Expanding Global Access to Expertise and Tools that Make an Impact
As climate change and social inequalities continue to intensify, we firmly believe that organizations around the world have an important role to play and can act, now. We are on a mission to empower every organization to make an impact. Read on to learn a little more about Rho Impact, our origin story, and see some of the ways we try to make a direct impact through pro bono and volunteer work.
Rho Impact is a multi-disciplinary team of ESG strategists, environmental scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs, and social innovators. No matter where you are in your impact journey - whether that be Net Zero planning, ESG strategy development, decarbonizing an investment portfolio, or square one - we can help to get you where you want to go.
Rho Impact was built upon Rho AI's decade of experience in solving real world problems with data science and software development.
Our involvement in what is now the CRANE Tool was the direct result of our partnership with Prime Coalition, which has long been a foundational leader in advancing the field of catalytic capital. In 2018 Prime and NYSERDA published a seminal report entitled, "Climate Impact Assessment for Early-Stage Ventures," in which they laid the foundation for everything that has been built today.
Our experience with emission reduction forecasting for early-stage ventures revealed the need to reliably forecast the effectiveness of enterprise climate change interventions. Whether it be a climate risk, ESG, or corporate impact strategy, we have applied this thinking to address the key barriers corporations face in achieving their triple bottom-line impacts for the planet, people, and profits. We aim to simplify the impact planning, tracking, and reporting process so you can achieve the impact you're capable of and that society desperately needs.
The path to impact
In 2012, we began our journey in motorsports by building "Pit Rho," an innovative set of tools and infrastructure used to predict optimal race strategy in real-time during NASCAR events.
As we matured in applying data science and software engineering across the fields of motorsports, energy, finance, healthcare, and others, we recognized an internal motivation was solidifying to use these core competencies to help solve some of the world's bigger problems.
In 2018 we made the decision to dedicate a significant portion of our team to climate-focused projects. By 2020 we knew it was time to fully lean in and in 2021 we spun out Rho Impact as an entirely new company with a simple mission baked into its name: to do everything we can make a positive impact.
The Founding Idea
Rho AI begins applying data science, machine learning, and bespoke software development to address a key need for faster and more actionable strategy options, in real-time, during competitive motorsports. We bootstrapped the company and learned a lot, often the hard way, about what it takes to apply data science to real-world problems.
Beyond Motorsports
With a functional & growing motorsports product and some experience under our belts, Rho AI begins to work for and partner with organizations such as Rubicon Global, XLHybrids, and Zero Mass Water across industries as varied as financial services, healthcare, and energy.
Department of Energy and the Prime Coalition
Rho AI is selected for an initiative by the DOE's office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy (EERE) to use artificial intelligence and data science to efficiently connect investors to startups in the energy sector.
In 2018, Rho AI is tapped by the Prime Coalition to help drive catalytic capital by developing the CRANE Tool - open-source software for assessing the carbon reduction potential of new enterprises and emerging technologies.
Expanding Work with Leading Impact Organizations
CRANE is publicly launched in collaboration with Prime, Rho AI, Greenometry, and the Clean Energy Trust.
Rho AI is brought on board by Breakthrough Energy to support the development of their Emerging Climate Technology Framework (ECTF) in collaboration with CDP.
The MaRS Discovery District partners with Rho AI and leverages the CRANE methodology to evaluate the potential impact of their climate tech competition applicants.
Rho AI Doubles Down on Impact
After over 3 years of CRANE development and initial public use, CRANE's Custom Technology module is released and an in-depth CRANE user report is published.
Bravos Energia engages Rho AI to support development of grid optimization software for the Texas grid and Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)
In October, 2021 Rho Impact is officially founded. With enthusiasm and humility, we are building off of the founding team's decades of experience and thought leadership in ESG consulting, software engineering, and data science. We hope to have the opportunity to work with you and work for a better planet, together.
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