In this compelling episode of the Construction Disruption podcast, hosts Todd Miller and Ethan Young of Isaiah Industries sit down with Tim Sperry, the visionary founder behind Carbon Limit and Smog Armor. The discussion delves into Tim's pioneering journey into carbon capture, highlighting revolutionary technologies that convert CO2 into stable minerals within concrete, enhancing durability while combating climate change. Explore the groundbreaking CoolCrete additive, designed to boost solar reflectance and mitigate urban heat islands.
Tim sheds light on the industry's shift towards sustainable materials, the financial implications of carbon credits, and future regulatory landscapes. Insightful and inspiring, this episode reveals not only the technical intricacies of carbon capture but also Tim's personal motivations and philanthropic ambitions. Whether you're a construction professional or a sustainability enthusiast, this episode offers a profound look at the future of green building solutions.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to the Podcast
00:59 Meet Our Guest: Tim Sperry
01:45 The Science of Carbon Capture
03:13 Exploring Google Scholar
05:51 The Importance of CO2 Capture
08:02 Concrete Innovations
13:47 Quantifying Carbon Capture
16:47 Market Strategy and Future Outlook
22:38 Introducing CoolCrete
23:14 Addressing Urban Heat with Cool Crete
24:16 Benefits of Cool Crete in Reducing Heat
25:30 Energy Savings and Broader Applications
27:27 Future Innovations and Partnerships
31:09 Rapid Fire Questions with Tim Sperry
37:16 Final Thoughts and Contact Information
Connect with Tim Online
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-sperry-57b14aa/
Website: https://www.carbonlimit.com/
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This episode was produced by Isaiah Industries, Inc.
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Welcome to the Construction Disruption Podcast, where we
Intro:uncover the future of design, building, and remodeling.
Todd Miller:I'm Todd Miller of Isaiah Industries, manufacturer
Todd Miller:of specialty metal roofing and other building materials.
Todd Miller:Today my co host is Ethan Young.
Todd Miller:How are you today, Ethan?
Ethan Young:I'm doing pretty good, Todd.
Ethan Young:How about you?
Todd Miller:I'm doing real well also.
Todd Miller:So I heard an interesting statistic the other day.
Todd Miller:Um, I heard that the average dog barks 273 times a day.
Ethan Young:Wow.
Ethan Young:Okay.
Todd Miller:Of course, that is just a rough estimate.
Ethan Young:Oh, geez.
Ethan Young:Okay.
Todd Miller:Okay.
Todd Miller:I don't know if I've told that before or not.
Todd Miller:I hope I haven't.
Todd Miller:Anyway, it's an oldie but a goodie, so it's classified as an oldie
Todd Miller:but a goodie if I have told it.
Todd Miller:Well, let's go ahead and get things rolling here with this
Todd Miller:episode of Construction Disruption.
Todd Miller:Um, today's guest is going to talk to us about something, um, that I think
Todd Miller:is just being talked about increasingly in the world of architecture,
Todd Miller:engineering, and construction.
Todd Miller:And I think sometimes it's talked about a whole lot more than it's understood.
Todd Miller:And that is carbon capture, helping to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere
Todd Miller:by capturing it in a non damaging way.
Todd Miller:Increasingly, we're seeing some products out there that are said
Todd Miller:to reduce smog and C E C O 2.
Todd Miller:And today we're going to learn about that from our special guest, Tim Sperry.
Todd Miller:Tim is the founder of Carbon Limit and also of Smog Armor.
Todd Miller:Tim, welcome to the show today.
Todd Miller:Thanks for having me on.
Todd Miller:Great to be here.
Todd Miller:Well, we're anxious to learn and glad to have you here today.
Todd Miller:So, um, I think it's You're an interesting guy in that you don't really have a
Todd Miller:degree or formal background in chemistry.
Todd Miller:Um, yet you're on this leading edge technology.
Todd Miller:Uh, love to hear a little bit about yourself and your background and what
Todd Miller:brought you to where you are today.
Tim Sperry:Sure.
Tim Sperry:So, um, yeah, you're absolutely right.
Tim Sperry:And I will say in preface this, yeah, half of my family are collegiate level
Tim Sperry:educators and the other half are inventors and entrepreneurs, a majority of them
Tim Sperry:are self taught and invented some pretty.
Tim Sperry:incredible things, uh, from capacitors and gyroscopes and other things
Tim Sperry:for hollow spaceship and, uh, international space station to the
Tim Sperry:equipment that makes some classified military, uh, equipment and weaponry.
Tim Sperry:And I will also say this, you know, I'm an entrepreneur at heart,
Tim Sperry:although I did go to college, found the path of material science.
Tim Sperry:And midway through, and I even took a zoology course and kind of, you know,
Tim Sperry:went, went on the path of material science because I've always been an
Tim Sperry:inventor and then made a U turn when I saw how effectively segregated, uh,
Tim Sperry:you had your science and business, uh, you know, you were almost on,
Tim Sperry:in most universities, it just seems to be there on separate sides of the
Tim Sperry:universe and separate sides of campus.
Tim Sperry:So I didn't really want to go and live in a lab nor create notches on the
Tim Sperry:belt for how many publications and how many patents that I could create.
Tim Sperry:So I took the path of Google Scholar, uh, you guys familiar with Google Scholar?
Tim Sperry:Yeah, definitely.
Tim Sperry:I am not.
Tim Sperry:You're going to have to help me out.
Tim Sperry:Yeah, most people aren't.
Tim Sperry:Um, so if you Google Google Scholar, you don't have to just do it that
Tim Sperry:way, but you'll get a new search box and it looks like a regular Google
Tim Sperry:search page, uh, and it'll say Google Scholar above the search box.
Tim Sperry:Now, every time you plug something in there for a search, it actually
Tim Sperry:gives you all of the relative and related publications that
Tim Sperry:have been created globally.
Tim Sperry:Um, different scientists, different universities.
Tim Sperry:It's a mine.
Tim Sperry:It's, it's a gold mine of just incredible technologies, um, tests.
Tim Sperry:Uh, different materials.
Tim Sperry:Uh, it's really, it's really pretty awesome.
Tim Sperry:I, I geek out on it quite a bit, but you could go down Google scholar,
Tim Sperry:send your 10, 000 hours there and you would become an absolute master at
Tim Sperry:whatever it is that you want to do.
