
Spencer Brennan (left) and Svetlana Menkin, photos taken by Michael Webb ©University of Cambridge
The Chemistry Sustainability Committee hosted a conversation between Dr Svetlana Menkin from our Department and Dr Spencer Brennan from Neutreeno, a company that helps large companies reduce their carbon emissions.
Spencer introduced the principles of how Neutreeno’s technical system works and the ensuing conversation with Svetlana focussed on how to meaningfully improve industrial supply chains to reduce energy consumption, increase efficiency and even reduce operational costs for the company seeking to improve its sustainability profile.
Spencer did his PhD in Physics at the University of Cambridge (Trinity Hall) and has been studying environmental impacts for the last 15 years. His research during his academic career looked at preventing and cleaning oil spills and renewable energy converters. In this context, he acquired a broad idea of some problems facing the environment and developed methods to tackle them.
Neutreeno
Aware of these challenges and feeling compelled to be part of the solution, Spencer founded Neutreeno together with an expert team of Cambridge climate scientists and engineers. Neutreeno began as a Cambridge Enterprise startup in 2020 and since then, it has worked with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Through extensive research, their team has mapped materials flow and emissions of entire global supply chains across 37,000 facilities.
These emissions are passed onto the large companies using their products and services as “embodied emissions”. Their work has allowed companies to reduce the uncertainty of their emissions compared to global average measurements and to influence effective decisions about their supply chains and production lines. For example, they are working with the NHS to supply more carbon-efficient medicines and materials.
Spencer says: “When we know exactly where the emissions come from, we know where we can improve and make the supply more efficient. We have the tools for innovation now, the big challenge is about implementing it. We need to reduce our emissions globally and we need to get the existing technology out of universities that helps make these changes and Neutreeno is about bridging that gap.”
Dr Nick Bampos, Deputy Head of Department comments: “These are important conversations that trickle back into the Research Groups to help improve the way we do science and drive innovation.”
The Chemistry Sustainability Committee
The Chemistry Sustainability Committee was started in 2023 by PhD student Chloe Balhatchet from the Forse Group and is made up of students and staff from across the Department. It works to implement effective change within the Department, as well as on engagement events like the “In Conversation” series.
If you are interested in joining the Committee to contribute to the important work being done please email sustainability@ch.cam.ac.uk.
This article was originally published in Chem@Cam magazine Issue 70.