From Cooking Oil & Blockchain to Fuelling Green Transport with Mahsa Karimi

In this episode of The Wavemakers Podcast, host Gordana sits down with Mahsa from ESG Ports, a company at the cutting edge of sustainability in the maritime industry. ESG Ports is tackling the climate crisis by converting waste cooking oil into biofuel, leveraging blockchain transparency, and building a decentralized ecosystem to ensure ESG compliance.

Mahsa shares her unexpected journey from tech into sustainability, discussing how her background in Computer Engineering, Blockchain, and AI led her to a startup that is redefining the maritime sector’s approach to decarbonization. 

If you’re interested in maritime sustainability, blockchain for impact, or the future of ESG compliance, this conversation is packed with insights and inspiration.

Show Highlights & Key Takeaways:

🌱 From Tech to Climate Tech: How Mahsa transitioned from blockchain development to sustainability entrepreneurship.
🔗 Blockchain for ESG Transparency: How ESG Ports tracks and verifies carbon reduction efforts with smart contracts.
♻️ Circular Economy in Action: Why on-site biofuel production is a game-changer for waste reduction.
🏛️ Collaborating with Governments & Industry: How ESG Ports works alongside policymakers to drive sustainable change.
🔥 Women in Climate Tech: Mahsa’s message for young women entering the sustainability and technology space.
🚀 Future of Biofuels & ESG by 2030: How shipping and aviation will evolve with alternative fuels and data-driven ESG strategies.

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🔗 Related Resources and Links:
• Follow Gordana Ilic on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gordanailicphd/
• Follow us on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BetterSea

📩 Have questions or comments? Feel free to reach out via email at gordana.ilic@bettersea.tech

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction: Meet Mahsa Karimi
• 1:15 Mahsa’s Background & Entry Into Sustainability
• 2:47 ESG PORTs
• 4:33 Solution & Business Model
• 6:57 How Cooking Oil is Collected & Converted into Biodiesel
• 9:16 Expanding the ESG Impact
• 11:14 Motivation for Joining an Impact Startup
• 13:52 The Role of Data & Transparency in Supply Chains
• 16:22 Personal Growth & Lessons
• 19:26 Vision: 2030 and Beyond
• 24:46 Blockchain, DAOs, and Decentralization
• 29:07 Final Thoughts & Inspirational Message

Transcript

[Music] Hello and welcome to another episode of The Wavemakers Podcast, this one is Startup Series!