Tim Sperry:If you're studying, you know, negative emission technologies via inorganic
Tim Sperry:materials, as I did, um, getting into negative emission technologies.
Tim Sperry:And then to your point of carbon capture, I love to go down the path of carbon
Tim Sperry:capture utilization and storage CC us.
Tim Sperry:So I pretty much went that pathway to get there.
Tim Sperry:Uh, and it's, it's been a really incredible journey.
Tim Sperry:And I think I went down that path a little bit before it became so popular
Tim Sperry:in the media and such a big deal.
Tim Sperry:Uh, I just, it always been something that has been driven from my personal passion
Tim Sperry:to want to solve air pollution as I lost family members due to Air polluted, uh,
Tim Sperry:that's unfortunately before their times.
Tim Sperry:Uh, and I just recently had a child and I'd love for her to enjoy the world
Tim Sperry:the way we all have been able to do so.
Tim Sperry:Uh, and also thrive in a healthy place that supports her.
Tim Sperry:So my driving passion and my reasons why.
Todd Miller:Very interesting.
Todd Miller:And that's fascinating.
Todd Miller:I mean, I love it when an entrepreneur.
Todd Miller:You know is driven by their passions.
Todd Miller:I think sometimes entrepreneurs are driven by The field that they ended up in and
Todd Miller:suddenly they thought okay I'll just stay in this field, but uh, I love that and
Todd Miller:I need to check out google scholar for sure And just so our audience knows And
Todd Miller:I forgot to mention this earlier, we are doing challenge words this episode, and
Todd Miller:I think in the future, I may use Google Scholar to find my challenge words.
Todd Miller:But anyway, each of us on the show has been given a word by one of the
Todd Miller:others that we've been challenged.
Todd Miller:To work into the conversation.
Todd Miller:So you, the audience can be listening to see what those are.
Todd Miller:Maybe you already heard one or two.
Todd Miller:I don't know.
Todd Miller:Um, but at the end, we'll tell you whether we were successful or not at
Todd Miller:working in, uh, our challenge words.
Todd Miller:So, um, well, let's just for our audience, um, start at ground zero.
Todd Miller:I mean, tell us some of the basics.
Todd Miller:Uh, why is CO2 capture important?
Todd Miller:Um, what is the overall goal of what you're doing?
Todd Miller:And I love that you're driven partly by this little baby you have at home.
Todd Miller:So that's exciting also.
Tim Sperry:Absolutely.
Tim Sperry:Yeah, no, thanks so much for that.
Tim Sperry:Um, you know, as As we really look at the world today and we're
Tim Sperry:emitting about 50 billion tons of CO2, which is a pretty big number.
Tim Sperry:Um, just as we're developing countries and as we're increasing population, I think
Tim Sperry:it's a challenge unless we get to absolute net zero, which today we effectively could
Tim Sperry:never do that and get off hydrocarbons.
Tim Sperry:As the way the world is currently set up, you know, it's going to take some time.
Tim Sperry:So as we're continuing to emit more and more CO2, it's
Tim Sperry:not actually getting better.
Tim Sperry:It's getting worse from increased, uh, extreme heat, uh, extreme weather events.
Tim Sperry:You know, we've, we've broken some really bad records this year.
Tim Sperry:We've been above 1.
Tim Sperry:5 degrees Celsius of warming for over 18 months.
Tim Sperry:Not a great place to be because that's what we were trying to
Tim Sperry:refrain from doing, uh, up till 2100.
Tim Sperry:And.
Tim Sperry:The real consensus is now in order for us to really help the planet to
Tim Sperry:help do things about the climate, climate crisis, we need to remove CO2
Tim Sperry:and removing CO2 is a big challenge.
Tim Sperry:Um, there's a lot of novel technologies out there today, but they're able to
Tim Sperry:do this much and we need a lot more.
Tim Sperry:So it's really important that this It's getting a lot of attention, um, in all
Tim Sperry:different circles, as you mentioned in the beginning, uh, and really the idea for
Tim Sperry:removing carbon is how can we take carbon that's already in the atmosphere and
Tim Sperry:then put it into a solid format where it can't re emit itself into the atmosphere,
Tim Sperry:whether that's capturing it and then utilizing it in some form or fashion
Tim Sperry:where it won't re emit, or whatever.
Tim Sperry:Uh, make it into a super critical liquid state and injecting it down a
Tim Sperry:class six well, which is a mouthful.
Tim Sperry:Uh, and not the easiest thing to do either.
Tim Sperry:Not a lot of classics wells and companies that can do that yet.
Tim Sperry:Uh, so really, the idea is how can we.
Tim Sperry:More effectively capture and remove some of the carbon that
Tim Sperry:we've already put out there.
Tim Sperry:And what are those technologies and how can we get them to scale?
Todd Miller:Very good.
Todd Miller:So I know that originally, as you went down, down this path,
Todd Miller:you were using paint and coatings to capture carbon, capture CO2.
Todd Miller:And now you've moved on to concrete.
Todd Miller:Um, I assume the technology between the two is kind of similar.
Todd Miller:I mean, which is more effective?
Todd Miller:effective.
Todd Miller:Uh, tell us a little bit about the difference between
Todd Miller:those two different paths.
Tim Sperry:Yeah.
Tim Sperry:I mean, even though I'm, you know, the surface, they may look similar,
Tim Sperry:they're a hundred percent different.
Tim Sperry:Uh, you have a coating that has physical and chemical absorption capability of CO2.
Tim Sperry:So it's bonding the CO2 molecules in and around and on the surface and in
Tim Sperry:the matrix of, of whatever you have there from a paint or a coating.
Tim Sperry:But it's not utilized.
Tim Sperry:The CO2 molecules still stay intact.
Tim Sperry:And if you were to heat that surface up enough, it would
Tim Sperry:start releasing those generally.
Tim Sperry:I don't think we're going to get to a point of heating it up enough,
Tim Sperry:unless it's on fire or it's put into some extreme heat situation where
Tim Sperry:it would release all of that CO2.
Tim Sperry:Um, but the difference with that and what we're doing at carbon limits
Tim Sperry:with our capture Creek technology, which is a CO2 capturing concrete.
