logo
episode-header-image
Jan 2022
48m 16s

Supercritical’s Mission to Help Tech Rea...

Azeem Azhar
About this episode

Companies of all sizes and sectors have committed to net-zero emissions targets, but getting there is not straightforward. Measuring carbon dioxide output is tricky, carbon markets are fragmented, and the quality of offsets varies hugely. Michelle You, co-founder and CEO of Supercritical, is on a mission to help companies better measure, reduce, and remove carbon emissions – and her first target is the tech sector.

Tech doesn’t attract as much criticism regarding emissions as some other sectors, but Michelle argues that tech companies emit more than the airline industry. She and Azeem Azhar discuss Supercritical’s approach and methods.

They also explore:

  • What product specialists, like Michelle, can add to the climate fight.
  • Why carbon removal is the only viable path to net-zero.
  • Why early-adopters of carbon removal technology are especially crucial to saving the planet.

@Azeem
@exponentialview
@wreckingball37

Further resources:

Decarbonization by the Numbers (with Michele Della Vigna)  – Exponential View Podcast, 2021
Funding Innovation to Fight Climate Change – Exponential View Podcast, 2021
Building a Trustworthy Market for Carbon Offsets (PART 1) — Exponential View Podcast, 2021

Up next
Jul 24
AI & the future of media with The Atlantic CEO, Nicholas Thompson
Nick Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic, led one of the first major content licensing deals with OpenAI in 2024. In this conversation, he joins Azeem to unpack how AI is transforming media – and what that means for every business navigating the shifting economics of attention, trust, ... Show More
52m 14s
Jul 9
2025 AI reality check: Are we in a bubble?
At the start of the year, I made seven predictions about how 2025 would unfold. Six months in, it's time to mark my own work. From AI capability breakthroughs to autonomous vehicles, climate extremes to workforce transformation, I examine what I got right, what I missed, and why ... Show More
24m 4s
Jul 2
What 72hrs in China taught me about the future (AI, EVs, more)
In this episode, I reflect on a whirlwind three-day visit to China - my first in over 20 years. And what I saw was remarkable. The infrastructure puts most of the West to shame. The AI isn't just hype - it's working at serious scale. And the electric vehicles? They're about to st ... Show More
22m 19s
Recommended Episodes
Apr 2025
Keeping cleantech investment alive | With technological, economic and policy challenges mounting, how can we keep energy innovation on track?
These are hard times for investment in low-carbon energy. The lack of progress in international climate negotiations, threats to policy support, and an increased awareness of the challenges of decarbonization, have created some strong headwinds. Everyone agrees that more breakthr ... Show More
53m 10s
Oct 2024
Why climate tech startups get this one thing wrong
This might be our wonkiest topic yet: Techno-economic analysis, or TEA. Before a startup proves its technology is commercially viable, it models how a technology would work. These TEAs include things like assumptions about inputs, prices, and market landscape. They help investors ... Show More
49m 38s
Jul 10
A Billion-Dollar Bet on Carbon Removal
Nan Ransohoff is the head of climate at Stripe. The company is known mainly for facilitating online payments, but it’s become a key driver of the nascent carbon-removal industry. On today’s show, Nan explains how she used a clever economic idea to get companies to spend $1 billio ... Show More
42m 55s
Apr 2023
BCG Presents: Climate Rising – How BCG Uses AI to Address Climate Change
This week, we’re presenting an episode of Climate Rising from our friends at Harvard Business School.  In this first episode of a new series on climate change and AI, Hamid Maher and Charlotte Degot, Managing Directors and Partners at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), explain how BC ... Show More
42m 26s
Apr 2025
Serving data center load with carbon capture
Big tech’s data center construction boom is fueling a flurry of natural gas development, despite the fuel’s challenges, and it’s complicating big tech’s climate goals. But carbon capture and storage (CCS) could mitigate emissions from those new plants, and hyperscalers could secu ... Show More
39m 7s
Jan 2024
Why carbon capture isn’t a magic bullet solution to the climate crisis
In rural North Dakota an old, coal-fired power plant is being retrofitted to capture emissions before they enter the atmosphere and store them underground. $890 million from the 2022 bipartisan infrastructure law will go towards that and two similar projects in California and Tex ... Show More
11m 21s
Nov 2024
[Episode #236] – Zero Carbon Industry
What are the specific industrial sectors and processes that produce greenhouse gas emissions, and how can we decarbonize them? 
18m 14s
Jul 15
Mazak: The Machine Tools Powering Sustainable Manufacturing
Mazak Europe is part of the Yamazaki Mazak Corporation, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of CNC machine tools and laser cutting machines. These machines use ultra-precise multi-axis tools to shape the components used in everything from medical devices to Formula One cars. ... Show More
16m 59s
Apr 2024
The innovations we need to avoid a climate disaster | Bill Gates
The single most important thing for avoiding a climate disaster is cutting carbon pollution from the current 51 billion tons per year to zero, says philanthropist and technologist Bill Gates. Introducing the concept of the "green premium" — the higher price of zero-emission produ ... Show More
42m 1s
Sep 2024
AI's tween years, who's taking over climate tech, and the latest for Fearless Fund
What could be more frightening than Friday the 13th? How about a realization that AI is in its awkward tween stage? At least, it was for the TC Equity pod crew, which this week included hosts Devin Coldewey and Kirsten Korosec along with TC reporters Tim de Chant and Dominic Mado ... Show More
34m 10s