Sustainability Symposium 2025 ClimateTech Revolution

00:00:08:23 - 00:00:36:22
Mike Collignon: Our next session features two coworkers. One is a long time friend of the symposium. The other is making his debut appearance. Scott, two, serves as vice president of sustainability. And he's also the co-founder of the center for Energy Efficiency and Sustainability at Trane Technologies. In addition, he leads the center for Healthy and Efficient Spaces. He's also responsible for climate and energy related public policy matters.

00:00:36:24 - 00:01:06:29
Mike Collignon: Basically, Scott is a busy guy. Now, V.J. Dismukes is a member of the Residential business leadership team, also at Trane Technologies. Since joining Trane in 2014, he has held roles in the commercial Hvac business and the enterprise team. Now in his current role, V.J. focuses on driving customer led innovation and go to market strategies. He holds an MBA from Purdue University and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado State University.

00:01:06:29 - 00:01:17:07
Mike Collignon: So he's able to combine the business and the technical very, very well. Now this discussion is going to be moderated by Greenville. Their media CEO, Sarah Gutterman.

00:01:17:09 - 00:01:36:27
Sara Gutterman: Hello, Scott and BJ. Thank you so much for being here. I'm thrilled to have this conversation. I know we are going to cover a lot of very interesting information. So we're here to talk about the climate tech evolution. And let's first start with thermal management in buildings and system wide operations. So Scott, I think this is a question for you.

00:01:37:00 - 00:02:00:15
Sara Gutterman: Decarbonizing the built environment will require better thermal management and system wide optimization. What does that even mean and how much it would be. How should we be thinking about these concepts across entire communities, campuses, districts, and cities? What is the shift from isolated upgrades to system wide thermal strategies? Like like.

00:02:00:17 - 00:02:19:18
Scott Tew: Yeah. Hi, Sarah, and thanks for having us. We are delighted to be a sponsor of another sustainability symposium. It's great to be a partner of Green Builder, and we think that you lead the way in terms of helping, the built environment understand what's possible. And thanks for all that you do there. So we're happy to be here today.

00:02:19:18 - 00:02:45:24
Scott Tew: Vijay and I and thanks for the question, too, about how we've used thermal management. You used a term that there's probably not a better description of what we're attempting to do now. And it is a step back, though, because Trane Technologies is a company that really has doubled down on the concept of decarbonization. And the question is, what can be done for the built environment related to decarbonizing it?

00:02:45:25 - 00:03:28:23
Scott Tew: I mean, transportation went before us. The energy sector has been decarbonizing. We've seen huge changes on transitions over to renewable energy. The transportation sector has been working on transitioning to EVs as we know, worldwide. The built environment is the great big opportunity for us. Now, as you and all of the participants in this symposium understands. And so Trane Technologies, as a company, took a step back a few years ago to say what is really possible in decarbonizing buildings and to your point and how you ask the question, you understand that, the history of cooling and providing comfort for buildings was really to focus on components of a system.

00:03:28:25 - 00:03:53:17
Scott Tew: We focused on the components within a heating system. We focused on the components within a cooling system. And we tried to make every one of those components efficient and better than the last generation. We sort of wiped that thinking, off of our whiteboard, and we have developed a new way of thinking about, decarbonizing as well as providing comfort.

00:03:53:17 - 00:04:15:23
Scott Tew: And, what I mean by that is, what if there was a way to think of managing the thermal dynamics within us, within a building as a system, meaning you move heat around where heat's needed to make a space cooler? And then for the warm areas, you pool those areas and the heat moves somewhere else, and you manage the thermal dynamics of a system.

00:04:15:23 - 00:04:42:11
Scott Tew: And that requires more than just focusing on components. It requires us to think much more holistically about how the building is controlled with building automation. It requires us to think differently about heating and cooling. In the past, we installed two systems a heating system and a cooling system. They run parallel, sometimes at the same time. It was not the most efficient way to do it, and that was the incumbent way of doing this.

00:04:42:14 - 00:05:02:26
Scott Tew: So it's almost heresy to say that we have come up with a new way and a new approach. But we have we now have a single combined systems. They're heat pumps, but they're they're smarter heat pumps than what our, parents of previous generations knew. Because now we know that you can't just have a heat pump and say, we're through.

