Woodchuck is a new climate impact startup that is looking to transform waste-to-energy processing for construction, manufacturing, and bioenergy industries. Pulse 2.0 interviewed WoodChuck founder and CEO Todd Thomas to learn more about the company.
Todd Thomas’ Background
What is Todd Thomas’ background? Thomas said:
“I have worked at startups to Fortune 100 companies across industries with the common thread of leveraging emerging technologies to drive efficiencies and new commercialization opportunities. The interesting thing is that driving efficiencies and driving sustainability often go hand-in-hand. Maturing connected and AI technologies have the potential to really flip the paradigm on sustainability and turn it from a cost add-on to a cost reducer. I’m a firm believer that we can leverage AI to drive efficiencies, improve lifetime use and value of resources and materials, thereby reducing waste, reducing costs, and improving sustainability.”
Formation Of WoodChuck
How did the idea for the company come together? Thomas shared:
“WoodChuck was formed and launched in partnership with NorthStar Clean Energy and High Alpha Innovation. The global demand for energy is exploding. With the growth of data centers, EVs, and the electrification of everything, the demand for energy is expected to more than double by 2050. NorthStar Clean Energy is looking to a combination of renewable sources – wind, solar and bioenergy – to meet this demand.”
“While solar and wind are excellent options, they are not available 24/7. Energy producers need consistent reliable options to pair with intermittent renewables like wind and solar. NorthStar Clean Energy is looking to biomass as the favored renewable source for the baseload energy production needed for the day to day power required to support homes and businesses. Woodchuck was launched to build a reliable renewable biomass supply chain.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Thomas’ favorite memory working for the company so far? Thomas reflected:
“I love the reception WoodChuck has received from major construction and manufacturing companies. These companies are under increasing pressure from their enterprise clients to provide more sustainable services, to reduce waste, and to be able to document and validate the outcomes. Woodchuck uses AI image recognition to efficiently identify, sort, and divert wood and other valuable materials out of waste streams. The Woodchuck.ai platform tracks diverted waste from origin to final dispensation, generating customizable sustainability reports.”
“We validate total tonnage diverted, CO2 avoided, CO2 generated in transportation, net CO2 avoided, tonnage delivered to remanufacturing, bioenergy, and total BTUs of clean energy produced. We underestimated the demand from the construction and manufacturing industries for our service.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Thomas explained:
“WoodChuck offers sustainable waste management, best-in-class biomass, and sustainability tracking, reporting and validation.”
“WoodChuck diverts wood and other valuable materials out of waste streams. We process wood waste into biomass for its highest & best use. The Woodchuck.ai platform tracks diverted materials from origin to final dispensation and generates detailed customizable sustainability reports validating the outcomes of each material stream.”
Evolution Of WoodChuck’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Thomas noted:
“We have been rapidly developing our platform and AI since our launch late last year. This is the 3rd time my co-founder Dre and I have worked together to build an AI platform. What we are doing at WoodChuck is really bringing technologies that have been largely matured in other verticals; automotive, manufacturing, telecommunications… and applying them to a niche that is essentially void of technology and ripe for disruption.”
“The Woodchuck.ai platform and image recognition enables us to reduce the cost of acquisition and processing while simultaneously improving the quality of the biomass we produce. It is this ability to improve the quality of our biomass that is really our secret sauce. Increasing the purity and quality of the biomass enables us to upscale the “highest best use” and unlock additional commercialization opportunities.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Thomas cited:
“We launched in Oct 2023. We achieved first revenue in Dec 2023 and to date we have already diverted over 200t of CO2E.”
Customer Success Stories
When Thomas was asked about customer success stories, he highlighted:
“One of our very first projects was a new Amazon distribution center just north of Detroit. Our client was Ryan Construction. Amazon has really high sustainability goals. They want a minimum of 70% of their wood diverted from landfills. Woodchuck was able to divert over 95% of their wood waste; 67t of wood waste diverted, avoiding 110t of CO2E, and producing 5.1M BTUs of renewable energy.”
“Amazon also gave us some really great feedback. They were very pleased that we were able to divert 95% of their wood waste, but they really wanted a full 360 degree view of all of their waste streams. They asked if we could also help them with cardboard and plastic and provide a single report.”
“We have intentionally built our woodchuck.ai platform to be very flexible and we immediately added cardboard and plastic and from then on delivered very detailed reports validating their sustainable outcomes across all onsite waste streams.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Thomas assessed:
“The macro factors driving WoodChuck – the exploding demand for energy & the need to reduce waste – are global issues. Waste Management and Bioenergy are both trillion dollar global industries, so there is a massive global TAM.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Thomas concluded:
“In 2024 we are focused on developing our platform and building a biomass supply chain across Michigan. In 2025 we will continue to expand across the great lakes as we bring our technology to maturity. Then in 2026, with a mature technology platform, we are planning for aggressive national and global expansion.”