Tim Sperry:When the CO2 is absorbed, similarly to how it is on the coating, it's
Tim Sperry:actually then interacting with the, they call them hydration products in
Tim Sperry:the concrete, so the cement and the other, uh, materials in the concrete.
Tim Sperry:And it's, transforming, and it's actually a chemical reaction that turns
Tim Sperry:the CO2 molecule into a solid mineral.
Tim Sperry:So it's changing its chemistry and making it into a solid mineral where that will
Tim Sperry:stay in solid mineral form unless you heat it above 550 degrees Celsius, which is
Todd Miller:So I'm curious, how does the amount of, you know, through your
Todd Miller:process and what you're doing, how does the amount of CO2 or carbon you can
Todd Miller:capture compare to the amount of CO2 made in the production of concrete?
Tim Sperry:So that depends.
Tim Sperry:Um, if you look at.
Tim Sperry:Traditional concrete and you look at these new concretes.
Tim Sperry:I'm sure you guys have have seen and heard and had had some experience.
Tim Sperry:Their original Portland cement was generally mixed with sand, gravel, air
Tim Sperry:and water to create concrete today.
Tim Sperry:It's more.
Tim Sperry:Limestone based cements, natural puzzle on basements, fly ash and
Tim Sperry:slag that are actually reducing some of the carbon in there already.
Tim Sperry:And our product just further makes it more sustainable.
Tim Sperry:From a percentage basis, it's hard to say we can capture X number of kilograms
Tim Sperry:of CO2 per cubic yard, and that that number can really go on a sliding scale.
Tim Sperry:So we could, in effect, maybe capture an additional couple of
Tim Sperry:percent, 10, 20 percent of what was made in that original volume.
Tim Sperry:Carbon event when you're making the cement, because that's majority of that
Tim Sperry:carbon footprint comes from, uh, it's just really dependent on the type of concrete,
Tim Sperry:the use case, the compressive strength.
Tim Sperry:Uh, and if it's a road versus a building, uh, if it's a concrete
Tim Sperry:block, which is much more porous.
Tim Sperry:Uh, so there's not 1 clear answer.
Tim Sperry:It's just depends on the type of concrete and the use case there.
Tim Sperry:It captures a good amount of CO2, uh, compared to concrete that's
Tim Sperry:capturing a very limited amount of CO2, because concrete naturally does
Tim Sperry:absorb CO2, but once it absorbs it and it gets in and on that surface
Tim Sperry:and creates more impenetrable barrier.
Tim Sperry:It's kind of like a steak.
Tim Sperry:If you're grilling on the outside and you sear it out, you're not going
Tim Sperry:to get too much on the inside there.
Tim Sperry:From a sear level, you're going to cook it, but it's not going
Tim Sperry:to go all the way through.
Todd Miller:Gotcha.
Todd Miller:Well, I think that's interesting.
Todd Miller:I think one thing, I think a lot of folks, when you think of concreting,
Todd Miller:you think of your driveway.
Todd Miller:And people don't realize how many buildings are simply concrete based.
Todd Miller:in their structure now as well.
Todd Miller:Um, so that's really kind of what you're going after, I assume, is
Todd Miller:more that, you know, where it's being used to actually build the building,
Todd Miller:maybe not necessarily someone's driveway in the front of their house.
Todd Miller:Is that correct?
Todd Miller:Or am I off on that?
Tim Sperry:Um, honestly, we want it everywhere.
Tim Sperry:Gotcha.
Tim Sperry:You know, we, we just worked with, uh, with a housing developer here
Tim Sperry:in Florida, and we did an initial flat work product, uh, project.
Tim Sperry:So you're thinking sidewalks, you're thinking driveways, then you're
Tim Sperry:going, uh, to your concrete slabs, uh, for the foundation of the houses,
Tim Sperry:you can go into exterior stuff.
Tim Sperry:And then down here in South Florida, we have a bit of, uh, quite a bit of
Tim Sperry:concrete tiles and rooftop pavers that you can put on there as well, which
Tim Sperry:lasts up to 50 years, which could capture a lot of CO2, as you have.
Tim Sperry:Uh, much thinner concrete that has much more exposure and
Tim Sperry:ability to actually capture, uh, and, and, and utilize that CO2.
Todd Miller:So does what you're doing change the physical property
Todd Miller:of the concrete in any way?
Todd Miller:Does it, you know, maybe make it stronger over time or any
Todd Miller:change at all like that happen?
Tim Sperry:Exactly.
Tim Sperry:So we, when we made this.
Tim Sperry:The whole idea was, hey, how can we capture as much carbon as possible and
Tim Sperry:then store it into concrete where it'll stay for up throughout the service life
Tim Sperry:and even at the end of its service life when you break it and grind it down.
Tim Sperry:But what we found was that Because the CO2 being captured is creating
Tim Sperry:solid carbonates, filling in some microcracks, some of the pores, it's
Tim Sperry:actually making the concrete stronger.
Tim Sperry:So we can actually increase the compressive strength, making it
Tim Sperry:stronger, potentially last longer, uh, and greener and more sustainable,
Tim Sperry:and potentially able to mitigate and, and reduce the amount of maintenance.
Tim Sperry:It as a byproduct of its capturing co2 increases compressive strength.
Todd Miller:This may seem like a silly question, but i'm going to
Todd Miller:answer it anyway or ask it anyway How do we know what you're doing works?
Todd Miller:I mean, how do you measure this?
Todd Miller:It seems like a tough thing to to really measure or or uh quantify.
Tim Sperry:Yeah Um, so there's a whole consortium.
Tim Sperry:It's it's called it's with nist and it's actually government academia industry
Tim Sperry:It's all of these, um, different groups coming together to determine a one, I
Tim Sperry:don't know, one solution pathway for, okay, how do we quantify the amount
Tim Sperry:of carbon being taken up, because they also want to integrate that into what
Tim Sperry:happens naturally into concrete as, you know, look, We love cement and
Tim Sperry:concrete manufacturers because we see ourselves having a great partnership and
Tim Sperry:relationship with them to help make their, make their offerings more sustainable.
Tim Sperry:They're doing the world a great service and giving it platform and giving it the
Tim Sperry:foundation to actually live on, which is, you know, all of our roads, all of
Tim Sperry:our bridges, all of our homes, all the concrete that kind of don't see, you know,
Tim Sperry:we're, we're all probably sitting on some concrete slab right now, effectively.
