Speaker: Vince Romanin, Founder & CTO, Gradient
Vince Romanin: down in less than an hour. We really want to be in the business of making homes more comfortable and more livable first because we believe if we build products that are better products today, it will drive the adoption needed to make the world better tomorrow.
How (and why) are you taking action on climate change solutions in, for, and with your community?
Vince Romanin: Gradient helps old multi-family building owners do two things at once, make heating and cooling more reliable, so that residents can stay happier and healthier in extreme weather and dramatically cut those buildings' carbon footprints. Our system is a perfect fit for 50+ year old multi-family buildings that have steam radiators and either window ACs or no AC at all. In these settings, gradient installs like an appliance with no building modifications, which saves money for the building owner, and also the resident gets more comfortable heat, access to cooling, a very quiet and modern system, and importantly, they get to use their window again.
Describe a moment when you felt the real-world impact of your work in climate solutions.
Vince Romanin: I think the moments when we most feel the impact of our work are when we see the difference our system can make in users' homes. Our system often replaces a steam radiator and a window AC, and it lets the user use their window again, and it also acts as a shelf in front of the window. So we've seen pictures of pets sitting on top of the gradient looking out the window. We've seen families put a flower vase or a photo of a loved one on top of the unit. We recently had a building owner who had an elderly resident whose home was 90+ degrees during a heat wave, and the owner was able to bring her a gradient and have the apartment cooling down in less than an hour. We really want to be in the business of making homes more comfortable and more livable first because we believe if we build products that are better products today, it will drive the adoption needed to make the world better tomorrow.
Who or what inspires/inspired you to care about climate change and climate solutions?
Vince Romanin: The thing that inspires me to work in climate ech is that my parents taught me the idea of leaving a place at least slightly better than you found it. I feel very fortunate to have grown up in a time and a place that afforded me a lot of opportunity and also a lot of enjoyment of our natural environment. So at a bare minimum, I want to know I've spent my career trying to enable the same for future generations.
