What You Need to Know about Decarbonization - Interview with Founder of Energy Shrink Smita Chandra
“I started Energy Shrink with a vision to focus on doing good quality work for a good reason: to avoid the waste of resources in buildings and to keep the planet habitable.” Today’s woman dreamer, Smita Chandra is on a mission to reduce our carbon footprint in the buildings sector. An environmental entrepreneur, she shares how she built her company Energy Shrink, and how we as individuals can take steps to protect our planet. We are excited to share this interview, written by Women Who Win host Tamanna Raisinghani. Smita writes, '“An important question is: What can I, as an individual, do to reduce my GHG footprint? Each of us can make a difference. Three things that help: use less space heating, drive less, and switch off and unplug electronics when not using them. A simple thing to remember is: Don’t waste. Anything. “ Enjoy!
1. What is decarbonization and how does it save the environment?
Decarbonization is simply the removal of carbon. Carbon is shorthand for carbon dioxide which itself is shorthand for all greenhouse gases (GHG). Carbon dioxide being the most abundant one is used as a proxy.
The word greenhouse is a clue. Just like a greenhouse traps heat (which helps to grow plants), greenhouse gases trap heat — upsetting the normal cycle of heat being reflected from earth back out into space at night. We had a certain level of GHG in the air that made earth habitable for humans for millions of years. The industrial revolution changed this balance. After millennia, in just the last 70 years, we went from balanced to the critical stage today. These gases are acting like a glass dome around the earth that is melting the ice caps causing floods, creating heat causing fires, parched land in some areas and excessive rains in others, leading to devastation of agriculture and mass migration, which is leading to wars.
By reducing greenhouse gases, we would buy some more time to adapt to the changing climate. There are already enough GHG in the air to cause irreparable harm. But people are desperately working on technologies to clean up the air. In the meantime, we need to stop adding fuel to the fire.
Where are GHG coming from? The two largest sources are (1) fossil fuels used to produce energy that powers our industries, transportation, and buildings, and (2) land use for agriculture and animal rearing.
An important question is: What can I, as an individual, do to reduce my GHG footprint? Each of us can make a difference. Three things that help: use less space heating, drive less, and switch off and unplug electronics when not using them. A simple thing to remember is: Don’t waste. Anything.
2. Are there any mandates in place for carbon targets in the country for new buildings? And what about the existing ones? Is there a way to minimize their carbon footprint?
Yes, there are targets for new buildings in the US. They are usually expressed as energy targets rather than carbon, and are implemented as “building energy codes”. If we reduce the use of energy, dirty energy from fossil fuels that is, we can reduce carbon. Not all states have these codes, unfortunately. California is leading the nation in this area.
Existing buildings are a new frontier. They are being tackled in some jurisdictions through “building performance standards.” All buildings above a certain size have to report their energy use, and if it’s deemed too high, they have to reduce it or face penalties. The energy use information is made public. Washington, DC, Boston, St. Louis, and Chicago are some cities with Building Performance Standards.
To answer your question on whether there is a way to minimize carbon in buildings, absolutely! The technology exists today, and it is cost-effective in the near term, to make almost every new building zero carbon. We can also make most existing buildings close to zero carbon.
3. Tell us how you started your company Energy Shrink and the vision behind it.
I started Energy Shrink with a vision to focus on doing good quality work for a good reason: to avoid the waste of resources in buildings and to keep the planet habitable. I also wanted the company to be able to focus on a long-term vision rather than short-term thinking based on quarterly profits.. To me that means the ability to make values-based decisions about the projects we pursue and the staff we hire and retain based on shared values of excellence and integrity in our work, a collective sense of purpose, and the desire to make a positive impact. At Energy Shrink, we put respect for employees and the movement toward a healthy planet above profits. It's a business in which everyone understands that they are working on a shared mission for a better, cleaner, healthier future.
At Energy Shrink, our mission is to deliver high-performance buildings that provide multiple benefits to owners, occupants, and the public at large. We pursue excellence in everything we do. And we pursue success through thought leadership and, importantly, through collaboration with others. No one alone can change the current climate change trajectory. We must stop competing against each other, and compete together against climate change instead.
4. What are some of the challenges you have faced in this area and are you happy with the pace with which our world is moving towards renewable energy sources?
The biggest challenge is the lack of public awareness about how serious this issue is. Imagine you are out on a hot day, sipping a glass of icy water. If the ice melts, you add more. But what if you run out of ice. What do you think will happen to your water? That’s what will happen to our earth as our ice caps melt. But we are just not seeing it. Public awareness leads to political will, and that leads to the policies to make this a reality. So, we must create public awareness. Telling the facts in a way people can understand and act upon, and trying to raise awareness about this dire situation while staying hopeful are the real challenges I see.
Thank you Smita and Tamanna for this inspiring story! We are excited to have you in our global women’s network!
Bio: Smita Chandra Thomas is the founder and principal at Energy Shrink, a consulting practice focused on decarbonization in the buildings sector. Dedicated to enabling energy efficiency in buildings through building science, Smita is a subject matter expert at the cutting-edge of green technology and energy management strategy. Smita serves as a senior consultant to the EDGE Green Buildings Program at IFC (World Bank). Smita is also a Visiting Scholar at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C.; her course is titled 'Decarbonizing Buildings’. Smita has a master’s degree in building science from UCLA/UC Berkeley and has earned the LEED Accredited Professional and Certified Passive House Consultant designations. Smita is a published author, blogger, and speaker on Integrated Design and Net Zero.
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Tamanna Raisinghani is a Software Engineer by Profession, living in Santa Barbara with husband and 2 daughters since 2004. She is an avid reader and a night owl. She loves to write, be it code or stories (thankfully stories don't break like code. No compilation or runtime errors to worry about!). When not writing, reading or watching TV, she likes to go on walks or hike with her kids.
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