Tim Sperry:Um, so we've, we've actually been working with universities
Tim Sperry:like University of Miami.
Tim Sperry:We initially were working, um, with a couple of other universities when we were
Tim Sperry:based up in Indianapolis, and we're also working with third party labs that take
Tim Sperry:the concrete and then they determine how much solid carbonates are built up in it.
Tim Sperry:compared to another piece of concrete without our technology, how much
Tim Sperry:solid carbonates are built up in there over the same period of time.
Tim Sperry:And then they just create whatever that delta is, how much more CO2
Tim Sperry:are we capturing and storing?
Tim Sperry:So you're actually able to quantify those solid carbonates, i.
Tim Sperry:e.
Tim Sperry:the amount of CO2 that's been mineralized into the concrete.
Tim Sperry:Now the test methods are ASTM, but they're still challenging to really
Tim Sperry:fully, uh, you know, everyone's wrapping their head around there.
Tim Sperry:Having a consensus on on those.
Ethan Young:Um, you mentioned something about the, uh, like, you know, They
Ethan Young:can still capture concrete throughout a service life Is there sort of
Ethan Young:like a saturation point where it's captured like the maximum amount of
Ethan Young:co2 it can capture and then it's no longer Is it continuously, you know?
Tim Sperry:That's exactly right So it's effectively like a sponge and you can only
Tim Sperry:put so much water until that sponge is overwhelmed But we did uh, we've received
Tim Sperry:Two grants from the, uh, Department of Defense, uh, in partnership with the U.
Tim Sperry:S.
Tim Sperry:Army Corps of Engineers.
Tim Sperry:To actually create feasibility reports, studies, R& D, and show them what we're
Tim Sperry:doing compared to regular concrete.
Tim Sperry:And let's say you have a block of regular concrete, and there's a lot of
Tim Sperry:carbonation on the top, but it doesn't allow any more CO2 to seep in any further.
Tim Sperry:Versus ours, which accelerates and increases that depth and
Tim Sperry:increases the amount of carbonation.
Tim Sperry:We may have gone 70 percent in, and they only went 30 percent in.
Tim Sperry:So if we go to a hundred, it's just going to stop.
Tim Sperry:And then it's just, you know, people are, well, what, what
Tim Sperry:happens to the concrete then?
Tim Sperry:Well, it serves its purpose.
Tim Sperry:It's still concrete.
Todd Miller:So what is your go to market strategy?
Todd Miller:How are you bringing this technology to market?
Todd Miller:It seems like, uh, such a vast market out there.
Todd Miller:I'm just kind of curious how you tackle that.
Tim Sperry:You really, really cognizant of the producers themselves, you know, a
Tim Sperry:producer that's been making concrete the same way for, uh, 20, 30, 50, 100 years
Tim Sperry:doesn't want to do new stuff, right?
Tim Sperry:So how do we integrate without, you know, changing that process with adding,
Tim Sperry:adding a whole bunch of new equipment?
Tim Sperry:And then also, how do we make them the heroes?
Tim Sperry:How do we help them, uh, from an adoption standpoint and benefit them?
Tim Sperry:So we've seen our pathways going the licensing path.
Tim Sperry:Uh, to actually license our formula to say, Hey, take material A, which is our
Tim Sperry:natural pozzolan that works this way and has this functionality and material
Tim Sperry:B, which is our catalyst and add them to the concrete and their specific
Tim Sperry:concrete at a certain dosage rate to create that carbon capturing effect.
Tim Sperry:So we work with them hand in hand to say, okay.
Tim Sperry:Here's how you can make CO2 absorbing and CO2 capturing concrete.
Tim Sperry:And then we in turn generate carbon credits every time they deploy a
Tim Sperry:cubic yard of concrete or build a road or a bridge or something else.
Tim Sperry:Uh, and then we share some of those proceeds as a revenue share for the
Tim Sperry:carbon credits, and those carbon credits are great for two reasons.
Tim Sperry:One, uh, carbon credit, uh, signifies a ton of CO2 that's
Tim Sperry:being captured, stored, or removed.
Tim Sperry:And two, uh, it's a third party, uh, quantification, and then you also then
Tim Sperry:can monetize those and sell them to your big tech companies, governments,
Tim Sperry:and, you know, financial institutions, investors, others that are buying
Tim Sperry:carbon credits for whatever purposes they have, reducing their carbon
Tim Sperry:footprint, or meeting ESG goals,
Todd Miller:So what do you figure ends up being the final cost to, uh, you
Todd Miller:know, however the concrete is being used?
Tim Sperry:So that's a really good question.
Tim Sperry:Everybody wants to be green and sustainable, but guess what?
Tim Sperry:No one wants to pay for it, right?
Tim Sperry:Absolutely.
Tim Sperry:Yeah.
Tim Sperry:And, you know, that was, uh, that was one of our biggest pieces with, all right,
Tim Sperry:how do we work out these financials?
Tim Sperry:How do we do the economics here where we can create either cost neutrality?
Tim Sperry:Or a slight green premium, or maybe even a green, uh, an actual financial return.
Tim Sperry:So in some instances, we're able to And for different products, maybe for a
Tim Sperry:concrete product, we have some precast companies that work with us to create
Tim Sperry:products, they can charge a green premium, or they can just charge the higher tier
Tim Sperry:of pricing because it's green, it's sustainable, it's capturing CO2, And
Tim Sperry:for them, it's easier to kind of chew on a little bit of cost, but for the mass
Tim Sperry:market, and for the ready mix market, which is the majority of what's being
Tim Sperry:deployed, we got to try to be really understanding and trying to be really
Tim Sperry:sensitive to those prices, at least today.
Tim Sperry:You know, there's a small percentage that will pay for more.
Tim Sperry:So our main, our main objective was, okay, well, how do we get
Tim Sperry:these materials cheap enough?
Tim Sperry:And then how do we get a value proposition of a carbon credit that might be able
Tim Sperry:to pay for those materials when we share those revenues to create the cost
Tim Sperry:neutrality, or there's some instances, uh, to your question about how does
Tim Sperry:it affect, you know, the concrete.
Tim Sperry:If it increases performance enough, you can actually take out some of the
Tim Sperry:cement to create a cost savings that counteracts that additional cost.
Tim Sperry:So those are kind of our pathways that that we've found successful.
