Why Different Industries Keep Running Into The Same Problem
At first glance, these industries appear to have very little in common:
🏗️ Construction Materials
✈️ Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)
🏭 Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS)
🔋 Batteries
🏭 Steel
🚢 Maritime Fuels
Yet, after working across several of these sectors, I keep encountering remarkably similar conversations.
The discussions often start differently:
“We need lower embodied carbon in construction.”
“We need to accelerate SAF adoption.”
“We need to commercialise CCS.”
“We need to scale green shipping corridors.”
“We need to enable responsible battery value chains.”
But eventually, the same questions emerge.
💰 Who pays?
📊 How do we measure the impact?
🔗 How do we connect supply with demand?
💵 How do we handle green premium pricing?
🤝 How do we create buyer confidence?
🔄 How do we prevent double counting?
🌱 How do we incentivize creation of and monetise low carbon materials / fuels?
🏦 How do we finance the transition?
In other words, the challenge is no longer purely technological.
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹.
The technologies themselves may differ.
✈️ SAF reduces emissions in aviation.
🏭 CCS addresses hard-to-abate industrial sectors.
🏗️ Low-carbon materials reduce embodied emissions.
🚢 Clean fuels support maritime decarbonisation.
🔋 Battery ecosystems enable electrification.
Yet scaling these solutions requires remarkably similar capabilities:
📊 Trusted carbon information
📦 Traceability and provenance
🛒 Demand creation mechanisms
📝 Commercial frameworks, pricing and contracts
🏦 Financing and investment confidence
🔄 Environmental attribute management
This may explain why progress can sometimes feel slower than expected.
The bottleneck is not always the availability of technology.
It is often the absence of the supporting infrastructures that allow technologies to scale.
Historically, successful industries rarely evolved in isolation.
🚗 Automotive industries required roads, standards and financing.
💳 Digital commerce required payment systems and trust mechanisms.
🚢 Global trade required ports, insurance and logistics networks.
Industrial decarbonisation may be entering a similar phase.
Perhaps the question is no longer:
“𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝗻?”
Perhaps the more important question is:
“𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗿𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲?”
Because whether we are discussing SAF, CCS, batteries, steel, maritime fuels or construction materials, I increasingly believe that the underlying challenge is remarkably similar.
The technologies may differ.
But the infrastructure challenge remains surprisingly consistent.