We can build a net zero carbon world faster
We can accelerate the development and implementation of the technologies we need to address climate change.
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What is net zero and why accelerate it?
Announcing . . . the accelerate net zero podcast
Learn more about the work being done to mature, scale and drive adoption of the technologies we need to address climate change, and how that work can be accelerated.
We will be interviewing innovators, technology leaders, policy leaders, investors and others who are working to accelerate Net Zero, sharing ways that these programs can be accelerated openly and freely.
The podcast and show notes will capture examples and stories to demonstrate how we can accelerate net zero.
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Latest Episode
Design Thinking to Electrify Industry
How do you convince medium sized companies to convert their fossil-fueled industrial processes to renewable energy? And how do you do that if the amount of emissions saved seems tiny compared to the overall problem of global warming? It requires listening deeply to them, and building partnerships to meet them where they are, even if that means less electricity use in the short-term. It means understanding the fundamental economics behind their decisions,and working with them to develop solutions that address their fundamental concerns. Sarah Williams of Simply Energy has taken a Design Thinking approach to help medium to large New Zealand companies have deeper conversations around how they source and use energy.
Previous Episodes
How Safe Is It to Talk About Circularity? Conversations Around Sustainability Challenges
The concept of circularity is an exceptionally challenging topic for many businesses. Today, most companies push out products, and then it’s up to the consumer to figure out what happens to them at the end of their useful lives. Circularity closes the loop, to look at how waste products can become feedstocks for other processes that continue to generate value. It has the potential to completely change the role that a company plays in delivering customer value, the business model, and the product itself. How do you introduce such a difficult topic, and how do you even begin to generate the ideas you need to develop innovative products and services with circularity at their core?
“For the Greatest Benefit of All Humankind”
In this episode, I share more about why I chose to launch this project at this time, and how it fits in with my own personal story. You’ll hear about my time at HP, how Rapid Learning Cycles developed, and a visit to the Nobel Prize Museum in Stockholm that proved to be transformative, showing me what work was mine to do. If you are working in this area, I encourage you to connect with me here, or on LinkedIn, to continue the conversation.
Water In Sight: Better Data to Make Better Decisions About Water
When people think about innovations around climate change, they naturally go to the big projects: solar energy farms, offshore wind, and the electrification of everything that uses fossil fuels today. But a lot of the technology we need doesn’t generate the same kinds of headlines, or attract the same level of funding and government support.
In this episode, we’re going to go into one of these small-but-important pieces: water management data collection. Droughts and floods are both effects of global warming that are already increasing in both frequency and severity. And the impact hits low-income populations hardest and soonest.
In the race to net zero carbon, every year matters.
We cannot afford to waste time, energy or resources on solutions that fail in execution or cannot scale. We need to “fail fast” with some ideas to accelerate others, and set up development programs for success in the execution phases by helping them make good decisions in the early phases.
Many innovation and product development programs encounter unexpected problems, cost overruns, and delays when things don’t work out as expected. They disappoint investors, customers and community stakeholders.
When innovation teams eliminate the root causes of these obstacles at their source, they deliver the right product to market faster.
They get from idea to launch faster, they scale faster and they start making a difference faster.
They change the world faster.
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“We were expecting to get products out faster.
It actually did a lot more than that —
it helped us get the right products out faster.”
Katherine Radeka
Host, Accelerate Net Zero Podcast
I help innovators change the world — faster.
I’m the author of three books on innovation and the developer of the Rapid Learning Cycles framework for innovation. This framework is accelerating innovation on every continent except Antarctica.
I have a long track record of accelerating the development of products like printers, washing machines, coffee makers, forklifts and mowers. I’ve helped biotech, medical device, pharma and aerospace adapt the framework to fit their industries. Today, my methods are accelerating solar, wind and nuclear energy systems development.
I know how to accelerate innovation.
I’ve already demonstrated that my methods work in renewable energy, transportation systems, food production and sustainable materials. I have already accelerated the development of the technologies we need to address climate change.
I also know that my clients’ experiences are much better than most innovation teams. Most products deliver disappointing results — or fail altogether. Most infrastructure projects take too long, cost too much and fail to deliver on their promises. We experience this with all the stuff we know how to build — skyscrapers, highways and high-speed rail.
For the next-generation electrical grid, the network of charging stations we need to get gas-powered cars off the road, and so many more, we can’t afford those types of failures.
Here’s what I do know: failure is not an option.
We can’t afford to waste the time, energy and resources we are investing on solutions that look great in early development but fail in execution — especially those that fail for reasons that could have been prevented with a different approach to early development.
So if it is possible to accelerate them by eliminating the root causes of the problems that plague most technology development programs, then that’s what we need to do.
areas of focus for acceleration
These are areas where our past work has given us valuable experience to build upon.
Transportation
Solutions
The advances required to keep people, goods and services moving in a carbon-neutral society.
Renewable
Energy
The scalable solutions that will eliminate the need for fossil fuels to energize a world that is interconnected.
agriculture &
Food distribution
Technology for food production, storage and distribution to reduce emissions from farm to table to trash.
sustainable
materials
The raw materials we need to reduce emissions — perhaps eliminate them — in our everyday lives.
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Sponsoring Organization
The Rapid Learning Cycles Institute helps innovators get their ideas to market faster.
Many innovation teams get stuck in the late stages of development when they run into obstacles that they couldn’t see ahead of time. Many of those obstacles trace back to decisions made in early development, when the knowledge needed to make good decisions wasn’t available, or at least not visible to the team.
The Rapid Learning Cycles framework fixes this by helping teams make decisions at the right time, with the right people and the best available knowledge. When teams do this, they make decisions that don’t have to be revisited later.
RLCI offers books, training and other services in how to use the Rapid Learning Cycles framework to accelerate innovation. We offer significant discounts to universities and nonprofit organizations. Readers of this page can use the code accelerate-net-zero to receive 10% off any training or other purchase at RLCI.
Contact:
Katherine Radeka
Accelerate Net Zero
PO Box 859
Camas, WA 98607
(206) 274-6179