Tackling Overlooked Emissions
At Product Teacher, we believe product management can and should drive transformational change for society.
Yes, product managers should master roadmaps, go-to-market strategies, and cross-functional alignment. But they can also empower entire industries to reimagine how they address social and environmental challenges.
This vision is why we’ve committed to funding Recoolit on a monthly basis.
Recoolit’s mission is deceptively straightforward: prevent refrigerants from leaking into the atmosphere by collecting and destroying them.
Yet behind that simplicity lies a sweeping ambition: to tackle one of the world’s most potent but overlooked climate threats.
Unpacking the Refrigerant Problem
Refrigerants, commonly found in air conditioners and refrigerators, are often invisible to consumers. But in terms of greenhouse gas potency, they’re far from benign.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), certain refrigerants can have Global Warming Potentials (GWPs) in the thousands, meaning they warm the planet thousands of times more effectively than carbon dioxide (CO₂) over the same time period. A five-pound refrigerant leak can exert a climate impact comparable to burning thousands of gallons of gasoline.
Surprisingly, these refrigerants alone account for nearly 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is triple the emissions from aviation. It’s no wonder that Project Drawdown ranks refrigerant management as the number one solution to global warming.
When left unchecked - such as when an old AC unit gets tossed onto the scrap heap - these highly potent gases seep into the atmosphere, accelerating the planet’s temperature rise.
From a Book to a Billions-Scale Problem
Recoolit’s founder, Louis Potok, came across this challenge almost by accident. In 2019, he picked up a copy of Drawdown (a kind of greatest-hits list of the most impactful climate solutions) and was astonished that refrigerant management was number one.
He was even more surprised that so few startups or nonprofits were focusing on it, particularly in rapidly growing regions like Southeast Asia. With a background in data science and a penchant for tackling “unsexy problems,” Potok realized that effectively disposing of refrigerants could prevent an astronomical amount of emissions: potentially more than entire industrialized nations produce in a year.
His path to founding Recoolit was anything but linear. He started off at ideas42, applying behavioral economics in international development settings. Then he worked in fintech and healthcare, where he was drawn to issues that demanded nuanced problem-solving - ranging from improving debt collection practices to standardizing patient care.
But once he latched onto the refrigerant crisis, there was no turning back. He left his job, sold his belongings, and flew to Southeast Asia to figure out how to operationalize the idea of “throwing refrigerants into a fire” before they could leak into the atmosphere.
Putting a Startup Spin on Climate Action
Recoolit marries the analytical rigor of data science with a practical, boots-on-the-ground approach.
At the core, their business model is about forging relationships with local air conditioning (AC) technicians and providing them with incentives, similar to a bounty system, to capture refrigerants at the end of an AC unit’s life.
These used refrigerants are tracked via a custom-built software platform to ensure full chain-of-custody. Next, the gas canisters are transported to a certified destruction facility (often a cement kiln that’s been specially adapted) where they’re heated to extreme temperatures that break down the refrigerants into inert compounds.
Each step is measured, verified, and logged. This proof of destruction ultimately enables Recoolit to sell verified carbon offsets on the voluntary carbon markets. As a result, the revenue from offset buyers becomes the driving engine that allows Recoolit to pay technicians and cover the costs of safe refrigerant transport and disposal.
Why Product Managers Matter
In essence, Recoolit is a product: one that merges software, hardware, partnerships, regulatory compliance, and climate strategy. Building that product demands a clear understanding of user needs (AC technicians), robust data systems (to ensure accountability and prevent fraud), and an attractive value proposition (to secure offset buyers).
For climate-conscious product managers, Recoolit’s journey underscores the potential of applying a user-obsessed mindset to some of the most critical challenges of our era.
At Product Teacher, we’re proud to fund Recoolit. Beyond emissions abatement, we see it as a living example of how product managers can systematically design solutions that scale.
Designing & Scaling a High-Impact Climate Product
It’s tempting to imagine climate impact as the domain of scientists and policymakers alone. But Recoolit’s story shows that methodical product management, when fused with effective altruism principles, can launch social ventures capable of reshaping entire industries. Let’s unpack the product strategies and frameworks that helped Recoolit thrive.
Embracing an Iterative Mindset
Most successful products - whether Slack, Salesforce, or Recoolit - start with a “do things that don’t scale” phase.
In Recoolit’s early days, founder Louis Potok manually visited scrapyards and AC technicians across Cambodia and Indonesia. He experimented with ways to capture leftover refrigerant in old AC units, realizing that technicians often just released refrigerant into the air while disconnecting the units. These manual interventions were crucial for gleaning real-world insights.
Similarly, product managers confronting novel challenges need to test small, fail fast, and learn rapidly. Recoolit’s first “prototype” wasn’t a fancy app: it was a spreadsheet, a set of canisters, and direct negotiations with local cement kilns to see if they could handle refrigerant destruction.
These small-scale tests validated the product concept: you could pay technicians to collect refrigerants, store them safely, and then destroy them in a cost-effective manner.
