Susanna Kass: Championing Climate Action

Achieving a net zero carbon future is extremely important to minimize and limit the impact of climate change and avoid the most severe consequences of global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has identified that in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, global carbon dioxide emissions must reach net zero around mid-century.

However, achieving a net zero carbon future will need many changes to how we generate and use energy, including transitioning away from fossil fuels and implementing clean energy solutions like wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, and nuclear power and the use of clean fuel such as hydrogen, not diesel. It will also require changes in data centers, transportation, agriculture, and several other sectors, such as heavy industrial, manufacturing, oil, and gas, significantly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions to the environment.

So enters Susanna Kass of InfraPrime, a Net Zero startup based in Switzerland. In a world dominated by men with a primary focus on profits and share prices, Susanna and Dr. Alberto Ravagni, the Co-founder of InfraPrime, hails from a new breed of authentic leaders who act as clean energy ambassadors and energy ethics influencers to transform a new breed of companies for people, planet, and profit. In doing so, they pave the way for those who come next.

“The motivation behind founding InfraPrime with Dr. Alberto Ravagni exemplifies the value of this new leadership,”– explains Susanna. “As co-founders, our primary focus is on aligning our values to those around us for people, the planet, and our environment. We use our creativity to innovate on net zero designs and solve real problems with efficiency, performance, and productivity to address the $200 Billion Cloud Computing annual run rate market to reach Carbon Neutrality pledges by 2030.”

Accelerating the Net Zero Concept of Design Thinking for Innovation and Invention

Established in 2019, InfraPrime’s products and services accelerate the ambition of zero carbon, zero-emission, zero dirty fuel, zero water, and zero waste for its Data Center clients. The results produce positive impacts. Susanna and Dr. Alberto are the co-inventors of several new patents; their designs have proved their global experience since 2007, and their clients received Innovation and Clean Energy awards. InfraPrime founders help to shape the Clean Energy standards for Edge, Cloud, and Colocation Data Centers on a global scale. The European Union has also selected InfraPrime Clean Energy Conceptual Design (EcoEdgePrimePower) for a carbon-free future in its first year. InfraPrime’s standards help scale global growth and a level playing field to ensure sustainability computing for developed and developing countries.

Diversity and Inclusion

Susanna is a clean energy strategist who leads from behind as an influencer. Being a clean energy strategist gives Susanna a purpose that aligns with her passion. She likes to put her mind and achievements toward making a difference and leaving a legacy. It helps her use her research, strategic planning skills, and patience by actively observing, listening to, and understanding each cloud computing builder, data center operator, and renewable energy (wind, solar, hydro, geothermal) developer. Susanna relates to each person equally with a focus on diversity and inclusion as a habitual best practice for every incident and establishes a meaningful connection that helps and motivates others to be inclusive and diverse in their thinking. Additionally, Susanna uses her design thinking skills with her clients, the focus is to accelerate they can reach their highest ideals of Carbon Neutrality goals, honing the invention process to optimize trade-offs of economic gains, social growth, and environmental impact, and in doing so the impacts will inspire others to follow, and the journey can pave the way for women, new talent for the next generation.

Susanna operates in a trusted network with like-minded people to solve problems. She has personally led several global teams to build over 3.8 Gigawatt data centers and has scaled the growth across 17 countries during her career. Currently, she is working with 16 Gigawatt pipeline of Renewable Energy projects on a global scale.  Her work had positive results in alleviating a large amount of global emissions. Under her leadership, InfraPrime has transformed waste products to new value for millions of people, for example, by reusing heat waste from the hyperscale mega-size data center and using Co2 as a thermal carrier. InfraPrime’s product provides the sustainability benefits of reusing data center waste heat and the avoidance of its emissions to the environment, instead reused it as a thermal carrier to transfer data center heat waste, so its clients can give social benefits to communities with free cooling and heating. Susanna’s primary ambition is to make the electric grid green, remove millions of tons of emissions and provide maximum economic savings to people and businesses in a carbon-free future. Presently Susanna and her partners are promoting Carbon Neutral Supplier Responsibility for data centers, the impact to help eliminate emissions in the supply chain.  Her initiative includes Net Zero construction materials, reducing embodied carbon, and storing Co2 emissions in building materials. The future of Net Zero data center supply chain is measured by the carbon neutrality supply chain and materials on a global scale.

