Geothermal should be an easy sell. It is quiet, efficient, comfortable, and cheap to run once installed. The problem has been the upfront cost of putting it in the ground.

Dandelion spent years proving residential geothermal could work house by house. Now CEO Dan Yates is taking it into new home construction, where whole developments can be built with geothermal from the start.

Dandelion’s partnership with Lennar in Colorado puts geothermal into 1,500 homes. Not luxury homes — starter homes, entry-level homes, homes for everyday Americans. At that scale, the cost to a builder can compete with conventional HVAC. In some cases, it can beat it.

New federal tax rules also opened the door to geothermal leasing, turning a large upfront expense into a small monthly payment for homebuyers.

In this episode, Dan explains why new home tours now start in the basement and how Dandelion is bringing geothermal into the mainstream.

Show Notes

Guest: Dan Yates, CEO

Company: Dandelion Energy

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Americans think they recycle. Mostly, we don’t. More than half of all recyclable materials never reach a recycling bin. They go straight into the garbage, where the waste industry has historically had little economic incentive — and limited technology — to recover them.

Matanya Horowitz founded AMP to build AI-powered robots that sort cans, bottles, and other valuable materials in recycling facilities, eventually deploying hundreds of robots across the country.

Now AMP is building AI-powered mixed waste facilities — the modern version of what the industry calls dirty MRFs — that sort valuable materials directly out of the garbage stream. Trash moves down a conveyor belt, drops into what Matanya calls a “garbage waterfall,” and air jets fire in milliseconds to knock milk jugs, aluminum cans, and other materials onto separate conveyors.

In this episode, Matanya explains why traditional recycling economics are broken, why the waste industry gave up on dirty MRFs decades ago, and how AMP’s full-scale facility in southeastern Virginia points to a different future: a recycling system that doesn’t require a recycling bin.

Show Notes

Guest: Matanya Horowitz, Founder & CTO

Company: AMP

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Cow burps are one of climate’s strangest and most stubborn problems. Methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, and cattle are responsible for about 30 percent of global methane emissions. For years, the basic answer has been: eat less beef and drink less milk.

Kathryn Polkoff, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Hoofprint Biome, thinks there is a better way. Hoofprint uses natural enzymes to reshape the cow’s rumen microbiome, cutting methane production while boosting dairy milk yield and beef cattle weight gain. No harsh chemical feed additives. Just a solution that helps farmers produce more with less methane.

In Supercool’s first live recording, Josh talks with Kathryn at Raleigh-Durham Startup Week’s inaugural Climate Tech Day about cow burps, commercializing agricultural climate tech, and why Hoofprint could not exist without AI. It is a climate story about biology, business, and turning wasted energy into value.

Show Notes

Guest: Kathryn Polkoff, PhD, co-founder and CEO

Company: Hoofprint Biome

For more low-carbon innovations now scaling—and the playbooks driving their market adoption—subscribe to the podcast plus our:

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