In The Wavemakers Podcast, we feature the stories of the people behind the change and the transition to greener shipping, at the intersection of decarbonization and digital transformation, but in these Startup Snippet series, we focus on the people that are at the forefront of it - 
the startups that are actually making the world different and we will tend to give you a glimpse of different technologies, but more so, about the people driving it. And my guest today is Mahsa from ESG Ports, and without me explaining more about you, I would first want to want you to introduce yourself to people. Who is Mahsa and how come you're driving the change in martime, and why in this space of decarbonization? Hi Gordana, thank you for having me today. It's a real privilege to be here. I grew up personally in a family that we always talk about how we can impact on the planet and uh make the world a better place because my father was and is a professor at University and we always were talking about sustainable issues, and social and environmental issues at the dinner table. But honestly I wasn't really that much into sustainability field, I was into tech. I uh studied Computer Engineering and then got interested into blockchain, and uh become blockchain developer and worked with several companies and then continued my study in master of artificial intelligence. uh But got friend, one of the investors of our startup and she introduced me to the team and that's where I got to know the sustainability, because sustainability wasn't in my radar and actually. I think this is something that many uh people and many young people in my age don't know about but at the end they will find out about it and they have to know it because climate crisis is something that we know is the issue and we just have to work together to solve it. Yeah that's how I got into the team. And can you share now more about what company is about and uh which challenge is it solving for the industry? Well our company uh is called ESG Ports. We are working on a sustainable infrastructure. First of all, we enhance company's ESG scores. Through this infrastructure, we collect wasted cooking oil, and first of all, just by collecting collecting the wasted cooking oil we are having a a huge step through sustainability, because every liter of wasted cooking oil that we throw on the ground, or throw out, it will destroy 100 liters of water. And even just by collecting it, we are saving a lot of water drinking water. And also we made a device that, when you pour a wasted cooking oil in it it, produces biofuel, like biodiesel, SAF and we use biodiesel for transportation; definitely for maritime and shipping industry. While producing biofuel we definitely reduce carbon emission. Following that, we made a marketplace that we sell carbon reduction certificate to companies. Companies can buy that and offset, but also they have to be in the community. They have to participate. It is not not just buying the certificate and say that we offset. The solution combines this software element, that is the marketplace, the community engagement and the certificates, right? But then, there's the deep tech element of conversion of the cooking oil into biofuel, and the company brings together both, right? Yes. The main, the most important thing in our ecosystem is the engagement from the operator that gets the device. Operator gets the device, then handles the process. There are some people in the community of our ecosystem for example one of them is the operator that... For example, a kitchen as a operator want to have our device. We don't sell the device because we want to track the device to see if it is sustainable, if it is producing the biofuel, and helping the planet, if not. If we sell it to someone, we don't know where [it] may end up. Mhm. So as an operator, 
they can send a proposal to our do decentralized autonomous organization, it is blockchain based, and investors and stockholders - they vote for it. And if the operator is acceptable, they accept the proposal and send the device to them. The device has IoT technology and we track all the biofuels that is producing, so everything is transparent and on the blockchain. We're using smart contracts so anyone can see and track it, even companies that buy our carbon reduction certificate - they can add this to their ESG report as long as it is blockchain-based. They can exactly say that how much carbon reduction there was in that certificate, how many devices they're financing , 
to helping this infrastructure. I know that, for many of the people watching this podcast, it's a very hot topic, biofuel. It is saving a lot of compliance costs, for some it's generating extra revenue. But I was wondering, how do you collect the cooking oil? Do you go to the large chains or to the small shops cooking? What do you focus on? Well this is mainly operators
is responsible. Mhm. Because if operator send a proposal to us it means that he or she wants the device for a place, that, for example, it's a kitchen that they have the wasted cooking oil or somewhere else that he can collect. He or she can collect it so it's mainly his or her responsibility. Even they can buy they can send a proposal and get the device, and uh tell their own community, so that they can come and put their their o oil in it. Mhm. Do they actually bring it to somewhere else? Like, there's extra waste cooking oil, right, then they use the device and track it, and does that cooking oil go anywhere and then gets converted to biofuel? No, no it's just the device. 
Oh it is in-house conversion?! Okay. Actually the device is big for example 100 liters of biofuel

It can generate exact that. Exact amount of uh oil that you put in, for example 100 lit of oil, you get 100 lit of biofuel ,and uh as long as the device is for the investors and the DAO Partners , 
This production, the biofuel, is not for operator. Mhm. We sell it to transportations, as I said, mainly Maritime. Our focus is in is on Maritime, because of the ocean pollution and the amount of impact that it has on the sustainability. Also we have another product uh which is the assessment. We made an assessment that you can put in the details of the ship and it will assess how many tons of carbons you have to reduce. Mhm. Or maybe offset. This assessment that we build is not something that it is out there. Just a few countries have done this. Mhm. Back to you...
So this company exists for four years. Yeah. And when did you join it? Well I joined the last two years and, we actually, you know, the team consists of many professional people in sustainability, blockchain, AI, the managers, and 
they they just put their head together and came up with this idea. It wasn't it wasn't that easy. 
The first day we didn't know who what we're doing, but step by step, we made this infrastructure and it was the point of view of three main technology. We had the point of view from AI, from sustainability, and from blockchain, so that's how we made it. That is very unique, because each of these is a challenge to itself, right? Scaling up the process, making it I guess a uniform setup, uh that works, that can be deployed, and the logistics around it, then AI is a story of its own... We are yet to discover all the possibilities; and then blockchain, combining all these three together. What inspired you to join them? That's the first question, and then the second question is also, like, how does it feel to work in that environment where all these different skill sets come together? Yeah. Well, as I said earlier, I was in the tech field, I had no idea about the industry and this amount of effort that we have to make on the sustainability topic. When I met the team and understood 
about the climate crisis and the fact that if we continue like this we cannot survive. At least for 40 years we can live on this planet and many cities will be inhabitant and the fact is that maybe we can live but what about the Next Generation? And the meaning of circular economy and the fact that it's not just recycling,
it's the fact that you have to think about it at the first time that you produce. That whenever the product is done - is it going to be a waste? 
You're going to throw it out? Or you have a plan for you reusing it? This was really concept uh that was important and made my eye open. Finally I got into the team and started working. I know that techies love the space of supply chain because there are so many complexities to solve and there's a very large landscape in need for more transparency. How does it feel to also work in this environment where you need the data but there's a lack of data, but then there are regulations requiring the level of transparency and then maybe customers not knowing where to start? Well you mean the lack of data in the sustainable?