“I aim to work with our clients in building 30 Gigawatt more Renewable Energy projects. 16+ Gigawatt projects are in our pipeline with our partners and a network of wind and rooftop solar developers in Mainland China and Southeast Asian countries. In this journey, we elevate those countries in the APAC region that are at the bottom of the Environmental Health Performance Index (EPI),”– she explains.

Susanna also believes in the importance of connecting to our inner calling, irrespective of how hard losses and failures are. “I have a strong faith; I practice the value and virtue of equanimity. Dr. Alberto Ravagni and I each are a family of two children, Isabelle and Alex Ravagni are students preparing for their journey to higher education,”– she says. “My daughters, Bronte and Elle Kass, completed their bachelor’s degrees and are working full-time while pursuing advanced degrees in the Master’s program of Foreign Service and pre-med Neuroscience research studies. Each inspires us with their character as a global citizen who dedicates their studies to improving the generation behind them. As a clean energy strategist, I like to give my gratitude to Mother Nature, and I strive to harmonize with nature by living sustainably.”

Motivating Creativity and Innovation

Dr. Alberto Ravagni and Susanna are authentic leaders who emphasize people and see their clients as people, not as the users of products. InfraPrime’s team consists of external partners and advisors who have deep connections in the industry and hold dignified respect for each other. Dr. Alberto and Susanna’s role is to de-risk as they pursue new opportunities in refining their vision and values for practical projects impacting results.

“We make our decisions on good science and are driven by data, and we have the highest ethical standards for accountability. Dr. Alberto Ravagni and I shared diverse backgrounds, experiences, and networks. He is Italian, lives in Switzerland, and speaks multiple languages. I am from Hong Kong and have worked worldwide, but I am based in Silicon Valley and live inside data centers. Our roles and responsibilities vary as we often do not cover the same ground. He is the MD and runs the organization,“- Susanna explains. “I am BOD, we co-create a culture of authenticity, transparency, respect, and honesty for our clients, advisors, and resources to ensure all ideas are heard. We are in a good mental and high intellectual state to make a difference to execute on InfraPrime’s startup mission.”

Awards and Accolades

In 2022, Susanna was offered to join as a member of the board of Stanford University Graduate School of Business Management Board (GMB) Women’s Circle Ops & Growth Committee, leading Impact, Analysis, and Reporting for our women alumnae communities. She was also recognized by her clients as a member of the Topmost 50 Climate Change leaders since 2019, she is among the Top 10 Data Center Influencers to Follow on LinkedIn, Top 50 in San Francisco of Most Admired Women, and Most Outstanding Mothers in 2022 by Women Most Admired.

“How can we, as leaders, give power to the truth? It is important to be relentless in our pursuit and never give up on the challenges we face today of catastrophic weather that has caused lives and geopolitical uncertainties that are causing suffering. Living on the status quo to carry business as unusual is easier, but it is wrong. Hence we must face the ups and downs of the challenges in our ever-changing industry; we connect, inspire, support, and collaborate to make Net Positive Impacts to reach Carbon Free future.”- explains Susanna.  

The Future

Susanna sees the urgency of Climate Change, the fundamental financial system faces the biggest transformation of the 21st century for investors. Climate risk is an investment risk for the corporate sustainability professionals and on SEC disclosure. InfraPrime is partnering with trillions assets owners on Climate Investment, named IHI and has a geographic focus on South East countries and Mainland China for direct access to renewable energy projects with a guaranteed rate of return while Data Centers and their suppliers achieve carbon neutrality. Susanna’s leadership approach prioritizes making every moment count, which is also the motto of Stanford University GSB Women. Recently, she was appointed as a member of the GMB board Women’s Circle Growth and Ops, leading impact, analysis, and reporting.