Innovation: designing turnkey decarbonization projects for industrial, commercial and multi-residential buildings.
Posted at 1:00 p.m.
Design turnkey decarbonization projects for industrial, commercial and multi-residential buildings. Krome takes care of everything, from the diagnosis to the search for subsidies, including the works, with a guarantee of the costs and the savings generated.
Who ?
Sandrine Tremblay was born in Saguenay, where her father, an entrepreneur and mechanical engineer, allowed her to go to work sites at a very young age. “At the age of 5, I already thought of myself as an engineer on the construction sites where my father took me; the future proved me right,” she says on her LinkedIn page.
She followed in her father’s footsteps and graduated in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. She then worked for various firms, notably the American firm Ecosystem Énergie Services for 11 years, where she carried out several energy efficiency projects. “I saw a market for mid-size industrial, commercial and multi-residential buildings, but there was no expertise,” she says. It’s a good niche when no one is in a market. »
She founded Krome in Montreal in 2016. The company now has around twenty employees, and manages an average of eight projects per year.
The product
Krome’s specialty is to transform the central heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems of medium-sized buildings to reduce energy bills, recover and properly redistribute heat, while reusing as much as possible of the materials already installed. For example, you can switch from natural gas heating to electricity and install heat pumps. Krome does not touch the insulation and does not redesign the buildings. All the work is done by subcontractors, “plumbers, electricians, ventilation specialists, control contractors”: “In the environment where I work, they know their customers, their market, explains Mr.me Tremblay. I arrive as a conductor in an already established ecosystem. »
Krome also establishes the final cost of the project, with government subsidies averaging 45%, and promises energy savings of around 30%, sometimes more. The small company boasts of having avoided the emission of 35,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases and procured savings of nearly 3 million for its customers.
It’s really turnkey. I guarantee the costs, the contractors, the subsidies, the financial arrangement. If, in the end, the client doesn’t have a drop in operating costs, it’s up to me to reimburse them.
Sandrine Tremblay, CEO of Krome
If it is desirable to build new green buildings, the reduction of GHG emissions must go through the transformation of older buildings, she explains. “Sustainable development also means recovering existing infrastructures and making them consume less with ultra-innovative projects and technologies. »
Challenges
Finding labor in this sector, workers, engineers and other highly sought-after experts, is an ongoing challenge. “It’s a growing segment,” says Mr.me Tremblay.
The other challenge hits virtually every industry: dealing with strained supply chains. “If we don’t have the machines to build our projects, we can’t carry them out. There are many needs. »
The future
Rather than focusing on one project at a time, we would like to be able to propose more ambitious plans for major building owners, who could set a target for 2030, for example. The exercise would also have the advantage of better predictability, which makes it possible to overcome the various shortages affecting the industry.
Rare precision for a young growing SME, we are not yet targeting the market in the United States, let alone elsewhere in the world. ” There is job in Canada, notes the CEO. We are good at what we do, we want to do more. »
One of the developments that the founder of Krome feels is that financial institutions will be more and more demanding in terms of decarbonization. “It’s an ultra-paying investment to decarbonize a building. The carrot didn’t work enough, but when the banker doesn’t want to renew your mortgage, then you’ll feel like making a plan. »