Cement production accounts for around 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and a good chunk of that comes from the fuel needed to keep kilns burning at 1,450°C, 24 hours a day. Buffy Price, co-founder of Gigaton Technologies (formerly Carbon Re), has spent six years building an AI control system that optimises that process for cement producers.
The numbers are big on both sides. Each plant reduces carbon output by 15,000 to 20,000 tonnes a year and saves between £1 million and £3 million in fuel costs. But as Buffy explains, the carbon reduction is almost never the reason a customer buys. Cement producers are running on tight margins in a genuinely difficult industry, and it's the cost line that gets the deal signed.
In this conversation, Richard and Buffy get into how Gigaton actually works inside a kiln, why Buffy walked away from an easier product decision that cost the company some early customers, how they're managing a land-and-expand model across Europe, India and soon North America, and what she's learned about choosing investors who won't push the company off course.
This is a founder conversation about building a genuinely commercial climate tech business, in one of the hardest, least glamorous sectors there is.
Sep 21 202630 min