This week is the second half of our mini-series on the two major levers to reduce the impact of climate change. Last week, we covered Carbon Removal with Nan Ransohoff. Today we're focused on Carbon Reduction. To break down the business of decarbonization, I'm joined by Christian Anderson. Christian is the co-founder of Watershed, which helps companies like Monzo, Spotify, and Walmart measure, report, and act on their emissions. We discuss the impact on financial statements, why debt financing is key, and why people say no to climate programs. Please enjoy this breakdown. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.   -----   Business Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Business Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @JoinColossus | @patrick_oshag | @jspujji | @zbfuss | @ReustleMatt   Show Notes [00:02:14] - [First question] - Climate change as a result of the inertia of capital [00:03:44] - Financing a capital stock transformation for decarbonization [00:05:22] - Decreasing dependence on legacy tech to mitigate humankind’s energy debt [00:08:32] - System of incentives to use and invest in clean technology [00:10:59] - Banks and debt financiers getting into the climate effort [00:12:46] - How Watershed’s individual corporate customers approach decarbonization [00:15:30] - Complexity and recent progress to decarbonize industry [00:18:25] - How more effective energy will accelerate the decarbonization of supply chains [00:20:58] - Surprising cost curves for various clean energy processes [00:24:16] - Energy solutions for the most energy-intensive applications [00:26:44] - The impact on corporations’ balance sheets and stakeholders [00:29:49] - Why sophisticated companies are needed to drive the decarbonization transition [00:31:46] - How companies measure and then modify their carbon footprints [00:35:00] - Companies getting serious about climate issues in the past year [00:37:29] - Capital flowing to tech niches and the problem of infrastructure regulation [00:40:35] - Digital tools for decarbonization projects [00:42:43] - How new businesses approach the climate issue from inception [00:44:39] - Structure of Watershed’s buyers [00:46:53] - Why people and businesses say no to Watershed [00:48:55] - Perspectives across Watershed’s global markets  [00:51:36] - The most worrisome aspects of the climate crisis [00:53:26] - Simplicity in the complex domain of climate change [00:54:39] - The overall sentiment toward the climate movement  [00:57:37] - Forces that antagonize the climate movement [00:59:25] - An exemplary case study of Apple’s climate work

Today, we are running a bonus Business Breakdown borrowed from the newest Colossus series, Return on India. Saahil Goel, founder of Shiprocket, joins Romeen Sheth to break down the business. If you enjoy this episode and would like to learn more about the Indian business landscape, subscribe to Return on India.   ----- My guest today is Saahil Goel, founder and CEO of Shiprocket. Over the last decade, a number of startups that have reached escape velocity in India have followed the X for Y startup model. They've taken influence from something that works in the US and western markets and applied it to India. The next generation of winners will build Native India use cases, and Shiprocket is a perfect example. The business started out as Shopify for India and eventually pivoted to an e-commerce logistics aggregator when they realized the underlying infrastructure that made Shopify successful in the west didn't exist in India. Fast forward, and Shiprocket is one of the fastest-growing and most well-positioned technology companies in India today. We unpack how to build for India, from India, how to capture value from India's long tail merchant segment, which is over 60 million businesses, and the common headline pitfalls investors fall into when evaluating startups in India. Please enjoy my conversation with Saahil Goel.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.   -----   Return On India is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Return On India, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @RomeenSheth | @joincolossus   Show Notes [00:02:47] - [First question] - The first iteration of Shiprocket back in 2012 called KartRocket [00:08:26] - What drove the pivot from KartRocket to Shiprocket [00:12:13] - Examples of why US eCommerce models just don’t take off in India  [00:19:28] - The challenges of building businesses for consumers outside of India [00:25:54] - Courrier aggregation and capturing value in this type of business model  [00:31:22] - Why the large pre-existing couriers aren’t attacking this space successfully  [00:34:35] - Unpacking what RTO is and its scale and challenges specifically in India  [00:39:56] - How software and intelligence drives the ability to know the consumer in a way that larger infrastructure and couriers can’t in India  [00:43:31] - Similarities between the rise of Shiprocket and the prior evolution of the Chinese eCommerce and tech ecosystems    [00:46:59] - The next pieces that need to be built for Shiprocket for them to continue growing and succeeding at the rate they are [00:53:07] - The tension of vertical integration without building out capital-intensive infrastructure  [00:55:53] - Thoughts about the opportunity set for India going forward