Solving the Food-Cooling Conundrum: Making Storage Sustainable

It’s something we reiterate every episode: we’ll achieve net zero by adopting the new energy transition technologies that are developed every day around the world. Often we focus on the main areas: the solar tech, the ways the industry is maximizing wind power or the developments being made in sustainable aviation fuel. This week however, David turns his attention to an often over-looked but important piece in the energy transition puzzle: how to improve efficiency and create total sustainability in food and medicinal storage.

40% of our total food production is thrown away before it reaches plates. That’s a US$1.6 trillion a year problem, and it’s caused primarily by poor food storage. Refrigerated storage is costly and uses a huge amount of energy.

With the entire world in an energy crisis, the strain on the US power grid has caused states to put caps on the amount of energy being used in businesses and in homes. Restaurants are particularly liable to waste due to food safety laws which demand that food must be thrown away if improperly stored. That can be caused by anything from faulty equipment to food being stored in a place below the required temperature threshold. With energy prices skyrocketing, businesses need a way to improve efficiencies in storage. How can this be solved?

We investigate the ways that the industry can save energy and reduce emissions with founder and CEO of Therma, Manik Suri. Therma is a tech startup that builds safety and sustainability tools to eliminate food waste, improve energy efficiency and reduce refrigerant emissions — protecting consumers and combating climate change. It’s not just refrigeration – Therma also focuses on cooling in a broader sense. Malik claims that improving ventilation is another way of creating efficiencies in energy use and saving individuals money. The world is paying the price for the inefficiencies across the entire supply chain, so streamlining and reducing energy use has a knock-on effect, and ultimately could lead to significant positive impacts for the world in combatting climate change.

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