our team who we are today. How we intend to continuously incorporate it as we grow is simple. We have recognized based off of our own team member's journey that it is something important to who we are. People's stories and backgrounds are what make them, them. We want to be able to hear their stories and what makes them excited to contribute what they have learned throughout life, if given the opportunity to share.

Our work that we conduct does not affect just one group of individuals, it affects us all. With the vast array of work we conduct that spans globally, we strive to building a community that spans just that. The different backgrounds and stories that people are willing to share will only help one another grow individually and as a community.

Service Offerings: Providing life-cycle-analysis for our customers on their products, tying them to "Piece Rate Emissions Factors "that connects life-cycle analysis variables to emissions factors. Emissions overview insight on their current decarbonization progress and project level insights. Providing engineers and analysts within facilities the ability to collaborate in our platform with the CarbonCAD function. This feature allows the creation of emissions modeling based on an individual production line that is in their facilities. Overtime this can be continuously updated to accurately measure changes that are being implemented.

As projects continue to be created, we scale down sustainability-linked bond mechanics into project financing so that the interest rate for the project debt is tied to the sustainability KPIs of an individual net-zero project.

Climastry’s CarbonCAD enables manufacturing engineers and business scientists to prepare their projects for credit origination as they’re planned and organized while users are digitally assisted by Climastry’s ClimateGPT for document preparation and project decisions.

We can successfully enable a sustainability profit center for smaller process-engineering based manufacturing projects to pop up on financial statements. This allows more sustainable and statistically, more expensive project-level decisions to be rationalized and even incentivized.

Pricing Model: This will be based off of the number of lines that they have in their facility. For our pilot program it will be 30k for their entire facility. The pricing will vary for future customers depending on how many lines they would like to monitor with Climastry. As additional features being to be built out and launched, pricing will standardized into tier levels to better meet their decarbonization goals.

Marketing & Sales: We are targeting SME manufacturing facilities who are interested in reducing their carbon footprint, learning about financing opportunities to support those initiatives, & needing assistance implementing these initiatives into their current operations. We can market our services through a variety of different markets, focusing on the EU, UK, & United States. As of now, we have established partnerships with a range of the following institutions: Manufacturers, Private Equity, Disclosure Boards, Industrial CPAs, & R&D Startups. While also ensure that we are establishing partnerships with other sustainability companies that offer alternative solutions that could be implemented into our customers' manufacturing facilities.

Technology: Climastry will continue to use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to refine the more granular levels of manufacturing processes. While ensuring to stay knowledgable & current with changes made to regulatory and disclosure frameworks as they continuously become more intricate to better address climate crisis concerns.

Regulations & Certifications: Our team lead (Jake, CEO) & CSO (Mahnoor) have continuously been apart of the regulations and compliance requirements space. Their work has consistently adhered and evolved as these spaces have become increasingly more robust in order to better address climate concerns. Climastry will also continue to work with sustainability experts in the field to enhance our credibility and expertise in the space. 

We are currently a bootstrap start-up who recently received a grant from Innovate UK for £50,000 that we have utilized for our R&D work. As of now, we are currently raising our pre-seed round which we have been in communication with VC and angel investors in the states, Europe, and UK.

We are continuously applying to grants in order to be the main financial foundation for our company. Due to the fact that the work that we are doing is relatively new to the markets. Stating that, we are awaiting to hear back from a handful of grants that add up to £300,000 worth of funding. This funding would allow us to build to our MVP launch and continue to onboard our 87 facilities queued in our customer pipeline.