Finding Product-Market Fit in Carbon Offsets
A major challenge for Recoolit was turning refrigerant destruction into a sustainable revenue model. In the corporate carbon-offset world, skepticism often runs high due to fears of “greenwashing.” Recoolit tackled this by designing for transparency from day one. Using custom software, they tracked each canister of refrigerant from initial recovery to final destruction. Photos and geotags captured at each step gave offset buyers tangible evidence of real-world impact.
This built trust, positioning Recoolit as a credible source of carbon credits. Keep in mind that they were working in a space rife with questionable offsets (e.g., forest protection projects that couldn’t guarantee permanence).
The beauty of this product-market fit? Companies seeking high-quality offsets can confidently pay to “retire” refrigerants. Every ton of refrigerant destroyed equates to thousands of tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions avoided, making Recoolit’s credits particularly potent.
Data Infrastructure as a Differentiator
Product managers often underestimate the power of well-organized data. Recoolit did the opposite. For them, data is mission-critical. They must prove, beyond doubt, that a specific canister’s destruction correlates directly to a quantifiable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.This calls for:
Collection: Every technician logging the time, date, and location of refrigerant capture.
Verification: Recoolit staff (or third-party auditors) cross-checking these logs.
Validation: Video or photo evidence of refrigerant being fed into destruction furnaces.
Secure Storage: A robust digital system (initially Google Forms, later a custom app) that ensures no step is falsified or duplicated.
In many ways, this is like building a supply chain product that integrates sensors, mobile apps, and real-time dashboards. For aspiring climate-oriented product managers, it’s a masterclass in how critical operational data can be to ensuring integrity and trust.
Human-Centered Partnerships
Beyond the technology, Recoolit’s core “users” are AC technicians and facility owners. Without their buy-in, no refrigerant can be recovered.
Potok’s team discovered that many technicians felt undervalued and were rarely offered “green job” incentives. By forging personal relationships, providing decent compensation, and offering clarity on how refrigerant disposal benefits the planet, Recoolit earned their trust.
This user-centric mindset - ensuring that the people who handle the refrigerant every day find the product easy, valuable, and fair - underpins Recoolit’s operational success. It’s a compelling reminder that product management isn’t just about features and metrics; it’s also about meaningful stakeholder alignment.
Overcoming Regulatory Hurdles
In climate tech, product viability often depends on navigating policy and regulation.
Recoolit’s path involved working with local environmental agencies, negotiating with state-owned facilities, and ensuring compliance with international treaties like the Montreal Protocol. Product managers in regulated industries should expect and plan for these complexities from the outset. That means baking in legal constraints into your product vision, forging alliances with policy experts, and proactively shaping your go-to-market strategy around shifting regulatory landscapes.
Recoolit’s agile approach to these regulatory hoops showcases the advantage of having a robust discovery-driven product strategy. They tested each local environment, engaged local officials early, and kept their software flexible enough to adapt to sudden changes in compliance or rules.
The Road Ahead
Today, Recoolit has set an audacious goal: preventing 2 billion tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions by 2032 (roughly outpacing Russia’s annual emissions).
Achieving that requires continuous iteration: forging more partnerships, optimizing their carbon offset marketplace, and refining user experiences.
It’s a grand vision, but as product managers, we know that enormous progress is possible through iterative breakthroughs. Think of Recoolit’s trajectory like a well-planned product roadmap: one sprint at a time, they’re moving the needle for climate impact.
Empowering Product Managers to Drive Climate Solutions
If Recoolit’s story offers one clear lesson, it’s this: climate tech can be fertile ground for creative, data-driven product minds.
Whether you’re an aspiring founder or a veteran PM, there’s immense opportunity in shaping solutions to humanity’s biggest challenges.
At Product Teacher, our goal is to catalyze that movement by guiding product leaders to step up, either by launching climate-oriented startups or embedding themselves in existing ones.
Key Takeaways for Climate-Focused PMs
Takeaway #1, Look for High-Leverage Problems: Much like Potok scanning the pages of Drawdown, find climate issues whose solutions promise massive returns. High-GWP refrigerants might seem arcane, but they overshadow entire sectors (like aviation) in terms of total emissions.
Product managers excel at detecting overlooked user needs, and in climate tech, “user needs” can translate to “global pain points.” Finding a wedge in a massive problem is often the first step to building a company with extraordinary impact.
Takeaway #2, Adopt a Systems-Thinking Approach: Climate challenges rarely yield to a single-shot solution. Recoolit’s system involves AC technicians, cement kiln operators, government regulators, and corporate offset buyers. If any one element faltered, the entire model would unravel.
A climate PM must think at the ecosystem level to design products that seamlessly coordinate multiple stakeholders. Tools like stakeholder maps, service blueprints, and design thinking workshops help identify potential friction points before they derail your mission.
Takeaway #3, Prioritize Transparency: Greenwashing concerns are valid in climate circles. Build your product to be airtight: log data meticulously, offer third-party audits, and broadcast your methodology.
