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The Transformation Issue | Idealog.co.nz
R
efrigeration management. It’s not the sexiest of
issues facing the world today, but it’s definitely
a significant problem. Environmentalist Paul
Hawken has said the number one solution
to solving the climate crisis is tackling just
that, seeing as the operational costs of refrigerant leak
avoidance and destruction are estimated to cost $
billion by 2050.
This is because unbeknown to most of their users,
every refrigerator and air pump contains chemical
refrigerants that absorb and release heat to activate
chilling. Refrigerants were even once contributors to
hurting the ozone layer, but the type that did the most
damage were phased out. However, on the downside, the
main replacements, HFCs, have 1000 to 9000 times greater
capacity to warm the environment than carbon dioxide.
Solving this leakage problem would have a huge
impact on the environment. Hawken says containing 87
percent of refrigerants likely to be released over 30 years
could avoid emissions equivalent to 89.7 gigatonnes of
carbon dioxide.
It was because of the sheer size and complexity of
this problem that Chameleon won Soda Inc’s 2019 Startup
Bootcamp’s Gallagher Best New Idea category for their
product idea – a gel-based, colour changing product
for refrigerators in order to help reduce the emissions
generated from gas leaks.
The team is made up of four young Waikato University
students – Namrah Siddiqui Carpio, Callum MacDonald,
Chun Ho Tse (Leo), and Jiabao Zhao (Boa) – all of whom
are aged from 21 to 23.
The idea sprung from MacDonald, who was working
doing maintenance on a refrigeration unit to find gas leaks,
but was frustrated that the only tool he had to discover
them was detergent.
“I thought, ‘How good could it be if I had a machine
told us there was a leak?’ Surely we could develop a
solution for that,” he says.
“We knew that the problem with refrigeration was
quite big and a significant part of the environmental
problem the world is facing, but it’s even more of a severe
issue than we actually knew and really good enforcementBLENDING IN,
STANDING OUT
Successful entrepreneurs are a rare
breed, and entrepreneurial students are
even rarer. But the 20-something team
of Waikato University students that
make up Chameleon – Namrah Siddiqui
Carpio, Callum MacDonald, Chun Ho
Tse (Leo), and Jiabao Zhao (Boa) – went
up against 19 teams in the 2019 NZ
Startup Bootcamp, and were one of two
teams crowned as winners. Their idea for
refrigeration leaks might just change the
environment – and maybe the world.c
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FROM TOP:
Chameleon
with Soda Inc
and the New
Zealand Startup
Bootcamp judges,
Chameleon
pitching on
stage during the
bootcamp.