Winston Morton, Climative’s CEO, recently appeared on the Reimagined Energy Podcast. The weekly renewable energy podcast focuses on experts leading the way in sustainable business and clean technology.
In this episode, “AI-Powered Solutions: Climative’s Journey to Low-Carbon Living”, Winston and host Maria McGowan talk about how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing home retrofits. Watch the conversation, read the transcription summary below, or click here to listen on your preferred podcast platform.
Maria’s questions are displayed as bold sub-headers and Winston’s responses are written below unless otherwise indicated.
Maria: To implement low carbon adoption, you need a good plan that takes many things into consideration. I’ve found a company that combines data with AI to create personalized low-carbon plans for homes. In this episode, we have Winston Morton from Climative talking about how his company allows us to do just that. Hi Winston, thanks for joining me today.
Winston Morton: Thank you, Maria. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Climative is a data platform that specializes in providing market-wide energy and climate assessments for buildings. We’re using AI to revolutionize the way we approach low-carbon solutions for buildings.
Buildings contribute to about 20% of global carbon emissions. However, the pace of retrofitting these buildings in North America is relatively slow, with estimates suggesting it could take up to 100 years to cover the entire building stock. Climative steps in with AI-driven digital assessments to accelerate this process. We start conversations with building owners early, creating pathways to net zero or low-carbon solutions.
It all starts with building owners. We offer tools that empower them with knowledge and facilitate better decision-making. Only about 10% of homes have been assessed, so we’re focused on the remaining 90% of homes. Our platform acts as a bridge between various stakeholders, including provinces, local governments, utilities, and efficiency organizations. We amplify their programs and messaging, making it more straightforward for homeowners to access rebates and incentives.
The challenge is definitely growing, with messages about rebates coming from various sources. Climative addresses this by providing a centralized platform for homeowners. We use machine learning and AI models to automatically assess how local or national rebate programs can benefit a specific building. Our digital assessments follow national standards and offer independent advice for each home. Our platform can also present tailored offers, like rebates and low-interest loans. This incentivizes retrofit activities that get us closer to net zero and simplifies the process for homeowners.
Physical energy assessments have only covered about 10% of the building population. For the other 90%, we aim to make this process digital and low-impact for homeowners. Consumers are used to personalized experiences in many aspects of our lives. We offer customized recommendations, allowing homeowners to prioritize factors like comfort, energy bill savings, or carbon footprint reduction. It’s about meeting customers where they are on their journey toward a low-carbon future.
“Positive ROI” means that almost every net-zero retrofit option provides a financial return on top of the emissions reduction.
The challenge lies in homeowners needing to be made aware of these opportunities. Our role is to bridge that knowledge gap. We also aim to focus on customers with specific circumstances, such as requiring energy insights to access special financing programs. If there is an opportunity for a homeowner to save money, improve comfort, and become resilient to energy price increases, we have to work with stakeholders to make sure homeowners can take action.
At first, homeowners might not see a significant impact, as banks are in the early stages of collecting this carbon impact data, or “financed carbon.” Initially, the data will likely be used to inform potential programs, services, and products. You can’t improve what you can’t measure. And we’re starting to measure. As regulations evolve, such as requirements for carbon scores at the point of sale for homes, banks are likely to offer low-interest mortgages for low-carbon homes.
Additionally, banks gaining access to green bonds and lower capital costs can translate into value-added products for homeowners. Ultimately, customers will get rewarded for low-carbon homes.
Maria: It’s nice to hear that homeowners’ investments will start to pay off. Changes like this make homeowners want to take advantage of the rebates and services available to them now.
We’ve assessed about two million homes in our platform and are actively working on deploying digital assessments in larger jurisdictions to initiate conversations. We want to start as many conversations as possible with stakeholders and homeowners to kickstart the journey toward low carbon. We’ve made good progress in Canada and are seeing excellent product-market fit. We have incredible partners. The next step for us is entering the U.S. market.
Maria: That sounds exciting. Thank you, Winston, for sharing your time today. Climative’s platform is undoubtedly a game-changer, and it’s fantastic to see how you’re leveraging AI to empower consumers and address climate challenges.
Winston Morton: It’s funny – AI is trendy right now, but we’ve been putting it into practice for a number of years. Thank you, Maria, for having me on the podcast. You’re doing great work!
Maria: Thank you. Take care, Winston.
Contact Winston on LinkedIn to learn more about the latest policies and technologies accelerating our net-zero transition.
Climative provides a collaborative AI-assisted data platform for organizations to enable personalized advice and offers to building owners, taking the guesswork out of building upgrades and transforming the low carbon economy.
