Behind the scenes in industrial China, a quiet force for reducing energy use

To tell the story of climate change, media, video producers, and advocacy groups often use the imagery of industrial facilities. Big, dirty, smokestacks pumping smoke into the atmosphere. Though far from the only culprit of soaring CO2 emissions, and not even the biggest, basic industry is still seen as a symbol of the problem.

Much ink has been spilled about big climate stories and the technology that might help keep the planet from catastrophic change. Electrifying transport and all its opportunities and challenges. The allure of carbon capture technology. The seemingly endless potential of solar energy with massive solar farms shining in the desert. Huge cargo ships powered by wind and a sail instead of oil. Net-zero buildings. Pledges of carbon neutrality by some date far enough in the future for companies and countries to do nothing in the meantime. But these big stories often mask the smaller victories and advancements happening in important industries and countries.

China is the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases. China emitted more than 2 billion tons of the greenhouse gas in the steel sector in 2021 alone, accounting for around 61% of the world’s total of over 3.3 billion tons in the steel industry, according to a Wood Mackenzie study. But China is also doing more than most countries to introduce new clean energy technology, emissions reductions schemes, and small innovations that lead to big emissions reductions results.

Behind the scenes is a software company called Yo-i that is quietly implementing solutions that are helping some of the most energy-intensive industries reduce their emissions without major infrastructure investments; just simply doing their work more efficiently and effectively. Simply put, Yo-i provides software solutions for basic industry facilities that collects and analyzes data for guiding operations to use less energy and resources.

Yo-i is the perfect example of a company that keeps its head down and pushes progress forward. Yo-i’s business is almost exclusively inside China – where there’s plenty of opportunity there to reduce industrial energy use. Yo-i does not even have an English website and barely any English social media presence. Their work is not making global headlines, or even domestic headlines in China, but their story is remarkable nonetheless and is contributing to emissions reductions through an exceptionally lightweight industrial internet solution.

Yo-i works with the industries that, in many ways, are both major contributors to climate change, but are also making the products that are inextricable from our daily lives. “We are doing whatever we can to reduce the energy consumption and emissions of these industries that’s vital for addressing climate change,” noted Yo-i Founder and CEO Maxine Fu.

Yo-i is very much the product of Maxine Fu’s unique story of dedication, ingenuity, and a persistent will to do something impactful with her life.

After growing up in China, Maxine made her way to graduate degree from Yale. Her career from there took numerous twists and turns including a multi-year stint as dental hygienist in Midtown Manhattan, what she describes as a “very comfortable existence.” But she wanted more. After consulting gigs with the WHO, GE and McKinsey, she would eventually come to combine her skills in diverse experiences to help found Yo-i in China in 2016.

Her track record and career shifts are not for the faint of heart. “Making a full career transition is incredibly tough, but for me, so is being stuck in an unfulfilling career,” notes Maxine.  “My unusual career journey mostly stems from curiosity. But what has really pushed me ahead has been ambition and a desire to address global challenges. I also have an innate tenacity and am not afraid to fail.”

Maxine has not only become one of the most accomplished women leaders in China’s hyper-competitive tech landscape, the company where she has finally found her true calling is growing rapidly as well.

The sectors Yo-i supports the most are basic industries such as steel, coal, non-ferrous metals, chemicals, and energy production. These tend to be major parts of the upstream supply chain. As these products make their way to overseas markets, it is increasingly important for them to meet climate reporting requirements. Yo-i’s SaaS platform provides these factories with the data, modeling, and computing ability for carbon accounting, carbon analysis, carbon reporting, and finally, carbon verification. What was once seen as cumbersome additional operations requirements on factories and refineries is now greatly simplified through Yo-i’s platform, and along the way helps reduce operational costs, energy usage, and emissions.

In a country with the world’s highest industrial outputs and, likewise, its highest amount of CO2 emissions, any actions to drive reductions in these industries will be vital to addressing climate change. A few examples show just how much can be saved through implementing these systems.

In 2023, the system will enable a steel group in northern China with a capacity of nearly 7,000 tons to achieve a 2% increase in primary energy efficiency, an annual revenue savings of $2.8 million, and an annual CO2 emissions reduction of 331,000 tons. Likewise, an aluminum processing facility with an 800,000 tons production capacity saw a 1% increase in efficiency equate to 78,000 tons of reduced CO2 emissions and and annual revenue savings of $4.1 million.

Yo-i’s ambitious vision is to provide solutions for industrial production in China that see numbers like this on a national scale. In fact, the company’s goal is to see the country improve efficiency and reduce emissions on a scale equivalent to 1% of China’s annual GDP.

Progress on addressing the climate crisis requires ingenuity and advancements from all corners of the economy around the world. The transformative story of Maxine Fu and her company Yo-i show just how much can be accomplished when simple solutions are targeted and implemented at the right places.

If Yo-i is able to meet its goal of using its technology to eventually reduce emissions on a scale equivalent to 1% of China’s annual GDP, then those images of industrial smokestacks might start being used to tell the story of climate solutions instead of the root of the problem.

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