Scaling Green-Tech

Matt Jaworski and Katherine Keddie
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  • Entrepreneurship
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Scaling Green-Tech by Adopter is a podcast for people shaping the future of climate technology - founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders at the forefront of adaptation and resilience solutions. As part of Adopter’s mission to accelerate the adoption of high-impact climate innovation, the podcast aims to amplify real voices and practical insights that can help others navigate the startup journey. Our conversations go beyond the hype to bring real, unfiltered stories - the wins, the roadblocks and everything you need to know in between.

  1. 3d ago

    Darren Ralphs (Sylvera) - AI, SEO and the New Rules of B2B Content

    Episode summary Darren Ralphs, Content Lead at Sylvera, discusses how B2B content strategy is adapting to AI search and LLM visibility on Episode 29 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Ralphs argues that Sylvera's visibility in tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity depends less on publishing volume than on signalling recency and authority. He points to Sylvera's practice of mining long-tail search terms from sales calls and Notion documentation, a technique he links to stronger LLM citation performance. This approach, combined with a systematic refresh of ageing blog content, contributed to Sylvera topping Adopter's GEO readiness report on the climate data sector, ahead of every other company assessed. This episode is relevant for founders resourcing a small marketing team, B2B marketing leads in climate tech, and content marketers exploring GEO and LLM visibility strategy. Guest profile Darren Ralphs is Content Lead at Sylvera. He joined the company in December 2024 and leads thought leadership and long-form content as the sole dedicated content marketer on Sylvera's marketing team, working alongside a product marketer and external SEO agencies. Sylvera assesses and rates the quality of carbon credit projects for both buyers and developers in the carbon markets. Founded in 2020, the company has grown from fewer than 10 people to around 150, with offices in the UK, New York, Singapore, and Japan. Sylvera's offering has expanded from carbon project ratings into a data platform, a geospatial product, and green commodities. Explore the Sylvera website: https://www.sylvera.com Find Darren Ralphs on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-ralphs Topics covered - Explaining content marketing using a simple analogy - What Sylvera does and how its offering has expanded since 2020Sylvera's scale, customer base, and expansion into developer sales- Differentiating Sylvera through policy expertise and platform breadth - The State of Carbon Credits report as an annual funnel-filling asset - Measuring report success through database growth, signups, and SEO uplift - Refreshing the top 50 blog posts and the resulting traffic uplift- Long-tail keyword strategy sourced from sales calls and internal documentation - Adopter's GEO readiness research and Sylvera's top ranking - Diversification risk and maintaining visibility across multiple product lines - Building mid and lower funnel content by ICP - Founder-led content and Sylvera's LinkedIn engagement gap- Using AI in the content production workflow - Common AI writing tells and their effect on reader trust

  2. Jun 30

    Darren Clifford (Adapt [us] Capital) - The Case for Climate Adaptation

    Episode summaryDarren Clifford, Co-Founder of Adapt [us] Capital, discusses the investment case for climate adaptation on Episode 28 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter. Clifford argues that adaptation is more underfunded than mitigation, with roughly 0.25% of global capital flowing to it, despite demand for adaptation products rising predictably as the weather gets hotter and more volatile. Adapt [us] Capital backs pre-seed companies that meet three tests at once: a venture-grade team and market, demand driven by changing weather, and a measurable improvement to quality of life. He uses portfolio company Temperate, a passive radiative cooling business, to illustrate the thesis, alongside Bactery, which builds soil-based batteries for resilient backup power. Clifford frames the whole portfolio as a hedge against a future where changing climate could erode between 5% and 25% of global GDP by 2050.This episode is relevant for climate adaptation investors, pre-seed and seed-stage climate founders, family offices and high net worth LPs evaluating adaptation funds, and operators working on go-to-market for hardware and deep tech in new geographies. Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/ Explore the Adapt [us] Capital website: https://aucap.vc/ Find Darren Clifford on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djclif/

  3. Jun 17

    Freya Burton (LanzaTech) - Scaling Carbon Recycling Technology from Startup to Maturity, Through Earthshot and IPO

