🌿 Hey Earth First Fam!
Welcome to our first official newsletter! Stoked to begin this journey with you all.
In our first edition of Earth First we will zoom in on Artyc, a pioneering force in sustainable cold chain technology. At the helm of this revolution is the visionary Hannah Sieber, CEO and co-founder.
Here’s what you can expect in this edition:
1. What’s the Cold Chain? & Why Does it Matter?
2. Who is Hannah Sieber? & What’s her Founding Story?
3. What’s Artyc’s Objective? & What are they building?
❄️ What's the Cold Chain and Why Does it Matter?
A cold chain maintains products at controlled, lower temperatures throughout production, storage, and distribution, using specialized equipment to ensure consistent temperature ranges. Think of a cold chain as a super-cool conveyor belt keeping stuff like vaccines and food at just the right chilly temps from start to finish. It's like a big refrigerator on the move!
🔬 Vaccine example: These sensitive little guys need to stay in a super specific cool zone, or they're no good. If the temperature fluctuates outside this range, even briefly, the vaccine may lose its effectiveness and become unusable.
🍲 Food example: Did you know we lose 1.6 billion tons of food yearly in the supply chain or wasted - enough to feed 950 million people. That's a heap of carbon emissions we could save! - Source
REFRIGERANTS: A HIDDEN MENACE 🌡️
The cold chain plays a pivotal role in preserving the quality and safety of products like vaccines and food, but it's important to consider what makes this all possible: refrigerants.
These everyday heroes in the transportation of goods in the cold chain, fridges, and ACs, especially the Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), are actually undercover climate villains with a massive warming potential.
Their global warming potential can be 1000x greater than CO2, meaning they trap significantly more heat in the atmosphere per unit than carbon dioxide!
Why we SHOULD Sweat Over Refrigerants 😅
They might not be the talk of the town, but these gasses are climate change's secret agents, leaking out and heating up our planet big time.
The Big Picture 📸
With a cold chain logistics market size of $248.4 billion (in 2020) set to exceed $410 billion by 2028, Artyc's timing is spot-on for a world needing better, cooler solutions.
🌟 Hannah: The Eco-Visionary Extraordinaire
Hannah's green business journey kicked off 9 years back at EcoFlow, a battery startup now worth more than a billion. Nailing a spot in Forbes 30 under 30 in Energy in 2018, she's a pro in the startup scene.
Post EcoFlow, she pondered whether to keep building or hit the books for deeper energy and personal growth insights. She chose Stanford for an MBA and MS in Earth Sciences, where she fell for cold chains and developed a framework about creating technology that's both market and climate aligned. This path led to Artyc, a creation of her belief in "founder market fit" – that sweet intersection of personal passion and market needs.
"I believe in this concept of what I call founder market fit, which is thinking about where I personally can have the most impact, and I'm highly geared towards."
Then 2020 hit, bringing a couple of major developments. The IPCC report was released, putting refrigerants right at the top of the climate concern list. Meanwhile, we were in the thick of a global pandemic, witnessing the critical role of cold chain logistics, especially in vaccine distribution.
Co-founding with a Shared Vision 🔄
2021 rolls around and Hannah teamed up with her previous climate fellowship member, Mark Langer, and now co-founder, to start Artyc. They bonded over their shared values, vision for running a company, and quality of decision-making.
"We spent a lot of time talking about this idea of what were the things that motivate us? What gets us out of bed in the morning? What are the areas we understand and know the best? How could we work together and overlap, and what do those kinds of projects look like? So we ended up starting Artyc in late 2021."
Hannah's Leadership Style 🫡
For Hannah, it's all about the values of connecting authentically, continually evolving, and a commitment to realizing change. She's all about the big picture – leading the pack, sparking change in the industry. She knows she won't corner the entire cold chain market, but that's not the game. It's about setting the pace, inspiring others in the game to step up their eco-game too. The goal? Together, they'll make a huge dent in those cold chain emissions.
The Bowling Lane Strategy 🎳
Hannah sees nailing the product market fit like bowling: Intense focus to hit the first pin (clinical pharma) and from there momentum builds. Then you're on your way to hit the rest.
Get to Know Hannah!
Favorite Book: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Favorite podcast: Pivot with Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway
Favorite Mantra: “Be curious”
Biggest Climate role model: Her life partner, Eric
Wishes people knew about climate: “You do not need to have a ton of subject matter expertise or even a ton of functional expertise to start working in climate. To resolve this, we're going to need every single person on this planet focused on the climate.”
Most excited about for the future: “I'm excited about the opportunity to work with more women who are starting companies and work with younger entrepreneurs. Gen Z is a very vocal critic of a lot of what's happening and I'm excited to get to support their drive for change.”
🚀Artyc's Cooler, Greener Future
Enter Artyc, leading the charge in the transformation of cooling technologies. They’re shaking up the cold chain, especially in the booming biopharma and fresh produce world.
The Cool Innovations ❄️
Their super-efficient coolers are a big deal for the planet, being way greener than the old-school fridge containers. They're packed with smart sensors and run on batteries, so no need for refrigerants!
Here's a peek at their lineup:
Medstow Mini: For all your small-scale medical transport needs (blood samples)
Medstow 5L: Coming soon in 2024 to carry more of those important meds (vaccines, medicine, therapeutics)
Terrastow 25L: Currently in the works for keeping specialty foods fresh
How Artyc is Different 🤘
Super flexible design for all kinds of goods (offering precise temperature control within 3 degrees Celsius, essential for diverse products like pharmaceuticals and food)
Battery power means more stable power supply and no refrigerants
Energy-efficient for a greener world (With rapid cooling and recharging, their customers can achieve 5 degrees celsius in 20 minutes and rapidly recharge)
Smart sensors for real-time tracking of parameters like temperature and location, integrated with software for enhanced logistics insights
Helps reduce emissions in logistics by allowing companies to optimize operations and lower their carbon footprint through data-driven decisions
Big Eco-Goals 🌱
Reusable containers = Less trash, less carbon, less waste
Greener transport = Reduce air travel, less GHGs
Circular economy = Smarter, sustainable storage
We want to close it off with a little educational section and a fun trivia!
📘 Cold Chain Quick Bits:
GWP (Global Warming Potential): How much heat a greenhouse gas traps compared to CO2.
Cold Chain Logistics: Managing the transportation and storage of temperature-sensitive products.
Temperature Controlled Supply Chain: The whole cold process including production, warehousing, transportation, and distribution.
Earth First Trivia (Answers in the next newsletter!)
1. In developed economies, guess how much CO2 emissions the cold chain accounts for?
2. A 1987 treaty aimed to protect the ozone layer. What's it called?
That's a wrap! Stay eco-savvy and catch you in the next one!
Earth First 🌍✌️
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