Supercool

Don’t Talk About Climate: How to Scale a Climate Company

Every climate company that scales knows the secret: they don’t sell climate. In this solo episode of Supercool, host Josh Dorfman shares one of the clearest lessons from nearly two years of conversations with founders, CEOs, operators, and investors across the low-carbon economy: the companies that break through do not lead with technical specs or climate mission. Their messaging is built around concrete customer benefits. Josh shows what that looks like in practice, with examples from companies scaling in mobility, home electrification, the built environment, and renewable energy. Time and again, the same pattern emerges. The climate companies that win never ask customers to sacrifice. They offer something immediate and better: lower costs, better performance, more control, and peace of mind. Carbon reductions are built in.Reserve your spot here for Johnson Controls' free fireside chat: Risk and Resilience — Designing for a Changing WorldFor more low-carbon innovations now scaling—and the playbooks driving their market adoption—subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Weekly Newsletter* Climate Adoption Playbook* Supercool on Instagram * Supercool on LinkedIn

The $1.9 Trillion Opportunity in Circular Retail

If the circular economy is ever going to become just “the economy,” it will need infrastructure. In this episode, Josh talks with Rich Amsinger, co-founder of Manymoons and The Many Company, about building it. The conversation traces the company’s evolution from Borobabi, which began with Rich and Carolyn Butler trying to keep their daughter’s outgrown clothes in use, to Manymoons, what the company calls America’s first circular retailer, and now ManyCo, the AI-, logistics-, and demand-powered engine behind it all. Rich explains why returns, overstock, and excess inventory aren’t side issues in retail but a massive opportunity. He also makes the case that circularity requires more than software. It requires actually selling the stuff—while protecting the brand, recovering more value, and keeping better products in use longer.Show NotesGuest: Rich Amsinger, Co-Founder Companies: Manymoons and ManyCoFor more low-carbon innovations now scaling—and the playbooks driving their market adoption—subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Weekly Newsletter* Climate Adoption Playbook* Supercool on Instagram * Supercool on LinkedIn

Passive House: All The Lifestyle Gain, None of the Environmental Pain

Most architects don't tell you your home could be nearly silent, filter every breath of air, and run almost without heat. Not because it's impossible. Because they don't know how to build it.Michael Ingui does. For more than a decade, his firm has built Passive Houses across New York City — landmarked townhouses, gut renovations, apartments with swimming pools and floor-to-ceiling glass. His clients get quieter rooms, cleaner air, and heating and cooling bills 80 to 90 percent below a conventional home. For the life of the building.His opening question to clients isn't about energy or carbon. It's whether they'd like a home free of bugs. Whether they'd like to stop hearing the street.Michael is also co-founder of the Passive House Accelerator, a catalyst for zero carbon building that shares innovation and thought leadership across Passive House design and construction, and Source 2050, a marketplace for vetted high-performance building materials.For Michael, the goal is straightforward: get everyone building this way, as fast as possible. The high-performance, zero-carbon future is counting on it.Show NotesGuest: Michael Ingui, PartnerCompany: Ingui ArchitectureJohnson Controls webinar linkFor more low-carbon innovations now scaling—and the playbooks driving their market adoption—subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Weekly Newsletter* Climate Adoption Playbook* Supercool on Instagram * Supercool on LinkedIn

Fun: Why Sustainability Needs It And How To Have It At Work

Nobody wants to be policed. Not even sustainability advocates.Charlie Sellars has spent six years as a Director of Sustainability at Microsoft. He's the author of What We Can Do: A Climate Optimist's Guide to Sustainable Living. His TEDx talk is titled "Make Sustainability Fun Again." His argument: the movement has spent too long trying to be right at the expense of being effective. And that mistake is costing us.But making sustainability fun is only half the equation. The other half is knowing where to aim. And that means lifecycle analysis — the ability to measure the true environmental cost of anything from cradle to grave.Here's what that reveals: 80 to 90 percent of a device's lifetime emissions — like the one you're reading now and listening with — occur before you ever turn it on. Which means the single most impactful thing you can do with the phone you're holding right now has nothing to do with how you use it.It's how long you keep it.Show Notes:Guest: Charlie Sellars, Award-Winning Author and Microsoft Sustainability DirectorBook: What We Can Do: A Climate Optimist's Guide to Sustainable LivingFor more low-carbon innovations now scaling—and the playbooks driving their market adoption—subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Weekly Newsletter* Climate Adoption Playbook* Supercool on Instagram * Supercool on LinkedIn

320 Boreholes Below Brooklyn: How Geothermal Replaces Fossil Fuels in Cities

* Sign-up for Johnson Controls Webinar: Evolving Building Codes *The largest geothermal residential building in New York City just opened in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. 834 apartments. 320 boreholes drilled hundreds of feet underground — enough to heat and cool every unit in the building. Even the rooftop pool.Geosource Energy drilled it. This conversation is about how they did it, and what it takes to build geoexchange systems at scale in dense cities, where there's already a city's worth of infrastructure below: water, gas, electric, telecom, subways, and foundations.Geoexchange is simple to explain and hard to execute. No combustion. No fuel. Fully electric. The physics are straightforward. The delivery is not.Building owners choose geoexchange for the operating savings. And for every dollar saved at the building level, the grid saves eight or nine — because geoexchange cuts peak demand when electricity is most expensive and most scarce.That's a true decarbonization driver. And why cities from Toronto to Boston to New York are leaning in with more to follow.Geosource has completed more than 400 projects. The infrastructure they install is designed to outlast the buildings it serves. Stan calls it 500-year pipe. He's seen a building come down and the borefield stay put, ready for the next one.Show Notes:Guest: Stanley Reitsma, CEOCompany: Geosource EnergyFor more low-carbon innovations now scaling—and the playbooks driving their market adoption—subscribe to the podcast plus our:* Weekly Newsletter* Climate Adoption Playbook* Supercool on Instagram * Supercool on LinkedIn