A quip I have heard on a few occasions in Cambridge is that replicating the city’s economic success is simple – you just have to start with an 800 year old university. While the witticism is often repeated for comedic value, it hits on a truth about the city that is impossible to ignore; Cambridge continues to this day to be at the forefront of technological developments across a huge range of fields and technologies, helped in no small part by the inescapable presence of Cambridge University.
Nestled amongst these developments are green technologies and the broader GreenTech market, which is set to grow rapidly over the remainder of this decade. Forrester (1) anticipates that the annual “green market revolution spend” will rise to US$8.1 trillion by 2030, equivalent to 5.8% of global GDP ─ more than double its share in 2021. A report by Green View Research (2), meanwhile, provides an estimated compound annual growth rate of 22.9% for the sector globally between 2024 and 2030.
This all means that GreenTech is expected to be one of the biggest growth sectors globally over the second half of this decade, and provides innumerable opportunities to use the incredible and diverse talent pool of the Cambridge community to bring a fundamental shift across the global economy.
One company to recently emerge from Cambridge’s GreenTech pipeline is Carbon Re. Established in 2021, Carbon Re is the first university spinout to be jointly funded by both UCL and Cambridge University, and in 2022 they raised an additional £4.2 million in seed funding to scale up the development and deployment of their technology.
Carbon Re’s technology involves the use of an AI platform to reduce carbon emissions in energy intensive manufacturing industries such as cement, steel and glass. By analysing a plant’s manufacturing data, Carbon Re’s cloud-based platform, Delta Zero, can recommend ways to cut emissions during production by dynamically optimising processes to achieve the lowest possible carbon dioxide output and fuel use. Carbon Re claim that each installation of its software can potentially reduce CO2 emissions by the equivalent of 11,000 cars.
Heidelberg Materials, a leading supplier of cement, recently adopted Cambridge Re’s technology in their kiln operations. This has reportedly already led to significant improvements at Heidelberg Materials Česká republika Mokra plant, including a 4.1% reduction in fuel costs and a 2% decrease in carbon emissions. Indeed, pilot programs in cement plants across multiple continents have already prevented the emission over 10,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents (3), demonstrating the technology’s value to both its customers and to all of us as stakeholders in our planet’s climate.
Carbon Re is just one of a huge number of companies with roots in Cambridge that are making waves in the GreenTech market, benefiting both themselves and everyone hoping for a more sustainable tomorrow.
References:
(1) https://www.forrester.com/press-newsroom/forrester-global-green-market-revolution-spend-will-total-326-trillion-from-2023-to-2050/
(2) https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/green-technology-sustainability-market-report#:~:text=Market%20Size%20%26%20Trends,rise%20among%20organizations%20and%20individuals.
(3) https://www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk/case-studies/cambridge-spin-out-companies-delivering-climate-solutions/