Todd Miller:What are you seeing down the, the pike?
Todd Miller:I mean, I assume that you're seeing, you know, eventually mandates and
Todd Miller:things are going to really support what you're doing, uh, and encourage it.
Todd Miller:Um, can you talk to us a little bit about, you know, how, how you might
Todd Miller:see that playing out in future years?
Todd Miller:And maybe it's a crapshoot right now.
Todd Miller:I don't know, but, uh, what, what
Tim Sperry:are your thoughts there?
Tim Sperry:What I'm seeing more from my side of my perspective is there's a
Tim Sperry:huge customer driven demand, right?
Tim Sperry:Everyone wants more, and I'm sure you guys are seeing a little bit of this too,
Tim Sperry:you know, sustainable building materials, sustainable that, or more at least
Tim Sperry:transparency around, um, you know, an EPD, uh, an environmental product declaration.
Tim Sperry:So as the competitor A has a sustainable solution that maybe is more marketable
Tim Sperry:and giving them a leading edge for getting more business and winning
Tim Sperry:more bids, competitor B is looking for another solution or that solution also.
Tim Sperry:It's a great.
Tim Sperry:So we're seeing that competitive landscape actually creating some
Tim Sperry:opportunity for more adoption.
Tim Sperry:Uh, and then the carbon credit piece is big because you can quantifiably
Tim Sperry:convey an environmental attribute of, Hey, this concrete has 50 percent
Tim Sperry:less CO2 than traditional concrete.
Tim Sperry:It's great.
Tim Sperry:That's a good thing for everybody.
Tim Sperry:Um, so I think we're seeing, I think we're seeing that more than some of
Tim Sperry:the potential regulations and mandates.
Tim Sperry:And once those regulations and mandates come in, and I think there's
Tim Sperry:a little bit of a hold back for some of those regulations and mandates.
Tim Sperry:And I've seen some, some, some data on this, that there's just
Tim Sperry:not enough sustainable material to satisfy the whole of the concrete.
Tim Sperry:Let's say everyone wanted to go to fly ash and slag.
Tim Sperry:If the whole industry went to fly ash and slag to reduce 25 percent of
Tim Sperry:their carbon footprint, we'd run out of fly ash and we'd run out of slag.
Tim Sperry:Potentially.
Tim Sperry:So if that was the case, then you're mandating something that
Tim Sperry:couldn't effectively be done.
Tim Sperry:So you're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Tim Sperry:Gotcha.
Tim Sperry:So I think it's, it's getting there, but the solutions need to scale up.
Tim Sperry:And the other piece is how does ASTM and these other specification agencies, Keep
Tim Sperry:up with the rate of innovation, you know, they're generally not great at that.
Todd Miller:Yeah, yeah, you're right.
Todd Miller:That's all that all is a process and takes time.
Todd Miller:Very interesting.
Todd Miller:This is just a fascinating field that you get when you find yourself in and
Todd Miller:you're really, truly a pioneer kind of figuring out all the angles of this.
Todd Miller:So I'm impressed.
Todd Miller:Well.
Todd Miller:You've also introduced a product recently called CoolCrete, which I understand
Todd Miller:is a concrete additive that helps to enhance solar reflectance and emittance.
Todd Miller:Um, sounds pretty fascinating.
Todd Miller:Tell us a little bit about that as well.
Todd Miller:And I, I assume that just kind of rides right along with the carbon capture.
Tim Sperry:Uh, you're right.
Tim Sperry:And in fact, it does.
Tim Sperry:Uh, I would just call this the sister technology.
Tim Sperry:Really excited about CoolCrete because.
Tim Sperry:You know, today, this year, we've had the most 110 degrees plus
Tim Sperry:days in recorded human history.
Tim Sperry:We've also experienced the two hottest days in recorded human history as well.
Tim Sperry:Uh, back in July, which again, not, not good things, but as the world's
Tim Sperry:getting hotter, how do we adopt to some of these things to help us live better
Tim Sperry:lives and not have any issues with, you know, potentially heat related illnesses
Tim Sperry:and, you know, potentially worse.
Tim Sperry:So cool.
Tim Sperry:Crete was Made as a potential solution to urban heat island effect where
Tim Sperry:when you have a very densely populated area with a lot of concrete building
Tim Sperry:materials and it's a hot sunny day, those materials not being organic materials
Tim Sperry:are actually absorbing this heat and then radiating it out your downtown
Tim Sperry:where I am close to downtown Miami.
Tim Sperry:The city could be 10, 20 degrees hotter than ambient temperature
Tim Sperry:in the middle of the city.
Tim Sperry:So instead of 100 degree hot, humid day, which sucks down here, by the
Tim Sperry:way, been in South Florida this time of the year, um, it could be 110, 120.
Tim Sperry:And now that's not just uncomfortable, but it's potentially dangerous for us.
Tim Sperry:So with cool Crete, we're using, it's the first, first that we know of, uh, cement
Tim Sperry:replacement that replaces cement, lowering the carbon footprint 10, 20, 30, 40%.
Tim Sperry:And then it gives the concrete the properties of being highly reflective
Tim Sperry:to the sun and the UV coming down.
Tim Sperry:So it doesn't absorb that heat.
Tim Sperry:It doesn't radiate that heat.
Tim Sperry:It's more effective at releasing that heat.
Tim Sperry:And then the thermal admittance is.
Tim Sperry:How effectively does it minimize the amount of thermal conductivity,
Tim Sperry:the amount of heat that's radiated into a building or a home?
Tim Sperry:Let's say that this is on the outside of a building or a rooftop.
Tim Sperry:Now, why is that important and why I'm really excited about it?
Tim Sperry:Say you have a concrete roof in a commercial building, you
Tim Sperry:know, uh, retail or your house.
Tim Sperry:If you have a darker roof, if you have a roof that absorbs a lot of
Tim Sperry:heat and that transfers heat into your home, your air conditioning is
Tim Sperry:turning on more, more frequently to counteract that heat to keep it cooler.
Tim Sperry:You know, not great for the AC, can definitely burn them out faster.
Tim Sperry:On top of that, it's not great for your electric bill.
Tim Sperry:So let's say you're increasing your electricity bill 10, 20, 30,
Tim Sperry:40 percent because of this heat.
Tim Sperry:We could potentially be that solution to minimize that.