How  do you navigate that landscape where you're essentially building transparency.. Yeah. Right,

over the supply chain, and yet that is at such an early stage and you're doing it by mixing the the physical world and the fuel production, right, and then building also this infrastructure, data-driven infrastructure. And how do you combine that the need to bring the transparency, but at the same time dealing with something that doesn't have the right data yet? I guess you mean the government and the standards that government have put in? But  the fact is that here we are collaborating with the government, and uh one great thing that government has done is that government has put the responsibility of sustainability and ESG to the private sector. We don't have any ESG minister so we are one of those private sectors that are enhancing the ESG scores of company and I believe we work next to government. We're not competing or against it. Yeah. Together. Yeah and how did this work change you? Did you find out something new about it, or even about yourself? It was, uh it was is really challenging at first, because... Uh it's funny, but our managers say that you know a topic, for example, you're expert in blockchain, you also have to be expert in sustainability, in other fields, so that we can put together all these information and technologies to solve this problem. Because, to solve the sustainability issues, the main point is technology. The main thing that can solve it is technology these days and we don't have time. We should come together. We have the lack of education, lack of awareness. Your podcast is one of those podcasts that can spread this awareness, making people know that we don't have that much time, even they can start from themselves. Even when they buy a product, just think about that, when they want to throw out  - 
this product is it going to be a waste, or is it going to be something that can be reused, can be recycled? If they ask themselves this, and ask the company this, the company would also rethinks it and makes their product in a way so that it can be recycled. And what about yourself? What excites you today? Or maybe, one of the next things that excites you, like, I really want to solve this this? Yeah uh it really excites me that I am one of those little persons who is contributing and making award a better place and helping the sustainability issues that we have. Another thing is that I myself always encourage young people, young generation, mostly woman, and so that they come to this industry even as a leader. They can handle this; and as I said, is not something that for example one or two country can solve, 
we have to do it all together.What I love about your story is that, similarly to me, maritime was not within my radar initially, but then somehow I ended up here and then I find it to be fascinating and there's so much to do, and to solve, and there's so much potential to to make impact, right? One of these podcast... Like, reasons why I do it, is because I want to show people how...maybe they start by being interested in tech or AI, or deep tech and engineering, about the conversions of waste oil to biofuel, but that there is a very interesting application here [maritime] and for those who love problem-solving, there's like endless challenges to be solved! That's why I love also seeing these examples where that would encourage others to at least be open to it. I myself, you know, have a social media YouTube channel and working on it to spread this awareness, and well before I came into this sustainability area, I was making content around blockchain and that, and my own tech field, but now, you know, it's a shift. Now I'm talking about sustainability, maritime industry and all the things we are doing in our startup, and actually that's why we attended the GITEX impact, which it was a great opportunity. We were looking for partnerships, some partners that we can... they can use our infrastructure. We can help each each other to grow and develop and share this with other, which it was great. We found some companies. Yeah. How do you see the world, let's say, in 2030? All the data in sustainability have shifted from quality to quantity right now so now it's really easier to measure. Before that, they would say like - okay, we are good company, we are, you know, there was no measurement that we can say exactly that this company is good. We now... Now we have ESG scores, we have ESG reports, and this is great. And I guess this goes on and we use technology to enhance it and for example our assessment... I think in 2030 it will be widely used. And also biofuels, biodiesel... I believe that in 2030 most of the shipping industry are using biofuel, hopefully to reduce see emission or rather maybe aviation as well. Yeah, yea,h of course yes. I do like what you said that, now we can do something about it. Often times, people think of ESG: okay it's just a report, it's just another thing I need to do, but it is actually setting the starting point - because once you measure something, then you know where to start from and how to address it and what to work on to reduce these targets, right. When everything is hypothetical, then you don't even know where to put your efforts and what is the best allocation of the resources, as well, and this is actually helping us set the benchmark from which we can act. What would you love to see in 2030, beyond your current company? Like, how would this world look like? Would we be living in our chairs and virtual reality and seeing different things? Because of your interesting background combination that deals both, on the like Hardware ground, where things are quite in transition, and then also you're probably one of the representatives of the new technology lovers, right, who who are totally friendly with that? So from your eyes in in this, with the glasses where you can just paint that future, how would that look like? Well in terms of technology I believe that 2030 it's going to be great and we achieve many high tech levels uh but in terms of sustainability, let's be honest, I mean now it's October and we're sweating. We are all sweating, and it's getting hotter and climate change is not something that's going to go away. So this is a long pass and if we want to solve this issue it's not something that's going to be solved in 2030 but with the help of technology, we can definitely make it better and improve it. In terms of technology, I believe that the augmented reality virtual reality now even Meta released the new glasses. Yeah the new glasses and um yeah, that's the speed of improving and growing in Technologies. It is just a lot and every day we see a new thing. And one question that I often ask  [my guests]

