Healthy Spaces

How do we decarbonize the chain that keeps the world's food fresh?   Fresh food can travel for days or weeks, moving through farms, warehouses, ships, trucks, supermarkets and finally our homes. Much of it has to stay at the right temperature the whole way to stay safe to eat. That network of refrigerated storage and transport is the cold chain. It runs almost entirely on diesel, and demand for it keeps growing.   Dr Liz Goodwin, Director of Food Loss and Waste at the World Resources Institute, sets the scale of the problem. Up to 40% of the food the world produces is lost or wasted. She explains why adding more refrigeration can't fix that on its own: a cold chain only works where there are formal markets, real demand and the skills to run it. Her point frames the rest of the episode. Better refrigeration matters, but only as part of a wider system.   Then Claudio Zanframundo, President of Thermo King EMEA & APAC, takes us inside the technology that keeps the cold chain moving. He explains why maintaining temperature across a long, multi-stage journey is so difficult, and how digital tracking and AI now help operators protect the load and run more efficiently. He describes how energy recovery captures power a moving trailer would otherwise lose and uses it to run the refrigeration. He looks at what EU decarbonization targets ask of the industry, and whether today's technology can meet them. And he closes on what it takes beyond the equipment to keep a cold chain running: service, infrastructure and skilled people.   Together, Liz and Claudio make the case that the biggest gains are in what the system already holds: the food it loses and the energy it wastes. Recovering those, with the right regulation and the people to run the network, is how the cold chain grows and gets cleaner at the same time.   >>> Watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3dsfSnD2Q-g   EPISODE CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction - The hidden chapter from farm to table 01:07 How large is the food waste problem? 03:17 Why more cold chain isn’t always the answer 05:01 Why households are a major source of food waste 08:13 What COVID taught us about reducing 10:13 Building a sustainable food system takes everyone 12:58 Why refrigeration alone isn’t enough 14:00 The complexity of the food chain 18:50 How digital tracking reduces waste 20:53 Where AI fits into the cold chain 23:43 Recovering otherwise wasted energy 30:54 Transforming the cold chain as a system   LEARN MORE Sustainability Reports | Trane Technologies [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/sustainability/sustainability-reports.html] The Global Benefits of Reducing Food Waste — and How to Do It | World Resources Institute [https://www.wri.org/insights/reducing-food-loss-and-food-waste] Mitigating Food Loss | Trane Technologies [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/sustainability-leadership/mitigating-food-loss-with-a-smarter-cold-chain.html] World Resources Institute [https://www.wri.org/]   Scott Tew [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/scott-tew.html] Dominique Silva [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/dominique-silva.html] Dr. Liz Goodwin OBE [https://www.wri.org/profile/liz-goodwin] Claudio Zanframundo [https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudio-zanframundo-13101975-/]   ABOUT HEALTHY SPACES Healthy Spaces, a podcast by Trane Technologies, brings together engineers, innovators, and industry leaders for bold conversations at the frontier of sustainable technology.   In Season 6, we zero in on the moment when innovation becomes infrastructure - when breakthroughs move beyond the lab and start transforming industries.   From pioneering AI research and next-generation data center cooling, to climate-resilient cities and pathways to decarbonization, each episode explores the innovations at the cutting-edge of sustainable technology.   Designed for leaders, builders, and anyone with a stake in the future of sustainable technology, the series offers a front-row seat to the ideas and innovations shaping what comes next.   The challenges are real. The solutions are being built now.