00:05:02:29 - 00:05:32:13
Scott Tew: Now we have to combine that with automation, really smart sensors. And we also have to combine it with other things, like renewable energy sources that can be onsite or can be from a local grid. All of those things have to be thought through, well, in advance of the application of the system. But once it's done, we're seeing a huge step change in the outcomes of the building performance, which is another thing we've been doing much better at.

00:05:32:15 - 00:05:59:13
Scott Tew: And some of your participants will understand, how a building performs today versus how it was designed is really important to understand. We want high performance today and tomorrow. And to do that, we're going to need buildings that that have building automation, that have better sensors, that have included things like digital technologies. All of these dots, the decarbonization, umbrella under that or is a digital technologies.

00:05:59:15 - 00:06:25:06
Scott Tew: We've not left out the core of our equipment, but we're connecting all those dots in very different ways. And it's actually an exciting time because of what we're seeing. Some of these buildings, that we've applied this new way of applying systems to have seen a 400% increase in their efficiency. They now come with, in some buildings in Europe, come with free cooling because the system can do both in buildings that may not have had cooling in the past.

00:06:25:08 - 00:06:36:00
Scott Tew: And, the same works, throughout the Americas as well. So it's an exciting time. You can have the efficiencies we can decarbonize, and we don't have the negative trade offs.

00:06:36:02 - 00:06:58:22
Sara Gutterman: It's fascinating. Scott. And, Vijay, I promise I'm coming to you with some more questions. But first, I want to ask a follow up question. Scott, as you know, and we've talked about, I am really keeping my eye on, phase change materials. Oh, yeah. And this concept of buildings as batteries, so to speak. So these change materials are often called thermal batteries of cereals.

00:06:58:22 - 00:07:18:20
Sara Gutterman: And so, tell us about these change materials. What is the benefit? What are they what are their benefits. What are the biggest misconceptions? How close are we to seeing them in mainstream construction and how do they fit into the broader, broader ecosystem of building products and materials and systems?

00:07:18:22 - 00:07:37:26
Scott Tew: Well, I think we're at a great spot to talk about this, but also to apply it. Sarah, this technologies have been around for a while, but now is our moment. I think we see more and more people understanding the value of these phase change materials. Thermal storage is what Tracking Technologies calls it. But phase change is really what it is.

00:07:37:29 - 00:08:20:00
Scott Tew: The concept itself is rather simple. It's almost embarrassingly simple. If I can quickly explain it to your audience the way we apply it. I mean, essentially we have large tanks that create ice while energy prices are lower and the grid itself is not as busy. I think at night when we're all sleeping, these tanks are creating large volumes of ice, a car size minivan size cubes of ice, and when the energy prices are higher and people are pulling on the energy grid, increasingly throughout the day, at that point, we begin melting the ice, thus the phase change.

00:08:20:03 - 00:08:43:09
Scott Tew: And as the ice melts, obviously it creates a cooling, air flow and air vapor, which can then be moved into this, building and can be dehumidifiers go throughout the building and provide cooling at a much more efficient US way of dynamics within the system, but it also at a time when the grid needs it most. So this is all about resiliency on the supply side of the grid.

00:08:43:11 - 00:09:01:26
Scott Tew: It's also about making a building perform better than we've been able to in the past. So these things are co-located within the building or maybe outside the building. And its time has come. They're more affordable than ever. I mean, there have been some myths. One of the big myths was these things are too expensive. That's no longer the case.

00:09:01:29 - 00:09:24:19
Scott Tew: The ROI on these systems being added to an upgrade of a of a comfort system in a building and a commercial building. Now, can the ROI payback period is rather quick? The other big myth was complexities. For whatever reason in the past, there was misconceptions about these things are too complex. We are all making ice in our homes every night.

00:09:24:21 - 00:09:51:27
Scott Tew: And so we know that these things can happen. We just scale it up significantly, bring it into the building, and we know how to dehumidifier spaces so these things can be done. We have to dispel of the myths first cost and complexity. And I think we're going to see a much greater adoption. We've actually seen a gigantic acceleration over the last few years that these being placed inside buildings and, and district cooling, applications as well.