Tim Sperry:Uh, let's, you know, our, our, our results with one of our
Tim Sperry:partners that's launching concrete.
Tim Sperry:And I, that's why I'm talking about roots is a rooftop paver.
Tim Sperry:And their results from the control without our technology to the paper
Tim Sperry:with our technology is we're reducing about up to 10 to 11 degrees Celsius.
Tim Sperry:You're almost 20 degrees Fahrenheit there.
Tim Sperry:Every 1 degree Celsius that you could cool the interior of a building.
Tim Sperry:You could reduce 3 to 5 percent of your electricity bill for cooling.
Tim Sperry:And that's a, you know, a pretty significant number.
Tim Sperry:If, if that 10, 10 degrees Celsius translated directly into 10
Tim Sperry:degrees Celsius of cooling in your building, 30 to 50 percent of your
Tim Sperry:cooling bill would be reduced.
Tim Sperry:That's a big number and we can't make a claim because every roof, every
Tim Sperry:installation, every air conditioning, every property would be different.
Tim Sperry:So you have to really see, you know, what are those variables to determine how much
Tim Sperry:potential energy reduction we can achieve.
Tim Sperry:But the other big one is data centers.
Tim Sperry:Data centers are super energy hungry, and if you keep those
Tim Sperry:hot, they need to keep cooler.
Tim Sperry:We can cool those down.
Tim Sperry:We could put it on sidewalks.
Tim Sperry:You could put it in around roads.
Tim Sperry:It reduces the surface level temperature everywhere.
Todd Miller:Well, I love that.
Todd Miller:And of course, in the metal roofing industry, we've worked
Todd Miller:with that for a number of years.
Todd Miller:Also, in terms of coatings and things to make our products more reflective
Todd Miller:and emissive, we've worked with a lot with Florida Solar Energy Center
Todd Miller:there at UCF and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley
Todd Miller:National Lab as well, and a lot of great research being done into that area.
Todd Miller:Um, another area that we're seeing, and I'll just throw this
Todd Miller:out there, that a lot of work is being done is, um, thermal breaks.
Todd Miller:And so, you know, how can you include a thermal break in with a concrete
Todd Miller:product in order to help minimize that heat conduction as well?
Todd Miller:So cool stuff you're doing.
Todd Miller:Any thoughts on what might be next to your company for your company?
Todd Miller:You are, uh, uh, over.
Todd Miller:What do I say here?
Todd Miller:He's just really pushing the envelope in so many areas.
Tim Sperry:Yeah.
Tim Sperry:You know, um, if my team would let me, I would create nonstop.
Tim Sperry:Um, you know, I love coming up with these new inventions.
Tim Sperry:I have a bunch of them, but, you know, staying the path of, you know, keeping
Tim Sperry:my blinders on so we can really create a significant positive environmental impact.
Tim Sperry:And then we want to also inspire other companies and other founders, other
Tim Sperry:entrepreneurs and other inventors to create more solutions similar to this.
Tim Sperry:You know, I was just, we had a town hall for our company yesterday,
Tim Sperry:our first town hall for the year.
Tim Sperry:You know, I was saying at the end, look, if this was 10 years ago, Carbon Limit
Tim Sperry:would probably be a charity because companies like this just weren't really
Tim Sperry:a big deal back then they weren't really, you know, something that could create
Tim Sperry:massive wealth or had huge valuations because what we were doing was too
Tim Sperry:related on, you know, either credits or other things to actually create value.
Tim Sperry:Um, So for us, for what's next, it's really creating these meaningful and
Tim Sperry:these significant partnerships with the cement and concrete industry and the
Tim Sperry:producers and then also very large project developers, you know, working with data
Tim Sperry:centers, working with, um, and we're actually, you know, still in process,
Tim Sperry:but we've been in the Middle East quite a bit, uh, to work and try to find ways to
Tim Sperry:partner with some of these giga projects, which we're currently engaging with.
Tim Sperry:So just really excited about where we can go with this technology, how we can
Tim Sperry:help benefit not only ourselves and other concrete producers, but you know, the
Tim Sperry:society and the environment altogether.
Tim Sperry:Uh, so we just look for these win, win, win partnerships.
Tim Sperry:And, and we're really excited about it more so that, you know, when
Tim Sperry:we first started this company, um, back in 2021, Uh, when we did our
Tim Sperry:customer discovery, we were getting a bunch of, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tim Sperry:Like, sounds cool.
Tim Sperry:You know, no one cared.
Tim Sperry:Nobody cared.
Tim Sperry:And then October was the shift where the Global Cement and Concrete
Tim Sperry:Association said, okay, we're going to net zero and we're reducing 25
Tim Sperry:percent of carbon footprint by 2030.
Tim Sperry:That's tomorrow in that industry.
Tim Sperry:So all of a sudden, all those calls that were pretty cold called back to us
Tim Sperry:and they're, Hey, how about that stuff?
Tim Sperry:So, you know, the interest and the rate of adoption and just like the,
Tim Sperry:where the world is today is really exciting for a company like ours.
Tim Sperry:So it gives us a lot of validation.
Tim Sperry:It gives the team a lot of motivation.
Tim Sperry:And, you know, we surround ourselves with such amazing human beings that are
Tim Sperry:doing things that are helping not only.
Tim Sperry:You know, themselves, but their families, future generations in the world.
Tim Sperry:So it's, it's an exciting place for us.
Todd Miller:Well, I love the fact that you're that entrepreneur that
Todd Miller:is always pushing and want to be there developing and leading the way.
Todd Miller:And I know sometimes I can try that in our company and, um, people are like, um,
Todd Miller:yeah, Todd, but, uh, we're carnivores.
Todd Miller:We like to eat.
Todd Miller:So we also have to be doing what we're doing to eat every day as well.
Todd Miller:But, uh, no, that's great stuff.
Todd Miller:And I think that's how the advancements take places.
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Todd Miller:You got to have somebody that's driving those advancements and has that kind of,
Todd Miller:uh, curiosity, uh, to keep pushing ahead.
Todd Miller:So cool stuff.
Todd Miller:Well, um, Tim, that's been a great time talking to you.
Todd Miller:We're kind of close to wrapping up what we sort of call the business end of things.
Todd Miller:Is there anything we haven't covered today that you wanted to
Todd Miller:be sure to share with our audience?