How do you build AI that can be trusted in the real world?   For AI to move from research into practical applications, the lab and the field need to work together. Real-world deployment creates new insights for researchers, while research and testing help strengthen the technologies being put to work. In this episode, we explore how that continuous feedback loop can make trust a foundation for responsible AI development and deployment.   We hear from Foutse Khomh, Vice President of Research and Innovation, Polytechnique Montréal, about what it takes to build trustworthy AI. He explores how researchers and industry can work together to understand how AI systems behave, identify their limitations, test them in realistic conditions, and develop the safeguards and controls needed for reliable deployment. He explains why ongoing collaboration between the lab and the field is essential to continually improving AI systems.   Riaz Raihan, Chief Digital Officer at Trane Technologies, takes us inside the BrainBox AI Trane Technologies AI Lab in Montreal, where researchers, engineers, product managers and building experts are developing practical AI applications for the HVAC industry. He discusses how the AI Lab connects research with real-world deployment, from autonomous building controls to new approaches to optimizing chilled-water systems, and how Trane approaches trust through security by design, compliance and partnerships. Together, they show how the ongoing exchange between research and real-world application can help build AI that is trustworthy, responsible, and capable of delivering measurable value.   EPISODE CHAPTERS   00:00 Introduction - Building trust in AI  01:00 What makes AI trustworthy?  02:15 Understanding AI’s weaknesses  03:45 Testing AI for the real world  05:48 Building trust without overtrusting AI  07:45 The Swiss cheese approach to trustworthy AI  09:06 Why the lab and field need each other  12:15 Inside the BrainBox AI Trane Technologies AI Lab  15:09 From research to real-world products  16:00 Inside the AI Lab: From Aria to autonomous controls  18:45 Bringing AI to the water side of HVAC  20:18 The triangle of trust  21:51 What makes AI commercially successful?  23:57 Can AI solve the problems it creates?  27:00 From research to real-world impact   > Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/3O_pCe0bTjY?si=5tbEfxaPWEdkgZxW    LEARN MORE Trane Technologies Website [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/]  Scott Tew [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/scott-tew.html]  Dominique Silva [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/dominique-silva.html]  Riaz Raihan [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/company/leadership/riaz-raihan.html] Foutse Khomh [https://www.polymtl.ca/expertises/en/khomh-foutse]    ABOUT HEALTHY SPACES Healthy Spaces, a podcast by Trane Technologies, brings together engineers, innovators, and industry leaders for bold conversations at the frontier of sustainable technology.   In Season 6, we zero in on the moment when innovation becomes infrastructure - when breakthroughs move beyond the lab and start transforming industries.   From pioneering AI research and next-generation data center cooling to climate-resilient cities and pathways to decarbonization, each episode explores the innovations at the cutting-edge of sustainable technology.   Designed for leaders, builders, and anyone with a stake in the future of sustainable technology, the series offers a front-row seat to the ideas and innovations shaping what comes next.   The challenges are real. The solutions are being built now.

How do you engineer data center cooling infrastructure, when AI capacity is constantly evolving?   AI is transforming the technology inside data centers at an extraordinary pace, but the infrastructure that it relies on is built to last for decades. As demand for AI continues to grow, so do compute requirements and heat generation, creating new challenges, and opportunities, around how teams design, power and cool data centers sustainably.   In this episode, we hear from Oakley Roberts, President of Data Centers at Trane Technologies, discussing the shifting engineering and technology landscape. He explores how teams build data center infrastructure for changing needs by adapting cooling systems to different climates, balancing liquid and air cooling, reducing water use, and designing modular systems.   Michael Winterson, Secretary General of the European Data Centre Association, expands the conversation to the broader infrastructure and policy picture. He discusses Europe's ambitious plans to expand data center capacity and the questions that growth raises around grid capacity, energy, regulation and decarbonization. Michael explores what it will take to support that expansion, and how policy and infrastructure will need to evolve alongside it.   Together, they reveal a bigger shift in how we think about data center infrastructure. The future isn’t just about building more of the same or pushing for more technology and standardization. It’s about balancing repeatability and flexibility and designing smarter systems that can be deployed at speed, while adapting to changing technologies, local environments, and the broader systems around them.   EPISODE CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction - Why the era of the standard data center is over 01:03 Engineering flexibility 03:26 How AI is changing data center cooling 06:45 Rethinking data center water usage 08:00 Designing now for an uncertain future 10:28 Can policy keep up with data center growth? 11:36 Europe’s ambitions for the Digital Decade 13:12 Why Europe needs more computing 14:29 What’s holding back data center sustainability 15:43 Keeping flexibility while implementing standardization 19:52 How data center innovation benefits the whole economy 26:03 The race for speed, modularity, and adaptability   > Watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/E1Jhz6263xc?si=jFwNDxp2WIKJAkvkLEARN MORE Trane Technologies Blog – What is Data Centre Cooling? [https://tinyurl.com/DataCentreCooling] Trane Technologies Blog – Infomaniak Data Center Heat Recovery [https://tinyurl.com/InfomaniakDataCenter] EUDCA Website [https://www.eudca.org/]   Trane Technologies Website [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/] Scott Tew [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/scott-tew.html] Dominique Silva [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/dominique-silva.html] Oakley Roberts [https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/oakley-roberts.html] Michael Winterson [https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelwinterson]   ABOUT HEALTHY SPACES Healthy Spaces, a podcast by Trane Technologies, brings together engineers, innovators, and industry leaders for bold conversations at the frontier of sustainable technology.   In Season 6, we zero in on the moment when innovation becomes infrastructure - when breakthroughs move beyond the lab and start transforming industries. From pioneering AI research and next-generation data center cooling to climate-resilient cities and pathways to decarbonization, each episode explores the innovations at the cutting-edge of sustainable technology.   Designed for leaders, builders, and anyone with a stake in the future of sustainable technology, the series offers a front-row seat to the ideas and innovations shaping what comes next.   The challenges are real. The solutions are being built now. 