00:09:52:03 - 00:10:14:01
Scott Tew: But I think we're just at the tip of the iceberg, pardon my pun. I think we've got I think the, you know, the runway is really long for this, and we need this now more than ever because the supply side is, I think, increasingly under more demand than we expected, maybe five years ago, given, some drain on the supply side via AI and other needs from data centers.

00:10:14:01 - 00:10:25:13
Scott Tew: And so I think that these phase change materials, these applications, thermal storage, this may be the perfect moment for these to truly and be rapidly adopted.

00:10:25:16 - 00:10:41:29
Sara Gutterman: Again. Fascinating. Thank you, Scott. And when you explain these change materials in the context of the thermal dynamics of water, I think, yeah, we understand that. I hope so. And, you know, we understand, what happens there. So. Hello, Vijay. How are you?

00:10:42:02 - 00:10:44:27
Vijay Deshmukh: Nice to meet you, sir. It's a pleasure to be here.

00:10:44:29 - 00:11:19:23
Sara Gutterman: Thank you so much. I would love to hear your perspective on circularity in circular products in particular. So fully circular products, they sound amazing. But how do we move from one off innovations? An economy wide shift. What is needed to make products that are designed for disassembly? As the new standard. And then in the fifth year of that question, is what are some standout examples of truly circular products or materials that are already disrupting the industry that you have your eye on?

00:11:19:26 - 00:11:39:09
Vijay Deshmukh: Now? It's a great question. I think we have to look at also the context and the perspective. So if you think about, home construction or even commercial building construction, it's a very complicated process and you have a lot of different technology choices. You got a long supply chain, a lot of different products that you can use to create the built environment.

00:11:39:12 - 00:12:06:02
Vijay Deshmukh: And you can think about impact from a sustainability standpoint. Going into the future. But new construction is relatively a smaller portion of the market. If you think about occupied homes or occupied buildings. So I think from our perspective, when we think about circularity, it's about, making sure that your design specifications, what you so you put choices, is done right upfront because now you're going to have decades of impact moving forward.

00:12:06:05 - 00:12:27:28
Vijay Deshmukh: So when you think about new construction that has probably the are just going to have going forward and making sure the specifications are as open as possible, that allows for choices from the sustainability standpoint. I think, that's probably the best place that we can influence. I think that's been one of the lessons learned is when we think about also the company and how we're designing new products, right?

00:12:28:00 - 00:12:53:29
Vijay Deshmukh: I mean, when we visited and examined our own processes and how we picked materials and from circularity perspective, we we've kind of overhauled that whole process to make sure that we're making smarter choices and forward design and build on a stronger the future. Few examples I can share is, we've been really successful looking at adding green steel to our products in terms of sheet metal that we use in, products.

00:12:54:01 - 00:13:17:00
Vijay Deshmukh: I, we look at recycled aluminum, as another example would be think about introducing, steel, aluminum capital, probably the biggest ingredients of what we use in our quarries. And, that content in terms of recycled content on part, raw materials that are produced have lower energy, consumption. I think that percentage keeps growing. Let's say those would be a perfect example from our standpoint.

00:13:17:02 - 00:13:21:19
Vijay Deshmukh: Where that we are seeing that possible impact.

00:13:21:21 - 00:13:41:14
Sara Gutterman: Interesting. And P.J., let me follow up with another question for you. When we talk about kind of next level waste and resource management, what does that actually look like? And are there technologies or systems today, that either train is creating or that you just see in general in the industry that are truly making homes and building self-sufficient?

00:13:41:14 - 00:13:59:10
Sara Gutterman: And, you know, along the same lines, a lot of these technologies promise long term savings, but may come with higher upfront costs. So how do we make these innovations more accessible, not just to early adopters, but to everyday homeowners and renters and builders and developers?

00:13:59:12 - 00:14:29:00
Vijay Deshmukh: Now, it's a great, combined question there. Maybe I'll segment into two different pieces. You one is the purchase choice upfront. And I think that's where each sitting, can be very expensive, for a lot of people. And it's a choice people have to make. Not that they want. So I think from a purchase standpoint, there's a lot of different options from an intimacy standpoint with from an entry level system to if you go and purchase more efficiency upgrades, you can save almost 20%.