    Freya Burton, Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of Europe at LanzaTech, discusses carbon recycling, sustainable aviation fuel, and the 20-year journey from a four-person startup to a public company on Episode 27 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter. Burton describes how LanzaTech captures waste carbon from industrial sites such as steel mills and uses microbes to ferment it into ethanol, a process she likens to brewing beer with carbon instead of sugar and bacteria instead of yeast. She traces the company from its 2005 founding in New Zealand by Dr Sean Simpson and Dr Richard Forster, through a 2008 pilot and a 2012 demonstration plant in China, to its first commercial plant in 2018 and six plants today. The conversation turns to why LanzaTech narrowed its focus to sustainable aviation fuel after listing on the Nasdaq, and how it reframes its work around energy security and economic value rather than emissions alone. Burton also explains why getting fuels policy right has taken more than a decade of work across the UK, EU and US. This episode is relevant for founders scaling capital-intensive climate tech, carbon capture and utilisation investors, sustainable aviation fuel producers and buyers, and policymakers working on fuels regulation.  Guest profile Freya Burton is the Chief Sustainability Officer and Head of Europe at LanzaTech. She joined the company in 2007 as one of its first four employees, working in borrowed lab space, and has since held roles spanning safety, human resources, external affairs and policy. She previously served as the company's Chief People Officer and spent a long period based in the United States before moving into her current sustainability and Europe-focused leadership role. LanzaTech is a carbon recycling company that converts waste carbon from industrial emissions into ethanol and other chemicals using a gas fermentation process. Founded in New Zealand in 2005 and now listed on the Nasdaq, the company operates six commercial plants worldwide across steel mills, ferro alloy mills and a refinery. It supplies ethanol made from recycled carbon, and related materials, to consumer brands in fashion, fragrance and household goods. Explore the LanzaTech website.  Find Freya Burton on LinkedIn  Topics covered Explaining complex deep tech simply How carbon recycling works: the brewery analogy and the microbes Reaching commercial scale with a first-of-a-kind technology A non-linear founder journey: finding problems and solving them Building company culture and the risk of leader burnout How commercial strategy shifts from startup to public company Narrowing focus to win a single market Leading with value and energy security, not sustainability alone Building partnerships on data and proof points What investors prioritise at different stages of growth Funding capital-intensive tough tech, and marketing it to mainstream audiences Navigating regulatory uncertainty and advice for the next stage of scaling

  4. Jun 3

    Dr Robert Sorrell (Henry Royce Institute) - Unlocking the Hydrogen Economy Through Materials Innovation

    Dr Robert Sorrell, CEO of the Royce Hydrogen Accelerator at the Henry Royce Institute, discusses materials innovation and the hydrogen value chain on Episode 26 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.Sorrell treats hydrogen as one part of the wider energy mix rather than a fix-all. The strongest near-term use is as a feedstock for ammonia, fertilisers and industrial chemicals. Long-duration storage of surplus offshore wind is another priority, particularly in the UK. Shipping and aviation also stand out, because batteries cannot match the energy density needed for large vessels or long-haul flight. The episode also covers the $1-2 per kilogramme cost target for green hydrogen, the materials problem of cryogenic storage at -253°C, and the funding gap atthe proof-of-concept and prototyping stages.The episode is useful for hydrogen founders, deep tech investors, electrolyser and fuel cell developers, and policymakers working on the UK's hydrogen strategy.

  5. May 12

    Karen Polizzi (NAPIC) and Prithvi Kodialbail (Extracellular) - Scaling Cultivated Meat from Lab to Market

    Karen Polizzi, Co-Director of NAPIC (the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre), and Prithvi Kodialbail, Head of Partnerships at Extracellular, discuss the commercialisation of cultivated meat on Episode 25 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.The first cultivated meat burger cost approximately $27,000 to produce. Since then, regulatory approvals have come through in Singapore and the US, cultivated products have appeared in restaurants, and an infrastructure layer of companies has begun filling the gap between R&D and commercial scale. Polizzi and Kodialbail trace where the bottlenecks remain - manufacturing costs, regulatory harmonisation, and access to facilities - and describe how NAPIC and Extracellular are each working to close those gaps in the UK. The conversation also makes the case for food security, rather than sustainability, as the most compelling argument for alternative proteins, set against real long-term agricultural risk in the UK.This episode is relevant for cultivated meat founders, alternative protein investors, food science researchers, and policymakers working on UK novel foods regulation.Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/Explore NAPIC here: https://napic.ac.uk/Discover Extracellular here: https://www.extracellular.com/

