[Climate Tech Heat ①] Ribbit Helps Companies Precisely Measure and Reduce Carbon Emissions

Development of AI-Based Carbon Neutral Support Platform for Enterprises

The Basic Act on Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth for Climate Crisis Response (Carbon Neutrality Basic Act) requires companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions, reduction achievements, and reduction plans. Although the provisions are simple, the reality is complex. Even for large construction companies, emission sources are scattered across more than 100 sites, and various fuels such as kerosene and gas are used depending on the season. Before planning carbon reduction, it is not easy to even identify how much carbon is being emitted. Ribbit is a startup that solves this problem.

On the 3rd, Jeongmin Lee, CEO of Ribbit, said, "The core of our solution is simplifying the collection of activity data and presenting customized reduction strategies to help companies achieve carbon neutrality." Founded by CEO Lee in January 2022, Ribbit is currently a startup composed of 10 members. It provides a Software as a Service (SaaS) carbon emission management solution called ‘Tansolution’ targeting manufacturing and construction industries. Tansolution, based on artificial intelligence (AI), enables companies to easily identify their carbon emissions. CEO Lee explained, "We automatically collect and process energy usage and activity data generated from various emission sources within a company to measure carbon emissions."

Lee Jung-min, CEO of Ribbit, is explaining the carbon emission management solution targeted at the manufacturing and construction industries.

Although the explanation is simple, implementing this requires differentiated technological capabilities. This is because emission sources vary greatly by industry and company. For example, IT companies’ biggest emission source may be electricity usage, while for bus companies it may be diesel. Ribbit developed a carbon accounting engine targeting challenging industries. The method of obtaining emission data is not the traditional way of having managers input data manually or installing Internet of Things (IoT) metering devices. Instead, it applies a software method that pulls data from suppliers, saving time and costs.

CEO Lee, who worked at LG Electronics’ Software Research Lab in Silicon Valley, has analyzed regulatory markets related to carbon emissions worldwide. Many companies receive consulting on carbon emissions, but when regulations change and disclosure standards are updated, they have to request consulting again. Costs inevitably increase each time. Developing systems internally or hiring staff to manage them also entails cost burdens. CEO Lee said, "Because regulations are unstable and frequently updated, there was high demand for support that automatically reflects these changes."

This is also why Ribbit developed a function to generate reports in accordance with current regulations. CEO Lee said, "We made it so that practitioners preparing reports in response to regulations can use the solution without worrying whether the latest standards are reflected." Additionally, if there is a carbon reduction target, Ribbit can suggest ways to achieve it. If there are plans to introduce related facilities, simulations can show the costs and amount of carbon reduction.

With this technological capability, Ribbit has recently emerged as one of the most notable startups in the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) field. In January this year, it was selected for the nurturing program of SparkLabs, an accelerator specializing in early-stage startups, beating a competition ratio of 62 to 1. It also received the Director’s Award from the Small and Medium Business Corporation as an outstanding graduate of the Youth Startup Academy.

Ribbit’s primary target is medium-sized and larger companies and public institutions. Its solution is used by companies such as Bando Construction, Grand Korea Leisure, and the Korea Water Resources Corporation. Recently, it worked with Hoban Construction to build a ‘Construction Site Greenhouse Gas Inventory’ in preparation for the construction industry’s greenhouse gas target management system. In the future, Ribbit plans to expand its customer base to small and medium-sized enterprises as well.

There is a prerequisite to this. CEO Lee said, "We provided a free version mainly to small and medium-sized enterprises supplying to large companies, but often there was no data at all. Many places do not use management systems like ERP, so a lot of data is lost. Digitizing activity data to estimate carbon emissions is the first task to solve." She explained that systematic management is necessary to apply automatic solutions and achieve reductions. CEO Lee added, "We are looking for ways to support small and medium-sized enterprises in managing data and to offer solutions at reasonable costs."

Editor's NoteThe ‘Carbon War’ has begun. Our economy has been thrown into the battlefield of technological innovation to respond to carbon neutrality, which must be achieved by 2050 in the long term, and more immediately, to the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), an essential requirement for EU exports. The amount of carbon emissions reducible with currently commercialized technology is less than half of the expected global emissions in 2050. Rapid and bold climate tech innovation is urgently needed. Here, we share the stories of those who have stepped forward to meet this challenge.