Who We Are
CARBON TURNAROUND is a leading consulting and advisory firm committed to the transformation of our economy and society to a net-zero carbon society. Our mission is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to a sustainable level avoiding disastrous climate change by driving the transformation of our economic system towards sustainable circularity. Together with our clients we identify and analyze sustainability problems and resource inefficiencies in their production processes in order to develop sustainable and profitable solutions for our clients. We count on an international team of experts who dedicate their professional careers to topics such as:
- climate change
- carbon credits
- circularity
- climate policy
- renewable energies
- energy efficiency
- energy storage
- sustainability
- and other environmental fields
Join our team
We are constantly looking to expand our expertise and service offers for our clients. Our holistic and interdisciplinary approach requires a strong team of professionals with diverse backgrounds and experiences. If you share our vision of a sustainability transformation towards a net-zero carbon economy and want to be part of our team, let us know! We are very open to discuss different models of cooperation for specific projects we are working on, with the ambition to lead the carbon revolution towards a net-zero economy.
HERWIG A. RAGOSSNIG
Founder & Managing Partner
In 2020, Herwig A. Ragossnig founded CARBON TURNAROUND – aiming to be a leading boutique consulting engineering company that supports its clients on their decarbonization and sustainability transformation journey. Herwig has a 20-year-long professional track record in business development and project development positions, always related to sustainability and renewable energy. His interdisciplinary academic background covers environmental science, renewable energy, energy storage and climate change, whereas his expertise in sustainability and forestry in particular give him a global, integrated and holistic view on how impactful sustainability transformation should look like.
Recently, Herwig has led the market entry and business development for his client ENGIE Impact in the DACH Region. ENGIE Impact belongs to the ENGIE Group and is an end-to-end provider of sustainability services for corporate clients. For many years he was active in Latin America in business development positions in the solar and bioenergy sector for European companies interested in the emerging renewables markets in Latin America. Between 2015 and 2020 he was head of business development in Latin America for NEC Energy Solutions, one of the leading companies for large-scale grid-connected storage solutions with lithium batteries. During this time several storage projects in Chile, Colombia and Brazil have been implemented. Between 2008 and 2012 he was in charge for business development in the Latin American market for SEEGER ENGINEERING, a specialist engineering company for bioenergy and renewable energy projects.
Herwig’s previous positions include his work at the prestigious Leuphana University in Lüneburg, Germany, as a research assistant and lecturer at the Centre for Sustainability Management as well as his time in the European Renewable Energy House in Brussels, where he was active for the European Biomass Association (AEBIOM) in lobbying activities in favor of the European bioenergy industry.
Herwig is a MSc graduate in Renewable Energy Development from the Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK. He also holds a master’s degree in Environmental System Sciences from the Karl-Franzens University of Graz, Austria.
ARNE M. RAGOSSNIG
Co-Founder & Partner
Since 2013, Arne M. Ragossnig is Managing Director of the Austrian Engineering and Consulting Company Ecoconsultants, one of the leading service providers in this field in Austria. As co-founder, his role in CARBON TURNAROUND lies in facilitating the internationalization of successful GreenTech engineering and expert services to new markets. His focus of competence is waste management, recycling and circular economy in general. As of September 2020, he has been elected Vice-President of ISWA (International Solid Waste Association), the leading global network of the waste management industry. From January 2018 to December 2019, Arne served as Managing Director of ISWA. He is lecturer at various universities and holds an honorary professorship at the University of Applied Sciences Burgenland, Austria, where he was also Vice-Rector, Professor and Head of Research & Development at the Department of Energy and Environmental Management in the years 2004–2013. As program director he was responsible for the master degree program “Sustainable Energy Systems“ and “Energy and Environmental Management“. He is a member of the scientific advisory board of various international conferences as well as Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Waste Management & Research. Previous affiliations include a position in the industry at VA Tech Wabag as well as a position as Assistant Professor and Deputy Head of the Institute for Disposal and Landfill Technologies at the University of Leoben, Austria. Arne M. Ragossnig is author and co-author of more than 100 publications including more than 30 peer-reviewed and invited publications.
Arne holds a PhD in Environmental Engineering, Recycling and Disposal Technologies from the University of Leoben, Austria. In addition, he holds a master’s degree in Engineering Management from Oakland University in Michigan, USA.
Our Strengths
CARBON TURNAROUND follows a distinctly holistic approach considering all relevant dimensions of a real sustainable transformation of our economic processes. Together with our clients we analyze their existing situation with an independent and interdisciplinary team in order to identify current sustainability challenges as well as climate- and resource-efficient solutions.
This co-creation process allows us to find business- and solution-orientated answers that result in a competitive advantage of our clients and make them leaders in the net-zero carbon transformation.