  6. Apr 28

    Mahima Sukhdev (GIST Impact) - Building the Next Evolution of ESG Data

    Mahima Sukhdev, Chief Growth Officer at GIST Impact, discusses the evolution from ESG 1.0 to ESG 2.0, nature value at risk, and what it takes to grow a data company in an emerging market on Episode 24 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter. Sukhdev argues that ESG 1.0 was designed to produce glossy numbers for glossy reports, and was never intended to change how decisions are made. GIST Impact was built on a different premise: that climate, nature, and social data should be traceable, methodologically rigorous, and fed directly into the places where decisions happen - portfolio construction, stewardship, capital allocation. Founded 18 years ago as a research lab, GIST has watched this shift play out in real time. A major Indian bank is already seeing default rates rise in its agricultural loan book in ways that can only be explained by climate and nature risk. Clients like Allianz and StoreBrand are now using nature data to build portfolio-level analyses that would have seemed out of reach just a few years ago. GIST's recently launched Nature Value at Risk (NVaR) Solution - built on 25 critical ecosystem services and the Natural History Museum's Biodiversity Intactness Index - is its most detailed attempt yet to put a financial number on what happens when ecosystems fail. This episode is for asset managers, impact investors, corporate sustainability leads, and founders building in the ESG data or nature risk space. Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/ Explore GIST Impact here: https://www.gistimpact.com/

  7. Apr 14

    Rami El Geneidy (EnergyHub) - What It Really Takes to Build and Exit in Energy Flexibility

    Rami El Geneidy, Technical Director at EnergyHub and exited co-founder of Kapacity.io, discusses energy flexibility, heat pump control, and the startup journey on Episode 23 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter. El Geneidy traces how Kapacity.io grew from PhD research at the London-Loughborough Centre for Energy Demand Studies, through Conception X and Y Combinator, to acquisition by EnergyHub. Kapacity.io built technology to reduce energy costs and emissions from heat pumps in commercial and residential buildings. The company validated demand by selling building readiness surveys before the product existed, then built first for commercial real estate before pivoting to residential heat pumps when per-building integration barriers limited growth. To crack the conservative energy company market, Kapacity.io first released a consumer product that demonstrated real cost savings to homeowners - then used that proof to sell through energy companies. After five years, the founders accepted an acquisition by EnergyHub, where the two companies' visions for energy flexibility at scale aligned. This episode is relevant for energy technology founders building hardware-adjacent software, PhD researchers considering the startup route through programmes like Conception X or Y Combinator, and climate tech operators navigating pivots, fundraising timing, and acquisition decisions. Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/ Explore EnergyHub here: https://www.energyhub.com/

  8. Apr 1

    Dr Simon Thomas (Paragraf) - Scaling Graphene from Cambridge Lab to World-First Foundry

    Dr Simon Thomas, Co-Founder and CEO of Paragraf, discusses scaling graphene from a Cambridge University invention to a commercial semiconductor foundry on Episode 22 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter. Thomas traces Paragraf's eight-year journey from university spin-out to opening the world's first graphene foundry in Huntingdon, UK. The company's core breakthrough is the ability to deposit uniform, wafer-scale graphene directly onto substrates compatible with standard semiconductor manufacturing equipment - solving the "lab to fab" problem that has blocked graphene commercialisation since the material was first isolated at the University of Manchester in 2004. Paragraf has raised approximately $150 million in total across seed, Series A, Series B ($60 million led by New Science Ventures), and Series C ($55 million led by Mubadala), and has expanded internationally with operations in San Diego, Shanghai, and Abu Dhabi. Thomas argues that graphene devices could reduce the computing industry's share of global energy consumption from approximately 20% to under 2%, while also enabling new product categories in medical diagnostics and next-generation battery technology. This episode is relevant for deep tech founders navigating multi-stage fundraising, semiconductor and advanced materials investors, climate technology founders building hardware companies, and anyone working on energy-efficient computing, point-of-care diagnostics, or graphene electronics. Find out more about Adopter here: https://www.adopter.net/ Explore Paragraf here: https://www.paragraf.com

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About

Scaling Green-Tech by Adopter is a podcast for people shaping the future of climate technology - founders, investors, and ecosystem leaders at the forefront of adaptation and resilience solutions. As part of Adopter’s mission to accelerate the adoption of high-impact climate innovation, the podcast aims to amplify real voices and practical insights that can help others navigate the startup journey. Our conversations go beyond the hype to bring real, unfiltered stories - the wins, the roadblocks and everything you need to know in between.

Information

  • Creator
    Matt Jaworski and Katherine Keddie
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    29
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Matt Jaworski and Katherine Keddie
  • Show Website
    Scaling Green-Tech