 We are looking at just not just a 100% clean energy economy for Hawaii. We are leading the nation in that regard, but we've become more ambitious. We're looking at decarbonization. What in the world does that mean we'll be covering that pretty soon. Suffice to say it's even more ambitious. And we're going to have to do it. The nation's going to have to do it. The world is going to have to do it. So how do you address this incredible problem? We've been doing a great job in putting photovoltaic panels on roofs and in farms. We've got a decent wind regime going. And my personal Kuliana is energy efficiency. We're becoming more and more and more efficient. But that ain't enough. We have to develop new technologies that go beyond anything that we have today. How in the world do we do that? We have entities that foster the development of new innovative technologies. And we're going through just a revolution in efficiency and improvements. We had the atomic bomb being a revolution. I'm calling it the subatomic revolution. More information in our little iPhone than NASA had at the time. All of NASA had at the time we put a man on the moon first. So we're taking advantage of this explosive development of new technologies. And who better to talk about what's going on in Hawaii. And in California, then Tiffany, when the director for external affairs for energy accelerator, I describe it as a sink tank. And they specialize in emergency technologies and helping these new companies get off the ground. So Tiffany, when will come to the program. Hi, Howard. I'm so delighted that you can be with us and thank you. So we've got a lot of ground to cover. Why don't you launch in first with an introduction to energy accelerator and then we can talk about some of the most exciting projects that you're working on. Take it away, Tiffany. Yeah, happy to, I think we have a few slides here to help help everyone watching follow along, but just at a basic level, elemental accelerator is focused on equitable climate action. So we're on a mission to redesign systems at the root of climate change. And our role is to really scale equitable market driven solutions through project funding strategy coaching and commercial introductions. We started as an outgrowth of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative in 2009. And at that time we were funding a lot of commercial projects with clean tech companies, and we were, we just weren't seeing them getting the commercial traction that we wanted so our CEO Don liberate spent actually six months traveling around the country talking to other accelerators. We talked about how to actually move the market for this clean, these clean tech solutions, and we were the first to apply an accelerator model to climate technologies. And we've been using Hawaii as a lab ever since so not in the sense of experimenting on our community, but as a canvas, where we're really learning how to solve the toughest problems in clean energy deployment, and how to integrate them at a systems level. And as we've continued our mission throughout the years we recognize that systems change really needed to be made to make an impact so we expanded from our previous iteration of energy accelerator to what you see now as elemental accelerator, and we expanded that strategy to include working in the waters of sector mobility food and ag and circular economy. And over the past decade, we've launched into climate action with supporting over 100 growth stage companies or startups. We've celebrated, you know, over a dozen exits, and have deployed over 70 projects across Hawaii and Asia Pacific. And this year, we're actually expanding more globally. This is our newest cohort 10, which will be announcing sometime in late September. So, the problem as we see it here is we know that the best solutions will be the most equitable, and we need to act urgently to scale them So we know that we have a lot of tech intelligence, but you know we really need to work on increasing our community intelligence, and our vision is both local and global so our goal is to really move markets and unstick old ways of working to enable rapid progress towards decarbonization that's your buzzword there. And we utilize individual project learnings and broader trends to inspire action for climate tech and policymaking. And so, the next slide here is about our theory of change. So we truly believe that entrepreneurs are wired to scale at the speed needed to meet the urgency of this climate crisis. And we're really working with them to redesign those systems at the root of climate that underpin our economy and really help to uplift people and planet. So this is the term accelerator a little bit differently from others. So we know that this is a decisive decade we have less than 10 years to really address this climate thing. So we think about acceleration in terms of ways that we can really figure out how to do all of this work faster. We see ourselves as a commercial catalyst for growth stage companies so our role is to accelerate climate tech startups by bringing forward meaningful commercial inflection points. And every year, we select 15 to 20 companies to support and they engage with us in three different ways so through project funding strategy coaching and also through commercial introductions. And I think there's a slide here about our program track. Yes, so this is how startups can apply to our program so they can apply to us from either our strategy project or global track, and we currently have 117 companies our portfolio and I think the one thing that we've learned in the past decade is that they're with 117 companies they're all at 117 different