00:14:29:01 - 00:14:57:15
Vijay Deshmukh: And you and even though the product is expensive, that a lot of options available through the tax, through that option available, that's about 25. See, there are local ingredients available from the Philippines that are sometimes deeply made available. Sometimes we carry promotions as well as seasonal promotions as a company as well. So leveraging those at the moment of purchase and making sure when you think about upfront costs, was the energy cost you're making the choice in advance was the energy cost.

00:14:57:18 - 00:15:22:01
Vijay Deshmukh: AC is almost 40% plus of total energy consumption per house. If you're able to drop that by 20% by going up for energy upgrades and what products are selecting that can have a significant impact on the sustainability, but without compromising, compromising comfort. In fact, if you go to the upgraded option, it actually enhances the comfort in terms of how energy go to manage management side of the house.

00:15:22:03 - 00:15:42:24
Vijay Deshmukh: So two of those probably would be, the two areas. And I think the third thing that's growing is also, the recycling us think we as a company also focused on our reclaiming the program, leaving, some of the waste materials and even our own factories on, how much we, we put on the landfill. So we have zero waste to landfill.

00:15:42:26 - 00:16:00:08
Vijay Deshmukh: Mindset in our company, most of the facilities comply. But if you apply that even in the construction process. But I think the same logic applies a little bit as well. So I think there's different dimensions on how we think about circularity and, overall sustainability impact on homes.

00:16:00:10 - 00:16:29:19
Sara Gutterman: Thank you. Scott, let me come back to you. Now. Let's talk about acceleration and urgency, because we're really not talking about just tweaking systems anymore or making marginal changes. We're talking about reinvention and making radical changes. And it's one of the reasons why we love working with team and working specifically Scott and BJ with you is because you're always thinking about that big picture and you're really always leading the charge with respect to innovation, with sustainability in mind.

00:16:29:19 - 00:16:45:19
Sara Gutterman: And that is special and rare and accolades and call out to you. So thank you for that. So, Scott, what are some of the top climate innovations that will define the next, say, 5 to 10 years? And what's holding them back from scaling faster?

00:16:46:21 - 00:17:10:23
Scott Tew: So thanks for the compliment. Sara, about train technologies. I think one of the things that, we've done is that we challenge ourselves. And, one of the ways we challenge ourselves is we've we set a really high bar for ourselves with our gigaton challenge. So your participants may have heard about it. That's our commitment to reduce our customers emissions by a billion.

00:17:10:25 - 00:17:34:27
Scott Tew: That's a gigaton of, greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. We're at the midpoint this year. It's been a huge learning curve for us as a company. This commitment, because we take it very seriously. Our progress on this commitment wins itself into all the business. The all the areas of the business that you would think that it should be to make sure that we hit it because it requires us to innovate differently.

00:17:35:00 - 00:17:59:07
Scott Tew: It requires us to challenge ourselves. On to your question, what is next generation? How far can we go? How deep can we go on making equipment more efficient, helping consumers understand what's possible, maybe transitioning ahead of even the industry on some things like refrigerants and the Gigaton Challenge? It's we're using it for all the reasons we envision from the beginning to challenge us in all those areas.

00:17:59:10 - 00:18:29:09
Scott Tew: And it's working. And to your point, it helps us accelerate these ideas, these innovations, how we go to market, possibly differently. Vijay could talk more deeply about how we apply heat pumps and our thoughts there. But one of the examples we're gigaton has been refrigerant transitions. We have exceeded not only just, legal regulations, but we've been the first in industry to transition to next generation refrigerants and the latest refrigerants, which are important part of emissions reductions.

00:18:29:12 - 00:18:53:17
Scott Tew: And we have to focus on those. You know, we're we're so much better now than we were a just a year a few years ago, even earlier this decade, in terms of the impact on the environment from this generation refrigerants. And we're already but we're not happy now. We are already researching and developing what next? The next transition will look like, how the equipment should be configured to make that happen.

00:18:53:23 - 00:19:17:02
Scott Tew: So the teams are really working. And then I've already spoken about this whole systems level energy efficiency, systems level, energy efficiency and future will be focused on, using digital and AI to help us tweak systems in ways that we couldn't do that before now. And when I say tweak systems, I mean some of these tweaks lead to significant efficiency gains.