At Climate Week NYC 2025, the message was clear: progress on sustainability happens when industries come together. From data to construction to commercial real estate, collaboration and innovation are turning ambition into action. In this special episode, recorded live at Trane Technologies’ “Spilling the Tea” panel discussion during Climate Week NYC, we sit down with three leaders driving real change: Holly Paeper, President, Commercial HVAC Americas at Trane Technologies; Julia Gisewite, Chief Sustainability Officer at Turner Construction Company; and Suzanne Fallender, Vice President of Global Impact & Sustainability at Prologis. They share how their organizations are accelerating decarbonization across the built environment - from low-carbon materials and circular energy systems to data-driven decision-making and community impact. Together, they reveal why the future of sustainable business depends on shared goals, transparent collaboration, and a willingness to rethink what growth really means. About Healthy Spaces Healthy Spaces is a podcast by Trane Technologies where experts and disruptors explore how climate technology and innovation are transforming the spaces where we live, work, learn and play.  This season, hosts Dominique Silva and Scott Tew bring a fresh batch of uplifting stories, featuring inspiring people who are overcoming challenges to drive positive change across multiple industries. We’ll discover how technology and AI can drive business growth, and help the planet breathe a little bit easier.  Listen and subscribe to Healthy Spaces on your favorite podcast platforms. Links: Trane Technologies at Climate Week 2025 (https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/news/events/climate-week-2025.html) Sustainability for Growth - Blog (https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/sustainability-leadership/sustainability-for-growth.html) How AI Can Help Dramatically Reduce Energy Demand and Emissions - Blog (https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/solutions-innovation/how-ai-can-help-dramatically-reduce-energy-demand-and-emissions.html) Driving Business Value: Embracing Circularity (https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/sustainability-leadership/driving-business-value-embracing-circularity.html) Trane Technologies at COP30 (https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/news/events/cop30.html)  Trane Technologies Website (https://www.tranetechnologies.com/) Healthy Spaces YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTCDWAdM6KUyuXAqNtodPqFrZGNTrE8bI)  Dominique Silva Profile (https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/dominique-silva.html) Scott Tew Profile (https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/scott-tew.html) Holly Paeper Profile (https://www.tranetechnologies.com/en/index/blog/author/holly-paeper.html)  Julia Gisewhite LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-gisewite-4914576/) Suzanne Fallender LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-fallender/) Michelle Li LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelleliclimate/) 

The world is waking up to a new reality: recycling alone won’t fix our waste problem. To build a truly sustainable future, we need to go circular - rethinking how we design, use, and recover the materials that shape our lives. We can beat the endless downcycle by designing smarter, innovating materials, and even dreaming up new consumption models. This isn’t recycling 2.0. It’s the blueprint for a new economy, one that preserves value, reduces strain on natural resources, and transforms waste into opportunity. In this episode, hosts Scott Tew and Dominique Silva are joined by Jenelle Shapiro, Circularity Leader at Trane Technologies; Julia Gisewite, Chief Sustainability Officer, and Nelson Russom, Waste and Circularity Program Manager, both at Turner Construction Company. Together, they explore how circular design is reshaping everything from manufacturing and supply chains to construction and end-of-life recovery, and why collaboration and innovation are key to keeping materials in play, not throwing them away. About Healthy Spaces Healthy Spaces is a podcast by Trane Technologies where experts and disruptors explore how climate technology and innovation are transforming the spaces where we live, work, learn, and play.  This season, hosts Dominique Silva and Scott Tew bring a fresh batch of uplifting stories, featuring inspiring people who are overcoming challenges to drive positive change across multiple industries. We’ll discover how technology and AI can drive business growth and help the planet breathe a little bit easier.  Listen and subscribe to Healthy Spaces on your favorite podcast platforms. Closing the Loop with Circularity: Zero Waste to Landfill - Blog  Remanufacture and Repair: A Decarbonization Accelerator - Blog  Circularity in Action: Decarbonization for Refrigerated Transport - Blog  Maintain, Prolong, Share: A Circular Blueprint for Decarbonization - Blog   Trane Technologies Website Healthy Spaces YouTube  Dominique Silva Profile Scott Tew Profile Jenelle Shapiro Profile Julia Gisewhite Profile Nelson Russom Profile