Today’s guest is Rachel Delacour, co-founder and CEO of Sweep.
Carbon accounting helps organizations measure their emissions so they can understand their overall footprint, share findings, and plan future reductions. Sweep’s business intelligence tools specialize in using data to map a company’s carbon emissions and helping them realize feasible goals while managing future growth. In doing so, Sweep is shifting the way companies view carbon from a limitation to a creative force for innovation.
Rachel has a background in business intelligence, having sold her previous startup to Zendesk, and she felt that she could best contribute to the climate problem by leveraging the skills and expertise she and her team already had around data management, modeling, and forecasting. Sweep recently announced a sizable Series B in funding led by Coatue, and they've raised over a hundred million dollars in aggregate in a little less than two years.
In this conversation, Cody and Rachel discuss her journey, how Sweep views the market need, how companies source scope 3 emissions data, the potential role of regulation and carbon reporting, and whether or not recommending offsets or contributions creates any incentives. Rachel’s story is great for people looking to make the transition, but not quite sure where to start.
In this episode, we cover:
[2:27] Rachel's financial background and climate journey
[8:51] How she took existing skills and applied them to carbon
[18:14] Sweep's approach to building a diverse team of experts from the carbon, tech, and political backgrounds
[24:19] Rachel's views of carbon accounting vs. carbon management
[29:15] An overview of scope 3 emissions
[33:09] How companies are accessing accurate emissions data
[38:32] The role of carbon management platforms in accelerating regulations
[41:17] Sweep's success with companies so far
[44:27] Future targets vs short-term reality in emissions reductions
[48:59] Rachel's interactions with sustainability teams and financial directors
[56:29] Where global climate justice fits into Sweep's solution
[1:01:19] How Sweep balances customer reductions and credits
[1:05:02] What's next for Rachel and Sweep
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Episode recorded on September 7, 2022.
Carbon management with Sweep