stages so no two companies are seeing the problem the same, or in the exact same way. We see a lot of commonalities through throughout all of them. We've really found that how we can support companies is by really building a community around them. And we've developed custom coaching model where we bring in folks to help companies that you know generally they might not be able to afford to bring them on as a startup so we bring them really help them meet those different inflection points. And equity and access is a really, really important part of our work so we have a slide here about our framework. Previously, we had an equity track that was focused on companies deploying projects in California frontline communities and we define frontline communities as those communities who are most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. They're experiencing them right now. But many times because of many factors most oftentimes socioeconomic they'll be the last communities to actually benefit from any of these technologies so that's why we focus a lot of our project deployment in frontline communities. Our framework really focuses on what we call equity in and equity out so we help support companies for equity in which focuses on things within the company itself such as hiring a diverse range of perspectives on the team and bringing on diverse board members, as well as looking at diversification of supply chains. And we also support companies in coaching on equity out, which focuses on project outcomes working with the community creating jobs, creating accessible solutions and addressing any unintended consequences. Yeah. Nothing ambitious about that. I hope you have a staff of at least 100 people. You know, it's been really exciting throughout this pandemic because we've definitely been growing as a team. As we grow, you know, this platform that we've created of we've created of working at that nexus of, you know, climate change and social equity. So, yeah, we're, we're really excited and, like you mentioned earlier, we have, are we working both Hawaii in California so we have we started in Hawaii but a couple of years ago 2007 2017. We opened up an office in East Palo Alto in California. East Palo Alto. That's one of your higher income communities so you're starting on the right foot there. East Palo Alto is, I think, oh, considered a frontline community. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so wow, nothing ambitious about this and this holds so much promise as our boss Scott Glenn says, we need new technology if we're going to get this done and you are right there at the front lines. So we have talked about three individual projects. So the first one be what is it carb carbon cure. Yeah, so a couple of companies that we have working this space some carbon cure, I think is one that has just shown so much promise and is actually working here in Hawaii already so one of the startups that entered our program and their technology is they introduce recycled CO2 into fresh concrete and they trap it in that concrete. So, each mile of concrete pavement has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions by 500,000 pounds. So if you think about it that's the equivalent of driving from San Francisco to Washington DC 200 times. Our project with them was in partnership with Hawaii Department of Transportation, as well as Hawaii gas Hawaii gas help provide the recycled carbon. And we poured 150 cubic yards of carbon injected concrete. Next to an equivalent pour of a standard concrete mix on an access road for the couple a interchange project here on a Wahoo. And this test allowed Hawaii Department of Transportation to make a side by side comparison of the two combinations to determine specifications for the use of carbon injected concrete and future road projects. Actually, it was really, really successful and they found that the carbon injected material turned out to be stronger and more workable with no increase in overall costs to traditional concrete. And that was really, really exciting, because it also helped us. As we worked on a resolution actually called the Honolulu resolution, and we introduced it at the 2019 conference of mayors that basically mandated that future city and county projects take carbon or yeah carbon infused concrete into consideration basically when you know like going out for bids. And that that resolution was unanimous unanimously passed at the conference of mayors. So it's over 100 mayors and has just continued to you know snowball across other jurisdictions around the nation. So, really exciting. So is this company up and running them. Is it making money is it scalable. Yes, it's absolutely scalable they're actually based out of Canada. And they were one of the first companies that Amazon pledged to support as part of their climate initiative so they're they're doing really really well and we're so proud of them. Well, so they're actually, do you know, I suspect you're not an engineer but you know how the carbon is pulled out of of where is it pulled out of natural gas, in this case or. I'm not an engineer, but that is that is where we partnered with Hawaii gas so I know someone from their team would would have the answer there for you, but yeah it's they they have a system where it takes the recycle carbon and infuses it and traps it into the concrete itself. Oh, that is so exciting. And since this is a Canadian company, was the pilot project here in Honolulu, I mean, yes, standard. So I can only imagine that this caught the interest of just a few other municipalities am I correct in that assumption. They've, they've really really expanded their work so there's lots of interest in this space, especially because you know, building, we're always building new buildings right so I think this is a solution that just has so much and broad impact here. So if you look at the production of co2 worldwide, and especially looking at the explosive growth of China as infrastructure, you will find that the manufacturer of concrete is one of the foremost produces of co2 on a worldwide scale. So this has to say that this has large implications is an understatement. And it was the cost was is comparable. