🌐 The Hidden Problem Wasting 10% of the World’s Energy—And Its Ingenious Fix

Startup founders know timing is critical. You can have a billion-dollar, world-changing idea, but it will languish if the world isn’t ready.

This week, we track Aeroseal, a climate technology and business idea nearly three decades ahead of its time—a solution that tackles one of the biggest economic, social, and climate challenges our civilization faces: the absurd inefficiencies of energy waste caused by building air leaks.

The numbers are staggering:
↳ Buildings consume 40% of global energy.
↳ Half of that—20% of global energy—is used to heat and cool indoor space.
↳ Half of that energy—10% of global energy—is wasted through leaks in HVAC ducts and building envelopes (for example, in the U.S., 20-30% for ducts and 20% for building envelopes).

That’s 10% of the world’s energy: produced, paid for, and causing climate change—yet totally wasted. Humans derive zero value from it.

In 1993, Dr. Mark Modera, now a professor at UC Davis, invented Aeroseal, a solution to seal these leaks. His breakthrough technology injected a fine, non-toxic mist of aerosol particles into a building’s ducts. The particles sought out and adhered to cracks, sealing them from the inside. 

Aeroseal solved the impossible: quickly addressing leaks in hard-to-reach areas where ducts are located, such as behind walls or in crawl spaces, basements, and attics.

While the tech was groundbreaking, the business didn’t take off. Carrier, the global HVAC company, acquired Aeroseal in 1999 but left it languishing in corporate purgatory for a decade.

In 2009, Amit Gupta, a rising executive at Carrier, was assigned responsibility for the product line.

For Amit, the light bulb went off immediately. He saw Aeroseal’s potential to save homeowners and building owners billions in energy costs, reduce allergens to improve indoor air quality, and make uncomfortable spaces livable again.

Amit thought of his relatives in the U.K., where drafty homes and skyrocketing energy bills force people to choose “to heat or eat.” He knew Aeroseal could make a difference.

So, in 2010, Amit leaped. 

He negotiated with Carrier to take ownership of Aeroseal, left his secure executive role, and rebooted Aeroseal as a startup. Bootstrapping the business, he focused on what customers cared about most:

✅ Cutting energy bills
✅ Improving indoor air quality
✅ Creating comfortable spaces

Amit steadily improved and expanded the technology. He developed Aeroseal’s capability to seal entire building envelopes. He obtained global patents and pursued opportunistic sales channels.

Then, the world changed. By the late 2010s, the urgency of climate action became undeniable. Major builders, cities, and investors began prioritizing decarbonization. Amit and Aeroseal were ready.

In 2023, thirty years after Aeroseal was invented, Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures led Aeroseal's $67 Million Series B investment round, joined by Climate Investment (CI), and other leading climate tech funds, including Aramco Ventures, 2150, Energy Impact Partners, and Building Ventures. 

Today, Aeroseal seals iconic buildings like the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas and the MetLife Building in New York City, which towers above Grand Central Station. Internationally, it has sealed nearly every tall building in Dubai.

The company’s technology is reshaping how new American homes are future-proofed. National builders like Beazer Homes use Aeroseal to make new houses Zero Energy Ready before families even move in.

Aeroseal's technology can be installed in just an hour in older homes, delivering immediate benefits. Pricing depends on the house's size and the ductwork's complexity, typically ranging from $2,000 to $2,500. Thanks to current incentives, homeowners can see a return on investment in as little as three years.

So far, Aeroseal has sealed over 260,000 buildings worldwide, saving billions in energy costs, reducing CO2 emissions by thousands of tons, and improving comfort for millions.

Ask Amit about Aeroseal’s growth, and he’s quick to clarify: the company isn’t winning business by selling the abstract promise of solving climate change. It wins by addressing urgent customer pain points: high energy bills, poor indoor air quality, and uncomfortable spaces.

Amit joins the Supercool podcast week to discuss how Aeroseal is sealing the cracks in our energy future.

Listen to this podcast episode on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, and all other platforms.

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Number of the week: 10%

Global energy wasted due to buildings leaking air.

Quote of the week:

“In the U.S., we oversize HVAC systems in new homes by 25% easily. If you have a process like ours, then you don't worry about variability in the overall leakage in the house. So you can right-size your HVAC equipment. That saves money.”

Plus, builders use gaskets and caulking guns everywhere in the house. We replace manual labor with technology, and our technology has improved by 270% in the last four to five years. That’s a big shift. I mean, how much has caulking by hand improved over the past 30 years? I don't think it has.”

—Amit Gupta, CEO of Aeroseal

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Related Stories

Energy Efficiency is Going from “Boring” to Cutting-Edge and Supercool

In climate circles, Energy Efficiency is like taking medicine: you need it, and it will make you better, but you don’t really want it. 

While the best energy for solving climate change is the energy you don’t use, solar, wind, batteries, and EVs—sexy climate tech—often grab the headlines.

Now, perceptions are changing as new, proven climate technologies upend the old “gaskets and caulking” approach to energy efficiency. Technologies like Aeroseal instantly and conveniently deliver massive energy efficiency gains with fast payback periods and added co-benefits, such as fewer allergens circulating indoors and more comfortable spaces.

Another example is Luxwall, which shares two things in common with Aeroseal: it’s backed by Bill Gates and headquartered in the Midwest (Aeroseal is in Ohio, and Luxwall is in Michigan).

Luxwall upgrades windows—the second largest source of air leakage after air ducts. Its vacuum-sealed glass windows look and install just like regular windows but contain superior insulating properties. They generate up to 45% energy utility savings and pay for themselves within 2-7 years.

AI Levels Up Energy Efficiency

Debates are also raging about AI’s role in solving climate change. Critics dismiss the topic by pointing to the prodigious amounts of energy AI data centers require.

I empathize with that perspective. However, a corporate acquisition announcement in December, just before the holidays, has me reconsidering my view.

Trane Technologies, a global climate innovator in numerous sectors, including Advanced Building Management, acquired BrainBox AI, which uses generative AI to predict building energy needs, automate HVAC systems, and reduce energy consumption by up to 25%.

The company’s solution is already installed in over 14,000 buildings.

45 Broadway, a 32-story office tower in New York City built in 1983, demonstrates how AI accelerates the low-carbon future. Like in most NYC buildings, temperature was controlled by basic thermostats. Then, it installed BrainBox AI’s solution, which captures live readings from sensors on the building, including temperature, humidity, sun angle, wind speed, and occupancy patterns.

That data informs live decisions about modulating the building’s temperature.

BrainBox AI also connects to the building's thousands of pieces of HVAC equipment. According to Sam Ramadori, CEO of BrainBox AI, “I know the future, and so every five minutes, I send back thousands of instructions to every little pump, fan, motor, and damper throughout the building to address that future using less energy and making it more comfortable.”

The results: 45 Broadway cut its energy use by 15.8% during an 11-month trial, saving $42,000 and avoiding 37 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Final Thoughts:

Energy efficiency is hot right now, not because the planet is rapidly warming but because entrepreneurs are delivering high-quality, cost-effective, and convenient solutions that rapidly scale into thousands of homes and buildings. That bodes well for the low-carbon future.

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