is: which ship they resonate with and if they were a ship which ship there would be and why? 
Maybe container ship? Uhhuh uh I would choose. Why would you be a container? The design. Um there's two factors, the water resistant and also the stability, mhm that we have to balance, and that really depends on the shape of hull. So container I think um made this balance good. So you also like to balance and uhefficiently yeah transfer good to and bring good to to many different people I guess. Of course.If we think about uh the girls like you watching right what would be your advice to them? Well I would tell them to don't be afraid and just come into the industry and be yourself.Come to the social, express your feeling, express what you think, nothing bad is going to happen and alway go in a way that you love. For example, while I was studying Computer Engineering when I got to know the blockchain uh that was my interest. So I continued it myself with without any other education. I studied it through YouTube and you know I... After the university, I I freed up this six months and just read about the blockchain because I that was something I was so passionate about; so even I made content and shared my journey with other people. That is one of the things I do to again - encourage them that you can do this. When I did it, then you can do this, as well. Wow that is so inspirational, actually. To just self-teach 
yourself... and why was it blockchain? What was about blockchain that was so interesting? Well, decentralization, the free web, web3 and the fact that I understood, and these companies are using our data wasting our time, and they are actually analyzing our data when we are in their socials, and they constantly show things that we love, so that we stay in their socials and uh when we don't pay the only thing that we are giving them it's our time, and our attention and the fact that they sell our data and abuse it well made me to think that this is not correct and also all the central authorities that we have uh this Power that is Central. I don't believe in it. It has to be spread and like, like the blockchains that we have Bitcoin, Ethereum, but of course Bitcoin, for example, is not not 100% decentralized but we are trying our best uh to reach there because there is a trinity it's a triangle that has three aspects that we have to balance them. One of them is security, another is decentralization and another is scalability. Mhm. If we want to handle all this together, we have to balance them. Maybe you increase the security, you lose the scalability. So for example, Bitcoin has is a more secure network than Ethereum, but in terms of scalability - well not very good. And why DAO? Because is a it is a decentralized autonomous organization.  When we use this in our infrastructure, whenever we go, I mean even if we die and leave something that we made, this as a startup, this startup will keep going on. Mhm. Because whoever has the token of our DAO, has the ability to vote in our DAO, and has the power. So maybe, after years, we lose our powe,r because the... because of the spread of the tokens... Mhm...And then the whole infrastructure is for the communities and we don't have any power... So that is the concept of blockchain: to spread the power and remove the third parties connect. For example: the fan and the singer together, no third party, all these concepts become from blockchain. And what a way to give back to the community, right?! To take waste, turn it into energy, but then track it, provide transparenc,y allow for something to be further act upon, and then also leave it to outlive you, right? Yeah, exactly! Chain. Yeah. And that's what I really love about the impact creation - that sometimes it's not as simple, but then that impact is visible in five, seven, 10 years from now. And maybe that's also a perfect way to round it up? Yeah... And leave that to the world, to take it forward and not to be afraid of different technologies, but actually open themselves up to incorporating all these new technologies and improving the way forward. Exactly. Thank you for being my guest. Is it scary? No! Good. Approved?! Okay! Thank you. Thank you very much [Music]