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So it's a real win win. Wow so in my totally unprejudiced world view this should be headlines all over the world all the time. We agree with you there. They have had some really great headlines but yeah we we agree that more awareness the better. And since it started here in Honolulu, or is there is Department of Transportation counting on doing additional concrete projects. Yeah, they've been they've been really great supporters of carbon care so I do believe that they are using it where they can. And the next well first the highways are one obvious market but then of course buildings as you point out. There's concrete in a high rise. And I think you're saying that this concrete is structurally stronger than your ordinary concrete that will thrill the heck out of civil engineers. You know when we put a high rise, it's going to stay up even better than than we ordinarily planned for. Yeah, we're excited to see it. You've got an exciting job on your hands here. But that's only company number one. We had three in mind. Yeah, another one that I think is really exciting and very applicable to Hawaii is a company called amp air. And they their technology is they've retrofitted. Oh, six Cedar Cessna planes and made them hybrid electric so that can cut fuel consumption and emissions by about 50%. And so there's a real real opportunity here you know like that we, we've talked about alternative jet fuels and all those things but being able to electrify aviation I think is a really exciting space, especially since, you know, travel between islands here. They're all short haul flights. So, we actually had a project with them that wrapped up just the end of last year. And we did a pilot where they did it, they flew a commercial route between Hana and Calculi for a month and that helped them to get their FAA experimental market survey certification. So that basically allowed amp air to fly their crew and essential personnel for this training and exploratory market activity. And after our pilot with them rats a little earlier this year I think around February they actually announced that they were acquired by a company called surf air, which is really exciting. So with half of all us flights, being 500 miles or less. I think hybrid electric technology will have broad and immediate impact. So we're, we're excited to see these flights go commercial, hopefully in the next couple years. Wow. You know, when you look at annual airline safety ratings, generally Hawaiian Airlines comes in number one. Especially before they were going to the mainland, why their short haul number two, we have the most beautiful weather in the world. We don't have blinding snowstorms in Chicago or hurricanes in Florida. So we do on time safety almost perfect. So I would think that for an experimental type technology like this Hawaii just would be a dreamland pilot project. So maybe they'll start to start small with us and then expand from there. Yeah, I hope so their journey started with us so we hope that we'll see more of these hybrid electric planes in the air very very soon. You know, some years ago, when the earlier energy office was was looking at energy self-sufficiency, we'd said, well, we've got electricity we're making real progress on there. And with ground transportation, we've got biodiesel and we've got electric vehicles. Okay, great promise there. And then we look up into the sky and say, ah, we'll never be able to do anything about aviation. And when tourism is at its peak, almost a third of all the fossil fuel consumed in Hawaii is aviation fuel because we're a small state with a huge airport, but 1010 million visitors so we thought it was just a kind of a hopeless case but as I pointed out earlier, technology is rising so rapidly. Do you have any idea again you're not an engineer about the hybrid system I would think that there would be going to be a combination of really high density batteries that take over when and then a normal jet engine, maybe to basically to take off, and then maybe the batteries can take over when they're cruising you have any idea how that works. You know, I'm going to leave that to the amp air guys. I would hate to give you the wrong answer there but it's interesting, I just went to Linae this weekend and of course they fly the smaller aircrafts to that airport and I the entire time I was just thinking how cool it would be for the next time you know, we hop over to Linae to be able to fly an amp airplane. The publicity. Wow, you know people love to be pioneers Elon Musk and the boys are selling their space flights, and they're only going 55,000 feet up and then coming right back down again. They're paying what a quarter million dollars for this for this experience. We just clamoring to get on such a plane, just to say I did it I was one of the pioneers and that's and take photos and that would add to our high end tourism market. Absolutely. Wow. Exciting stuff again. And we've got still some more time. Something about pulling water out of air. Of course we got water out there. So how in the world that does that work. So this next one, one of my