Just as with renewables, dedicated investment by climate investors is essential to scaling of cooling solutions.

Innovation is critical as developing economies expand their energy needs, yet cooling has been overlooked by venture investors. Corporate, climate and development, energy, impact, and opportunistic private equity investors have an unique opportunity for significant returns & impact in this cold chain thermal management “layer” upon which much of the modern economy depends.

Air conditioning (AC) and refrigerated food cold chain requirements and sales are growing throughout Asia, Africa, and Latin America at a multiple of HVAC sales growth in wealthier countries. Cooling investment  data centers and technology companies is growing exponentially worldwide.

Global growth of electric loads associated with managing heat contributes to grid instability and potential power outages. Companies with technologies and service models that effectively reduce the energy required to provide cold chain services seems to be the only way to reconcile exponential growth of cooling demand with resilient electric grids.

Governments, development banks and NGOs have tried to encourage energy efficient cooling with national plans, procurement recommendations, labels with information on energy consumption on air conditioning appliances, and prizes. These efforts have had limited success, even in California, where energy efficiency has been a public policy goal since the 1980s.

Sustana holds that cold chain service and cooling tech innovators cannot scale without growth equity capital. Renewables deployment grew exponentially with structured equity funds. Sustana is promoting a global cooling partnership to provide the type of catalytic capital needed to scale innovative cold chain companies that can help meet twin demands to improve thermal efficiency and expand cold chain access.