The best climate products stand out by offering bulletproof verifiability & measurability. In Recoolit’s case, it’s the detailed chain-of-custody for canisters. If you’re working on carbon capture, battery recycling, or regenerative agriculture, robust verification systems can make or break your credibility in the marketplace.
Takeaway #4, Prototype and Iterate in the Field: Climate tech demands forging real-world relationships, often in regions with language barriers, cultural nuances, or limited infrastructure.
The “lean startup” methodology isn’t just for software interfaces! Recoolit’s field tests with local AC technicians, combined with photos-and-QR-code tracking, were prime examples of user discovery in action. Don’t wait until you have a polished product. Get out there early and refine as you learn.
Takeaway #5, Balance Profit & Mission: Climate solutions often require creative financing, from carbon offsets to grant funding, philanthropic partnerships, or venture capital. As a PM or founder, you need to weave sustainability and profitability together.
Recoolit demonstrates a model where philanthropic grants alone aren’t enough. They also rely on voluntary carbon markets and private investment to grow.
Design your financial model to fuel scaling without diluting your environmental values.
Our Monthly Funding: Driving Long-Term Impact
At Product Teacher, our ongoing support for Recoolit reflects a broader strategy: backing solutions that align with both social good and robust product principles.
We dedicate monthly resources to Recoolit’s operations for the following reasons:
Long-Term Commitment: Climate solutions aren’t quick fixes. By providing stable monthly funding, we enable Recoolit to make multi-year plans, investing in new partnerships and bounties for refrigerant collection.
Alignment with Our Core Values: Just as we strive to empower new product leaders, we also aim to address economic inequality and climate change. That means championing businesses that uplift local communities (in this case, AC technicians in Southeast Asia) while making a measurable dent in global emissions.
Scalable, Data-Driven Approach: Recoolit is a masterclass in using data to build trust and scale an intervention. Their iterative approach mirrors how we advise PMs to develop products: start small, gather feedback, pivot or persevere, then double down on what works.
Product Management as a Climate Catalyst
Why do we believe product managers specifically can make such a difference in climate tech?
User-Centric Mindset: PMs excel at empathizing with customers, which in climate tech can range from farmers adopting new soil practices to city dwellers opting for electric mobility.
Systematic Experimentation: PMs bring structured frameworks, from A/B testing to agile sprints. These frameworks ensure that new climate ideas pivot quickly if they’re not hitting the mark.
Cross-Functional Leadership: Climate solutions often span engineering, policy, marketing, and science. PMs are the translators who ensure each function aligns around shared objectives and metrics.
Execution Focus: Good product management ensures that even the most ambitious ideas avoid analysis paralysis. It forces the question: How do we ship something valuable now? In climate tech, moving fast matters - because every year, the stakes of global warming get higher.
Your Next Steps
If you’re inspired by Recoolit’s story:
Research Overlooked Areas: Spend a few weekends reading through Project Drawdown’s solutions list. Cross-reference it with your background and your network. Where might you add unique value?
Get Hands-On: Don’t be afraid to reach out to existing climate startups, even if you’re simply volunteering time. Many teams are hungry for strong product instincts. By immersing yourself in the day-to-day, you’ll accelerate your climate tech fluency.
Build MVPs: Start small with a pilot project in one city, one region, or one population. Validate your approach, then leverage that data to raise capital, whether it’s from philanthropic grants, angel investors, or specialized climate VCs.
Stay Curious and Collaborative: Climate tech is inherently global. You might find yourself working with local cooperatives in Ghana, corporate partners in California, and policymakers in Berlin all at once. Develop a knack for cross-cultural communication.
Shaping a Cooler Planet Through Product
By partnering with Recoolit, we at Product Teacher are investing in a cooler future - literally and figuratively!
We see Recoolit as a prime example of product-led climate innovation, and our monthly funding cements our commitment to solutions that deliver both climate impact and economic empowerment. Far from a sideline interest, climate-focused product strategy is quickly becoming a key differentiator for PMs eager to make a meaningful mark on the world.
We encourage you to take inspiration from Recoolit’s evolution! “Just throw the refrigerants into a fire” might sound naïve at first, but with the right product mindset, it can spark a global movement.
Every piece of technology you design, every process you streamline, and every partnership you foster can shift the needle on greenhouse gas emissions. The stakes have never been higher, but neither has the opportunity to redefine what product management can accomplish.
So ask yourself: What massive climate issue can I help solve? Perhaps it’s carbon capture, waste reduction, or indeed, refrigerant management. Whatever it is, remember to approach it with product discipline: validate assumptions, iterate, focus on user needs, and build frameworks to measure real-world impact.
By doing so, we can all contribute to a more sustainable and equitable future - one product launch at a time.
Thank you to Pauli Bielewicz, Mary Paschentis, Goutham Budati, Markus Seebauer, Juliet Chuang, and Kendra Ritterhern for making this guide possible.