For long-term orientated companies, not acting is no option, since the transformation process is already underway:
“From a business perspective, the transition to a net-zero economy has passed an inflection point. Large public companies now face pressure to eliminate carbon emissions from their supply chains, operations, and products and services, or for capital providers from their financed emissions. And this pressure will intensify and spread, to smaller public companies and to private companies. There will be no place to hide.”
Quote from Fortune
Independence
Our work is completely independent and technology-agnostic. For each client and each particular situation, we identify the best available technological and economic answer for a given sustainability challenge. This independency allows us to find real no-regret solutions in the interest of our clients and to make a real contribution to solve global environmental problems.
Interdisciplinarity
The transformation to a net-zero carbon economy is one of the most complex challenges of our times. A holistic view and only an interdisciplinary approach are the key for reaching real sustainable goals. CARBON TURNAROUND therefore works with a broad team from different disciplines in order to address all dimensions of a sustainability problem.
Expertise
CARBON TURNAROUND is composed of a team of experts with a long track record in different fields of the sustainability and environmental sector.
Our expertise is key for accurately assessing the current situation of our clients and for finding the right solution in their interest, while at the same time solving an environmental problem.Solution-orientated
Our mission is to help our clients to solve their environmental challenges and to make them leaders in the sustainability transformation. We help our clients to take full advantage of their transformation process by exploiting their production inefficiencies and technological potentials. Our aim is a robust sustainability business case for our clients.
Our consulting partners
Arturo Brandt is a lawyer from the Diego Portales University, Santiago, Chile, and holds a LLM Master of Laws in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School, Vermont, USA. Arturo is working as an expert consultant for the public and private sector both at local and international level, with a focus on sustainability, low carbon economy, climate change, climate finance, emissions trading, renewable energy, environmental compliance and climate finance. Currently, Arturo serves as a Senior Broker for Latin American Environmental Markets with Tradition Green (part of TRADITION) as well as an Associate Lawyer at Vial Serrano, a leading Chilean law firm. Arturo is also the current President of the Chilean Association for Environmental Law, member of the Commission for Environmental Law at IUCN, Adjunct Professor at Vermont Law School for Global Energy Law and Policy as well as at several universities in Chile for climate change and low carbon economy policy. He is also a Senior Fellow for Latin American Climate, Energy Law and Policy at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School.
Ximena Riquelme is a graduated Industrial Civil Engineer, and holds a MBA and Master in Social Entrepreneurship.
She has more than 20 years of professional experience in advising governmental and international organizations and universities in Chile.
She began her professional career as a consultant in sustainable rural development at the OAS Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture and later worked for various Chilean public services, always directly linked to projects with purposes contained in the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG´s).
She has worked with the Technical Cooperation Service of Chile, the National Agency for Research and Development, the Ministry of Women and Gender Equity, the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Transport and Telecommunications, among others, and has been technical counterpart in projects of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
She has led and integrated key teams in challenging moments for large organizations (with high impact projects, with multiple stakeholders and/or structural changes). In addition, she has experience in the execution of assertive and effective communication plans, including spokespersons, effective presentations, event coordination and writing communications for leaders. She is a member of women’s leadership and public policy networks. She is a social entrepreneur and mentor for women and NGOs.
Werner Koessler is an expert in Health-Safety-Environment-, Business Continuity- and Sustainability- Management with 30 years of experience from various industries and companies. He has worked for Adler-Lacke, ECOTEAM, Montanwerke Brixlegg, Arbonia-Forster-Group, Novartis, Swarovski, and many years as independent management consultant.
His vocation and passion lies in the active shaping of companies towards the conscious and comprehensive perception of aspects of sustainability. This include “Circular Business Models”, “Net Zero Carbon Journeys” as well as “Environmental and Social Governance” along the value chain. In his leading positions, he was able to successfully implement many complex projects to improve sustainability performance, such as introduction of management systems, establishment of processes for comprehensive data collection and reporting, circular product and production initiatives or carbon emission reduction. All of this always embedded in organizational development programs.
Werner Koessler is technical engineer and business economist by studying, he is a book author and lecturer.
Paola Masson Bottinelli, is a Commercial Engineer graduated in Santiago de Chile, certified as organizational coach, by University Adolfo Ibañez and Newfield Network and she holds a diploma in Business Sustainability from the University of Chile and Torcuato Di Tella, Argentina.
From 2018 to date she has served as consultant for organizations in the public and private sector, accompanying them in the development of competencies in matters of strategic planning, transformation and change management, in Chile, Argentina and Peru.
Her professional specialization is the adaptation of private companies and organizations towards a sustainable strategy, generating organizational alignment, defining strategic focuses, identifying stakeholders, compliance gaps and opportunities in the value chain, identification of materiality issues, by using international frameworks such as ESG (Economic, Social, Governance), SDG´s (Sustainable Development Goals), GRI (Global Reporting Initiatives).
Prior to consulting during for 28 years, her relevant experience was developed in the corporate environment, especially in the telecommunications industry, fields related to process and product quality, operational continuity and customer experience.
