Norman Crowley: Capitalist fights climate change

Source: David Dodge & Kay Rollans · GREEN ENERGY FUTURES · | October 7, 2020

Green Energy Futures is a multi-media storytelling project that is documenting the clean energy revolution that’s already underway. It tells the stories of green energy pioneers who are moving forward in their homes, businesses and communities.

Norman Crowley is a capitalist with on a mission to solve climate change—by 2030. CEO of the Cool Planet Group and Crowley Carbon, Crowley is the poster boy for climate capitalism in the world today.

The name of Crowley’s game is efficiency, both from a business and a carbon footprint perspective.

“We waste $1.2 trillion of energy. We create this incredibly precious resource [energy], we damage the planet doing it and then we waste 70 per cent of it,” Crowley tells Green Energy Futures in an interview from his home in Cork, Ireland.

His vision is to help big business reduce their waste—and increase their bottom line. “Our biggest client would save about $150 million annually in wasted energy,” he says.

Birth of a climate capitalist

Whether it’s in commerce, video gaming, or wireless internet, Crowley has a talent building—and selling—successful companies. After selling several particularly lucrative businesses (for a total of nearly $3/4 billion) Crowley decided it was time to throw his talents in with climate movement.

“I’d seen An Inconvenient Truth, and that had stuck with me. And you realize that the world has existential threats, whether that’s climate change, nuclear holocaust or whatever,” says Crowley.