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Meet the Miami company transforming food waste into carbon credits

Riley Kaminer
Riley Kaminer
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From food banks to wastewater treatment, CoreZero’s platform is creating financial value from waste

By Riley Kaminer

According to worldwide data from the UN, more than 11 billion tons of solid waste are generated each year – producing 1.7 billion tons of CO2 emissions. about 10% of goods produced are at risk of being improperly thrown out; 4% end up being incinerated, releasing methane into the atmosphere. All in all, this accounts for upwards of 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Miami-based Jean Pierre Azañedo has thought a lot about this problem. In 2013, Azañedo founded Kanay SAC, which over the span of five years became Peru’s leading waste management company, with around 1,300 employees. The company was acquired by a French firm, and is now known as Séché Group Perú. Azañedo exited in 2019.

“Nobody produces something for it to be thrown away,” Azañedo told Refresh Miami. Of course, Azañedo noted, the core issue is our consumption. “We need to change the way we consume.” 

But equally, Azañedo’s time in the waste management industry made him realize that there might be another option: recapturing some of the value from this waste, and helping society – and the planet – in the process.

Building a tech-powered solution to a centuries-old problem

In March 2020, Azañedo and Ignacio Bordigoni co-founded CoreZero, a platform that creates carbon credits from waste. “We are creating financial value from waste,” asserted Azañedo, who is CoreZero’s CEO.

Jean Pierre Azañedo is co-founder and CEO of CoreZero. The leadership team is pictured above.

They accomplish this mission in a few different ways. One way is that they work with food banks that rescue food before it becomes waste. CoreZero’s digital platform plugs directly into the food bank’s systems, enabling the startup to track their impact. CoreZero can then generate carbon credits based off of the food rescued. Once a third-party team validates the carbon credits, CoreZero sells them on and splits the profit with the food banks.

CoreZero is also generating carbon credits with wastewater treatment plants. “In developing countries, 90% of water goes untreated into the oceans,” Azañedo explained. The problem is that wastewater plants can be expensive to build and run. CoreZero can help by creating carbon credits based on the positive environmental impact of these plants, which in turn can help companies and government organizations invest in building new plants.

“When people think about carbon credits, they think about forestry and renewables,” Azañedo asserted. “But nobody realized that waste and food represent 8% of total global emissions. That’s huge.” He also underscored the positive social externalities of empowering food banks and wastewater treatment plants.

Early impact of CoreZero’s platform

The platform is currently active in Mexico and Colombia, with imminent plans to expand to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the US. 

According to Azañedo, CoreZero has seen significant interest from a diverse set of companies: retailers, banks, and CPG companies – just to name a few. Currently, CoreZero is selling these carbon credits on a case-by-case basis. But in the future, Azañedo has not ruled out the possibility of including a feature to purchase these credits on their platform as well.

By taking a digital-first approach to the creation of carbon credits, Azañedo claimed that the platform has reduced the time it takes to generate a carbon credit from three years to just five months. This includes working with an external vendor to ensure the accuracy of their records. Part of the reason CoreZero has been able to speed this process so significantly is the use of blockchain technology to track transactions, improving traceability.

Already in 2022, CoreZero has created 225,000 carbon credits. Based on its current partnerships, it is planning to generate at least 4.4 million over the next ten years.

Post-fundraise plans: further growth and expansion

Last month, CoreZero closed a $7 million pre-series A fundraising round led by Nazca Ventures, alongside additional participants including corporate venture firm FEMSA and the Inter-American Development Bank.

With these funds, the company plans to revamp its platform. In particular, CoreZero hopes to further increase the automations it can provide to its partners – making the process of creating carbon credits even more seamless.

CoreZero also has plans to expand its currently 27-person team. Top of the list is growing its Miami footprint, where it currently has three full-time employees. Azañedo signaled that he is especially keen to hire Miami-based talent for his commercial team to take advantage of the “tremendous opportunity in the United States, where we have $408 billion of food waste every year.”

Building a base in Miami

Azañedo moved to Coconut Grove from his native Peru two years ago – having previously also spent a decade in northern California.

He explained that basing CoreZero out of Miami made a lot of sense for a few reasons. Number one: logistics, with easy connections throughout Latin America. “It’s so easy to meet people in Miami,” he said, noting that investors, thought leaders, and top talent regularly cycle through the Magic City. That also made it an easy sell for his family.

Equally, Azañedo underscored the pull of the #MiamiTech movement, and the long-established ties our city has to global financial systems. That, on top of all the many events going on in the city, made moving here a no-brainer. 

“Miami brings together everyone from Latin America,” he said. “It’s such a great place to live, and it has a lot of potential to continue to develop.”

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