Tim Sperry:Uh, no, I think, uh, this is a great conversation.
Tim Sperry:Always like to share and always like to find what's relatable and what's good
Tim Sperry:and what will help, you know, provide more education about what we're doing
Tim Sperry:because we're solving an invisible problem and, you know, it's, it's,
Tim Sperry:it's good to create that education.
Tim Sperry:So, uh, I really enjoyed the conversation.
Todd Miller:Great.
Todd Miller:Well, we have as well.
Todd Miller:Well, uh, we'd like to invite you to do something we invite every
Todd Miller:guest to do, which is what we call our rapid fire questions.
Todd Miller:Um, Tim, these are seven questions.
Todd Miller:They're going to be out of the blue.
Todd Miller:You have no idea what we're going to ask.
Todd Miller:Are you up to the challenge of rapid fire?
Todd Miller:I'm up to challenges, yes.
Todd Miller:Awesome.
Todd Miller:Well, we will alternate asking.
Todd Miller:Ethan, you want to ask question number one?
Ethan Young:Yeah, I can do the first one.
Ethan Young:What's a product or service that you've acquired recently that was
Ethan Young:like a real game changer for you?
Tim Sperry:Product or service that we've acquired as a company?
Ethan Young:Or you personally, either way.
Tim Sperry:So I think it was our, our CRM that we acquired because as we're
Tim Sperry:formalizing and going from startup to growth scale up mode, you know,
Tim Sperry:going from a very loosely held thing to like, Hey, we can see how actually
Tim Sperry:everything looks and where everything is.
Tim Sperry:That was, I think a huge, uh, a huge boost and a huge kind of evolution for us.
Tim Sperry:So.
Tim Sperry:It's called ClickUp and it was helping us with the CRM and kind
Tim Sperry:of connecting all of our teams.
Tim Sperry:Once, once we're bigger than fitting around a small
Tim Sperry:table, that was huge for us.
Ethan Young:Gotcha.
Ethan Young:Yeah.
Ethan Young:That definitely makes a big difference.
Ethan Young:You said that was QuickUp or ClickUp?
Tim Sperry:Uh, ClickUp.
Tim Sperry:Oh, okay.
Tim Sperry:Yeah.
Tim Sperry:Yeah.
Tim Sperry:And those can be like integrated into Salesforce and other things
Tim Sperry:that we're, we're now looking at too.
Tim Sperry:Yeah.
Todd Miller:Well, shout out to ClickUp and, uh, we'll include a lot of this
Todd Miller:stuff in the show notes as well for folks.
Todd Miller:So, um, question number two, if I asked the elementary school, Tim,
Todd Miller:what he wanted to be when he grew up, what would he have told me?
Tim Sperry:I always wanted to be an inventor.
Tim Sperry:I always invented things.
Tim Sperry:I even made like, uh, I made stuff when I was a kid.
Tim Sperry:So I always dreamed of really inventing things and then traveling a lot.
Tim Sperry:And I got both of those, but now I want to dial back that traveling a lot
Tim Sperry:part because I was traveling like every week and it was getting a little crazy.
Tim Sperry:So, uh, I, I was right on cue.
Ethan Young:That's awesome.
Ethan Young:Alrighty.
Ethan Young:Next question is kind of taking it the other direction, but what are
Ethan Young:your plans after you retire from working on, you know, All these
Ethan Young:energy saving technology and stuff.
Ethan Young:Are you going to kind of be a philanthropist still going after
Ethan Young:the same goals or you think something totally different?
Tim Sperry:Um right now I want to Be more on the philanthropist side as
Tim Sperry:well as on the creative platform for other technologies other inventors
Tim Sperry:Other potential businesses, you know, I've been through a lot of different
Tim Sperry:accelerators from tech stars to Google's climate change accelerators and a lot
Tim Sperry:of these other accelerators where they help these businesses become formal
Tim Sperry:businesses and actually go from, you know, napkin napkin sketch to actual
Tim Sperry:business model and financial model.
Tim Sperry:I'd love to help others to create these businesses and also, you know, um,
Tim Sperry:selfishly, I want a platform that's got all the elements around it that
Tim Sperry:could create all of my ideas and my inventions and rapid fire, rapid pace.
Tim Sperry:So I, I, I would love to just continue to help.
Tim Sperry:Other people achieve and realize their dreams and bring
Tim Sperry:other things to the world.
Tim Sperry:Uh, I call 'em society plus businesses.
Tim Sperry:Businesses that help society and that help the environment.
Tim Sperry:Something that's good for everybody.
Todd Miller:Yeah, I love it.
Todd Miller:Awesome.
Todd Miller:Question number four.
Todd Miller:Well, you said you've traveled a lot and you enjoyed that at
Todd Miller:least to a, to a certain extent.
Todd Miller:But do you still have a bucket list vacation out there, something
Todd Miller:you'd like to do someday?
Todd Miller:I'm a lot.
Todd Miller:Um,
Tim Sperry:yeah, a lot.
Tim Sperry:I want to go all over Asia.
Tim Sperry:Um, I haven't had a chance to do so much that, uh, specific locations
Tim Sperry:going into like Thailand, Hong Kong.
Tim Sperry:Um, I'm, I'm, I'm also more of a, even though I live in this
Tim Sperry:South Florida paradise and tropical area, like, I love it.
Tim Sperry:Like I love heat.
Tim Sperry:Um, I know they have this new thing that's called cool Cations where people
Tim Sperry:are going to like Copenhagen and cooler places because it's getting hotter.
Tim Sperry:I love the heat.
Tim Sperry:You know, so I love being in tropical places.
Tim Sperry:I'm from Southern California originally, so I also like to have
Tim Sperry:mountains in the background, which is the one thing that I'm missing here.
Tim Sperry:So places like that, Bora Bora, you know, cool spots like that, that I
Tim Sperry:haven't been to yet that I look to go to.
Ethan Young:Very
Tim Sperry:nice.
Ethan Young:Um, this next question, this one's always an interesting one for
Ethan Young:me to hear what people's answers are.
Ethan Young:But if you could instantly master any skill, what would that skill be?
Ethan Young:Speed reading.
Ethan Young:Mm, that's a useful one, yeah.
Ethan Young:I like
Tim Sperry:that.
Tim Sperry:Yeah, I, I love reading.
