I just learned something fascinating.  Not the most profound post, but who knew that Colorado has an advantage for fulfilling houses to ship products?  Sure, we know that Colorado is sort of in the middle of the country so maybe companies would want to ship from here to both coasts, but actually, that’s not exactly right.  There’s something I learned during my episode with Irene Scharmack of QuickBox that makes shipping from Colorado to both coasts CHEAPER. It’s called “Zone Skipping.”  Here’s what happens… 

Big freight companies like FedEx and UPS, and others you and I wouldn’t know, charge “by zone” to ship.  From Denver to a coast might require crossing two or three zones and shipping fees would reflect that. To reduce those costs, trucks are loaded late in the day from Denver, some heading west, some east, and travel through the night to bypass one or more zones.  In the morning at a distribution point, packages are sorted and continue on their way. Another fascinating way for Colorado to thrive! 

image from Travertine homepage

After writing this post in the last newsletter, I’m now tweaking it a bit and sharing again because I’ve just released the episode recorded with Laura Lammers, PhD – founder and CEO of Travertine, a company that is capturing CO2 from industrial processes and permanently sequestering it – through chemistry – into minerals used in products like concrete – so amazing! (see episode notes and link above)  I mentioned a pattern: that recent ProCO360 episodes feature Longpath (“Flattening the Climate Change Curve”), and Carbon America (“Putting Carbon 1 Mile Deep in Colorado”).  I was this week listening to an episode of the “Acquired” podcast (see below), and the hosts sung the praises of their sponsor, Crusoe.  Wow!  Crusoe CEO Chase Lochmiller was my guest on episode 97, “Turning Gas to Bitcoin!”   

Repeating my last post: many people and industries remain slow to change fossil fuel usage – most climate scientists believe too slow.  It’s exciting to see Colorado businesses developing and scaling innovative science, and partnering with key industries like steel, oil & gas, and concrete, to massively combat climate change.  Want to feel hopeful?  Listen to the episodes listed above!