personal favorites, this company is called source global. They're previously called zero mass water. And we did a project with them actually in Australia but they're, they do have installations here in state on a couple of the islands actually. So their technology is that they have hydro panels and they look really really similar to solar panels. So what those panels do is they extract water vapors from the air to make mineralized. And to actually just make clean drinking water and an average array can replace up to 600 bottles of water a month. So, in our project with source. They were, we helped fund the installation of panels in a really drought stricken area of Australia, where they would normally have to truck in pallets of water bottles every single week for the community there. So, with sources technology they were basically able to make a completely new ecosystem for clean drinking water which also provided, you know, economic benefits because it created new jobs, and they actually created a business out of it so now this facility bottles water for nearby resorts in the area. So it's really really great because you know with this community scale type of array provides a lot of resiliency to the drinking water system. And you know it helps with challenges of access and quality and just overall reliability of drinking water for many frontline communities. So we're we're super jazzed about the potential for source as well. Yeah, you know it's fascinating about that is you would think that the water from air would be best extracted in human environments, like a tropical environment. There's plenty of moisture the moisture content in a lot of places is up around the 80% but the area I've certainly been to the Australian desert. If I were to say dry, I would guess that the moisture content in that air is called relative humidity is less than 30%. And yet, you can extract water from it. Yeah, exactly where that water is needed, you can still do your extraction. Yeah, so I mean it's a great solution and actually, if anybody is on a walk who here, the new Patagonia location has a couple of hydro panels up so you can bring in your reusable water bottle and fill it up in store with sources water. If you want to try it out yourself. Where, where is the Patagonia store. It's on Ward Avenue. So it's a big yellow building I believe on a ward. Okay, okay. Yeah, there are there are no one pioneer in all kinds of clean technologies. So let's see. Oh, does the, the airplane that was going between Caldwell and Hannah, then that fly just the crew or did they actually have some cargo in there to make it. So it's a car route but I believe they just flew the crew. Mm hmm. Yeah. Okay. And let's see. Oh jobs jobs. We're constantly talking about the creation of green jobs and especially this carbon cure. I think it sounds like it's creating a job or two I have absolutely no idea how it works but you know I think they could make some extra income just by offering tours of the plant. Yeah, I mean we see workforce development as a huge just positive outcome of, you know, all of the technologies that are coming out in the industries that are being built so you know this moment in climate. I think it's going to be about jobs and it's really great that we've actually heard that echoed as well from, you know, President Biden, he said when I think about climate change I think about jobs and that's a great example. Or actually a great example of a company that we have in our portfolio. And the workforce development is a company called charger help so you know how many times EV charging stations, the frustration with getting an EV is charging it, right, or like that charge anxiety that you have and when you go up, whether you're in a shopping warehouse and you see the charger is down drives you crazy makes you not want to have an EV so charger help actually deploys a workforce and they're building out a workforce of folks that go out and can fix EV chargers. So this retooling lots of folks from different industries to have green jobs here. Yeah, you're absolutely right. One thing we're pushing pushing pushing is the purchase of EVs but the main drawback, as you said is, what is it called my mileage in security. Where am I going to find another chart charger down down the road here. Yeah. So we're nearing the end of our time. Tiffany. You're just giving us a great glimpse in into the future. And I think it gives us all hope, because very often the odds look absolutely insurmountable against us. But here you are. You have any parting words of wisdom. You know, I know that was all about decarbonization and something that I heard Glenn from your office say really recently is a lot of people think that you know our goal is to be carbon neutral by 2045 but it's really to be carbon negative. I think that that, you know, just clarification is so important in the work that we're doing, and I would really just love to commend you in your office for, you know, helping to lead the way here, and I feel like this chat just went by so quickly. Yeah, well, you know, if I have you on again, I bet in six or eight months, you'll have new stories to tell because you'll have a new cohort going for you. Yes, cohort 10 so we are in the final rounds of our due diligence right now. So yes, if we talk to you in six to eight months we will have a whole new crop of really exciting technologies to share with you. So thank you thank you thank you Tiffany win for being an absolutely fascinating guest that gives us hope in a time when things seem sometimes overwhelming. You're a beam of light out. Thank you on behalf of think tech Hawaii code green Howard wig. See you again.