00:19:17:05 - 00:19:43:04
Scott Tew: I've heard 20 to 30% efficiency gains just by integrating some AI technologies that help the systems that are in the building run more efficiently, they also send signals back to us to understand how the equipment's performing. The great thing about that is the service techs who are out in people's homes, the service techs who are, rolling in vans to commercial buildings before they arrive.

00:19:43:06 - 00:20:08:23
Scott Tew: They already know what the priorities are for making the system run more efficiently and operate better. So there's no wasted time when they arrive. They already have great insights. We know which parts they should have with them. They know what tweaks to make. So the digital tools, we're just scratching the surface on how these will help us make buildings, homes, commercial buildings perform more efficiently and be high performing buildings across the board.

00:20:08:26 - 00:20:14:21
Scott Tew: We now can see that greater things are possible though, and I think that's what's so exciting.

00:20:14:24 - 00:20:42:22
Sara Gutterman: That's fascinating. Vijay, I'd like to get your perspective on this as well. What are some of the top climate innovations that you have your eye on? And then kind of as a second layer to that question, what role should building professionals, product manufacturers, and even consumers alike play in accelerating the adoption of breakthrough climate tech, especially when the risks of not acting are growing so quickly?

00:20:42:24 - 00:21:01:26
Vijay Deshmukh: I think I love I love what you said at the end, and it is there are so many choices available today. There's no reason not to act instead of needing a wide landscape of choices. So let's say from a technology standpoint, what's exciting right now is the industry is going through this major transition, at least from residential HPC.

00:21:01:26 - 00:21:29:01
Vijay Deshmukh: And some, like commercial applications, are all adopting towards greener, refrigerant than what we would be using in new cooking. So the next gen refrigerant that we're using now, right now we have 78% less carbon footprint impact on the environment than the original use fields. Along with that, we've also improved our overall energy efficiency, performance, as well as 4% more energy efficient than six months ago.

00:21:29:03 - 00:21:51:26
Vijay Deshmukh: So it's a along with, the environmental impact from an operation. Now looking at making sure your selecting the right high efficient equipment. That's the second one. Third thing is heat pump pumps are a phenomenal product from a sustainability standpoint. You're not creating heat excessively and it's the same product that's doing it. Heat pump back to the new condition.

00:21:51:26 - 00:22:12:08
Vijay Deshmukh: And so it acts. So the heat pump transporting you in a reverse fashion in winter. Right. So now you have a much simpler system for an HBCU product standpoint that does both things. You can move up and heat pumps. What people remember is real heat pumps a field where they're predominantly used in the South. And the it's probably less technology than what we have today.

00:22:12:10 - 00:22:35:10
Vijay Deshmukh: And they will not keep up with the Portland. No heat pumps and the technology they are operating -50, -90 degree Fahrenheit. And they can keep you as comfortable, sometimes more comfortable, and faster comfort than even a furnace. So that's exciting. I think digital is another exciting space, as I've covered it already is. What we see as an example is the scaling of digital technology.

00:22:35:12 - 00:23:05:13
Vijay Deshmukh: Once you give customers choices of and information on how they're using energy, they start making immediately smart choices. So when you look at, next gen systems that you're offering and what's widely available on the market as well is smart thermostats like smart metering products, your water usage and so on. I think that's a great opportunity. And lastly, I think staff covered it from a energy storage standpoint or thermal storage standpoint, is also looking at holistic energy management for the home.

00:23:05:15 - 00:23:28:17
Vijay Deshmukh: Right? You have to look at homes in a holistic manner. And that gets to your last question around what are the things people need to be aware of? I'd say, a holistic, long term perspective and also educating yourself on the choices. Today, there's no reason why, you cannot have more comfort and more energy efficiency, but with a long term view to make the right purchase choices.

00:23:28:19 - 00:23:34:13
Vijay Deshmukh: There's plenty of options. And it's a whole new world of.

00:23:34:15 - 00:23:51:21
Sara Gutterman: That's wonderful. Thank you so much. I have one final question for both of you. But before I go there, I want to just, ask a question that came in through the Q&A, from our good friend Jack Armstrong. Hello, Jack. Thank you for asking these questions. And I'm going to, compress both of your questions into one.

00:23:51:23 - 00:24:13:19
Sara Gutterman: And BJ, maybe this should be directed to you. Jack is wondering first if you have or are going to implement takeback programs. And also, Jack heard that recently at the builders show in Vegas. There were some comments from Heat pump Skeptics about the service life of heat pumps. Which they say is less than previously thought.

