Recoolit's Thought Leadership and Global Collaborations

Recoolit is proud to take a leadership role in the global fight against refrigerant emissions, and to have our expertise and unique approach recognized by multilateral bodies tackling this same issue. Our cofounders Louis and Ning have recently been honored with the following positions:

• Louis was elected head of the COPA Technical Working Group on Financing Mechanisms. COPA is an international organization, organized by the German government that brings together emerging-market regulators with private and civil sector experts, to work towards global action on sustainable refrigerant management.
• Ning was appointed to a special TEAP Task Force on Lifecycle Refrigerant Management. TEAP is the Technological and Economic Assessment Panel for the Montreal Protocol, and provides expertise to Montreal Protocol member countries in how to fulfill their obligations under the treaty.

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Our rapid ascent to thought leadership in this space speaks to the limited attention paid to this issue, and the massive opportunity that remains in front of us. These positions are a validation that our own digital-first approach to refrigerants is new and valuable. However, there are also broader considerations for other climate-tech startups interested in regulatory engagement.

The relationship between startups and government is often contentious, but ultimately both teams are playing on the same side. Startups may be operating outside existing regulatory frameworks, or in gray areas, which disrupts the stability and predictability that regulators strive to achieve. However, the best outcomes are achieved over time, by combining the society-wide view of regulators with the innovation and experimentation at which startups excel.

Early stage startups are often counseled to engage with regulators, but this is far from trivial. It can be difficult to get the meetings you want, the potential outcomes are unclear, and the timeframe for seeing progress is extremely long relative to your company’s planning horizon. It can be deeply defocusing to your main efforts to spend time and resources on these efforts.

This is especially true in climate tech, where the overlap between policy or government solutions and private sector approaches often overlap. Even more complicated, climate policy is driven in part by international efforts like the Paris Agreement and multilateral bodies like the UNFCCC.

How and why did Recoolit choose to engage with these bodies? Some of it is just a matter of being mission-driven. We want these problems solved, which means going above and beyond to be good actors in the overall problem space. But more substantially, we recognize that our solution’s success requires a larger ecosystem to be successful. By supporting other entities, whether private or public, we can create a fertile ground for Recoolit to operate and grow. At the extreme, this can look like “commoditizing your complement” – the easier it is for our supporting infrastructure to exist, the more valuable our own product becomes.

Participating in this kind of process is frustrating. But we see it as a high-leverage opportunity from both a selfish and an altruistic perspective. Our unique technology-driven approach to decarbonizing cooling is being recognized by existing players, and we’re on an exciting journey to scale up and prevent gigatonnes of emissions. Follow along with our journey!