Tim Sperry:I, and when I say reading, I mean typically listening to books because
Tim Sperry:I just don't have enough time to read.
Tim Sperry:I listen to at least a book a week, sometimes two.
Tim Sperry:Uh, but if I could speed read as well, um, cause I listen to, I can speed
Tim Sperry:listen right now really well, but the speed reading I want to get done.
Todd Miller:Well, that said, I'm going to change what I
Todd Miller:planned for the next question.
Todd Miller:Um, what is a good book you've read or listened to recently that you
Todd Miller:would recommend to our audience?
Tim Sperry:Oh, I gave this out as our company Bible.
Tim Sperry:Um, you know, a couple of years back, uh, was Buddha and the
Tim Sperry:badass by vision Lafayette.
Tim Sperry:He's the founder of mind Valley and to have these really cool courses on, on
Tim Sperry:different parts of life and mastery.
Tim Sperry:And, uh, there's actually one by Jim quick, which is speed reading.
Tim Sperry:So I can get into that one too.
Tim Sperry:Um, so that one I, I think is usually good for a general audience
Tim Sperry:because it can apply to everyone.
Tim Sperry:It's, it's not a business book and it's called Buddha.
Tim Sperry:It is and it isn't a business book and it's kind of a personal
Tim Sperry:development book as well.
Tim Sperry:And it's Buddha and the Badass, but it's nothing to do with religion.
Tim Sperry:Um, so a really cool one that I, I, I'm always recommending
Tim Sperry:on a generalized basis.
Tim Sperry:Some of the books that I listen to are super crazy and unless you're
Tim Sperry:ready for it, you won't get it.
Todd Miller:Well, if you're that kind of volume of reading and listening
Todd Miller:to books, I understand that too.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Todd Miller:Well, Badass.
Todd Miller:I think I've heard of that, but I'm going to check it out.
Ethan Young:Thank you.
Ethan Young:Um, all right, last question.
Ethan Young:Um, what do you want to be remembered for at the end of your days?
Ethan Young:How
Tim Sperry:much impact and how many people I've helped.
Tim Sperry:You know, I, I, I love to, I love to do things that, that I can, you know,
Tim Sperry:help create with others and help others become the best version of themselves.
Tim Sperry:Um, and I just love having these great mutually beneficial relationships.
Tim Sperry:And, you know, sometimes it's more fulfilling just to give than it is to get.
Tim Sperry:Uh, so really that impact, um, and then how many people I've helped.
Todd Miller:Good answer.
Todd Miller:Well, Tim, this has been fantastic.
Todd Miller:Thank you again.
Todd Miller:For folks who would like to get in touch with you or perhaps learn
Todd Miller:more about Carbon Limit or, or Coolcrete, um, how can they do that?
Todd Miller:Give us some, uh, websites or whatever works.
Tim Sperry:Sure.
Tim Sperry:So I'm the worst social media person and maybe I shouldn't create a selfie.
Tim Sperry:The flame prophecy on that one, but I am sometimes on LinkedIn.
Tim Sperry:So if you want to try to reach me on LinkedIn, um, you can certainly find
Tim Sperry:me, Tim Sperry, uh, carbon limit.
Tim Sperry:And, uh, there's also carbon limit.
Tim Sperry:com and with carbon limit.
Tim Sperry:com, you can look at capture, create our CO2 capturing
Tim Sperry:concrete as well as cool create.
Tim Sperry:Uh, and that's, that's, that's generally the best way to catch me or
Tim Sperry:to learn a little bit more about us.
Todd Miller:Very good.
Todd Miller:Well, um, so our audience knows, I think we were all successful
Todd Miller:working in our challenge boards.
Todd Miller:Ethan, your word was?
Todd Miller:Mine was philanthropist.
Todd Miller:You got it
Ethan Young:in there in your question.
Ethan Young:Good job.
Ethan Young:I did.
Ethan Young:I modified one of the questions.
Ethan Young:That's usually my trick if I can't find another spot.
Ethan Young:So.
Ethan Young:And Tim, your word was?
Tim Sperry:Zoology.
Tim Sperry:And I got it in like, My first, uh, little spit.
Tim Sperry:So, so
Todd Miller:what was it like taking a zoology class?
Todd Miller:Did you enjoy that?
Tim Sperry:Uh, you know, I actually did take the class.
Tim Sperry:I didn't just make that up to fit the word in there, but yeah, it was good.
Tim Sperry:It was, it was, um, it was my first year at University of Wisconsin
Tim Sperry:Madison and it was interesting.
Tim Sperry:So, uh, I really, I really enjoyed the college experience, um, at that point.
Tim Sperry:So I had some really interesting classes.
Tim Sperry:The one that always sticks out to me is called the brain demystified.
Tim Sperry:And the first day of class, they had a 3d projector that they had a real
Tim Sperry:live human brain on and they cut it up.
Tim Sperry:And I was like, wow, this is cool.
Tim Sperry:It was the first day of class.
Tim Sperry:So, and I think that was right after my zoology class.
Tim Sperry:So it's why it stuck out so much.
Todd Miller:Good stuff.
Todd Miller:Well, the word I had was carnivore, which I kind of worked in
Todd Miller:awkwardly, but I got it in there.
Todd Miller:So it
Ethan Young:worked.
Ethan Young:Yeah.
Todd Miller:Well, thank you again, Tim.
Todd Miller:That's been great.
Todd Miller:Thank you for being on the show.
Todd Miller:Yeah.
Todd Miller:It's been a pleasure.
Todd Miller:Really great to be on with you guys.
Todd Miller:And thank you to our audience for tuning into this very special
Todd Miller:episode of Construction Disruption with Tim Sperry of Carbon Limit.
Todd Miller:Please watch for future episodes of our podcast.
Todd Miller:Uh, we always have great guests.
Todd Miller:Don't forget to leave a review or give us a thumbs up, whatever's appropriate.
Todd Miller:Until the next time we're together, though, keep on disrupting and
Todd Miller:challenging, looking for better solutions.
Todd Miller:Better ways to doing things.
Todd Miller:And don't forget to have a positive impact on everyone that you encounter.
Todd Miller:So God bless and take care.
Todd Miller:This is Isaiah industry signing off until the next episode
Todd Miller:of construction disruption.
Intro:This podcast is produced by Isaiah industries, manufacturer of specialty
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