00:24:13:19 - 00:24:15:20
Sara Gutterman: So can you comment on both of those things quickly?

00:24:15:26 - 00:24:17:24
Scott Tew: And I answer the first one I'll take back first. Sarah.

00:24:17:25 - 00:24:19:01
Sara Gutterman: Yes, please. Scott.

00:24:19:03 - 00:24:40:24
Scott Tew: And then, PJ can pick up the second one, the take back. So we're very close to announcing a take back program. We've been remanufacturing components of our systems on the commercial side for many years, decades, actually, we're we're working on a program that will extend that and expand that program. And we are working on a demonstration pilot program on product takeback.

00:24:40:24 - 00:24:58:19
Scott Tew: We'd be the first in the industry to do a full take back. Like Jack mentioned in his comments, like other industries, it's very complicated, as you can imagine. But we're working with some suppliers and partners and some facilities and, we're going to try that both on the residential and the commercial side and have a great team focused on that.

00:24:58:19 - 00:25:01:20
Scott Tew: More, more, more on that to come later this year, though.

00:25:01:23 - 00:25:16:03
Sara Gutterman: That is very exciting. Can't wait to learn more. And, thank you. You're working on that. Vijay, what would you say to the second part of the question about the the, kind of the life cycle, becomes.

00:25:16:05 - 00:25:40:16
Vijay Deshmukh: Yeah, I think the life cycle is also a function of maturity in the technology, and I think most people are probably remembering it as when heat pumps were probably used in more strenuous application, like climate models in the past, when probably they were not designed to handle that kind of a lot more requirements, for example. So heat pump up the all you could think about climate zones like let's say Dallas or Minneapolis and New Orleans.

00:25:40:18 - 00:26:00:21
Vijay Deshmukh: There are different climates, the requirements of different. And in the past, like, when you think about heat pumps out there were designed and not designed for all of these funds. So when the heat pumps didn't last long, part of the story is the reason why they would probably not use on the wrong setting. But if you think about heat pumps up to date, now you have to.

00:26:00:21 - 00:26:27:09
Vijay Deshmukh: Well, first of all, take into account what time zone is the homeowner living in. Like what is the rate? Obviously, there's a lot of different technology that's going into some heat pumps. Variable speed technology. Inverter technology is a good example of that, that now you're optimizing your, your Hvac system life performance is not optimized, because it's measuring the speed in it's, it's not seeing as much.

00:26:27:09 - 00:26:45:18
Vijay Deshmukh: So you get a duty cycle. It's not all of all your operating a variable speed. So that's one second. One is a component technology that goes in and you see in a heat pump, the big difference is the components that go into these products. There's a lot of new technology that's gone in into these components and how these products are designed.

00:26:45:20 - 00:27:07:15
Vijay Deshmukh: The last moment, the the heat pumps of view. So that's kind of the secret sauce. On what's new and exciting about these next ten heat pumps? And again, it comes down to making sure you're selecting the right system for the home and for that particular assignment. And once you do that, the notion that it will not be any adverse impact in terms of the life cycle of that one.

00:27:07:18 - 00:27:37:13
Vijay Deshmukh: And I think that especially when you combine digital aspects of it, I mean, we have systems that can allow you not just to manage energy from a woman perspective, but the dealers that install those systems, they can monitor your system remotely as well. Now think about that from a lifecycle perspective, preventive maintenance perspective. There's a lot of new technology out there that can prolong the life of the portal, for the duration that the homeowner is going to be in the house.

00:27:37:15 - 00:28:09:13
Sara Gutterman: Wonderful. Thank you so much. Well, Scott and BJ, we have reached our time limit, although I wish we had more time because you are fascinating. And I have at least eight more questions for you. However, that will have to wait perhaps till next year. Thank you so much again for your leadership and sustainability. Thank you for your generous support year after year for our sustainability symposium, you enable us to bring this free event, to our audience and, you know, with some of the most relevant topics.

00:28:09:15 - 00:28:14:19
Sara Gutterman: So Scott and BJ, again, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Sarah.

00:28:14:21 - 00:28:15:03
Mike Collignon: Thank you.