Luis Felipe Ordoñez is currently the Director of the Centre for Circular Economy (CEC) in Colombia. He is an Industrial Engineer with an MBA from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and holds a postgraduate degree in Circular Economy from the University of Berkeley.
His professional experience of more than 15 years has been focused on innovation consultancy by accompanying companies to develop new solutions and business models that add value and respond to emerging market needs. Based on this experience, he has managed to develop innovative solutions by using the concept of Circular Economy to help companies and entities in the design of new business models and solutions that allow them to eliminate and reduce the environmental impacts generated by their activities.
He founded in the past his own company of dehydrated fruits with 10 years of operation for which he designed an innovative process of dehydration with solar energy and implemented pioneering strategies for the Agri-Food sector with best practices of Circular Economy, with which he obtained important commercial achievements and recognitions at national level.
He has extensive experience leading the growth of startups and green entrepreneurship, in entities such as: Cleantechhub, Seedstars, Innpulsa, EAN University, Chamber of Commerce of Bogota, CIDET, IDOM and Industrial University of Santander – UIS.
Roberto’s experience as a professional centers on strategy consulting, consultative sales and business development consultancy in the private sector in Latin America. He has vast experience in start-up companies, biotech and renewable energy industries such as solar and bioenergy.
Roberto worked for more than 15 years at CMPC, one of the leading pulp & paper companies in Latin America. In different roles he was active at CMPC in the field of tissue, distribution, packaging and boxboard business.
After leaving CMPC he was General Manager of CEM S.A. and later Partner Manager of Bioscan S.A., an innovative start-up company in the biotech industry working on a technology to produce green oil from microalgae.
For several years, his own consulting company ALKA Partners has been consulting international companies entering the Chilean market by helping them to set up their business in Chile, to give them strategic orientation and to undertake both market studies and business development.
In addition to his consulting activities, he currently serves as Board Director of Plásticos Hoffens S.A. and as Director-Manager of the Grupo Mercados Energéticos Consultores S.A.
Roberto holds a Civil Engineering Degree from the University of Chile and is living in Santiago de Chile.
Rodrigo Navia earned his Chemical Engineer degree from the Technical University Federico Santa María, Valparaíso, Chile and his PhD in Mining Sciences from the University of Leoben, Austria. His main research areas are related to waste, energy and resource technology, bioenergy, biomaterials and biorefinery processes. Currently he serves as Associate Editor of Waste Management & Research, the scientific journal of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), as well as Executive Editor of the Journal of Biobased Materials and Bioenergy from Academic Scientific Publishers (ASP) in the USA. At industry level, he worked five years for Corpora Tresmontes, a Chilean relevant food company. At University of La Frontera (UFRO) in Temuco, Chile, he is currently Full Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and serves as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Sciences. He has been the former Director of Innovation and Technology Transfer at UFRO.
Our corporate partners
Christof Industries
Christof Industries is a leading engineering and plant construction specialist for projects with a high degree of complexity and need of automatization. Since the 1970s, Christof Industries has been working on innovative technological solutions in the field of circular economy to transform unutilized waste streams – often a financial burden or environmental problem for the producing company – into useful by-products which can be used again in the production process or sold to third-party off-takers.
17 competence centers distributed across the globe are working on the most advanced solutions needed for a sustainability transformation towards circularity. These solutions include, among others, industrial insect farms, waste-to-energy plants, biomass gasification or power-to-gas methanation technologies.
For CARBON TURNAROUND, our cooperation with Christof Industries provides us with the ideal partner to aim for our own vision of a sustainable and decarbonized economic system based on circularity.
xelectrix Power
xelectrix Power is an Austrian battery solution developer for high-voltage on- and off-grid energy storage solutions with innovative lithium-ion batteries. Due to the company’s historic track record as equipment provider for the mining industry, xelectrix Power developed ground-breaking answers for efficient energy storage solutions which can guarantee reliable on- and off-grid power supply in the most challenging project scenarios, for example, in industrial sites, mining installations, off-grid telecommunication towers, off-grid projects and solar & storage projects as well as for electric vehicle charging infrastructure needs.
xelectrix Power’s inhouse-developed battery control system enables a seamless integration of their mobile battery storage solutions with both existing and new diesel gensets. The control system allows to optimize the operation of diesel generators and thus leads to a reduction of diesel consumption of up to 40% and to reduced maintenance costs of 50%. This game-changing technology will make a meaningful contribution to reduce CO2-emissions of the countless diesel gensets all over the world, primarily in developing countries with week grid infrastructure and off-grid power supply.
CARBON TURNAROUND’s cooperation with xelectrix Power gives us the right answers for many decarbonization challenges in different markets. This includes solutions, among others, for renewable energy integration and storage, diesel genset optimization and electric vehicle charging stations.
350 Renewables
350 Renewables is a boutique consulting engineering company specialized in tailor-made solutions for the renewable energy industry with focus on the Latin American markets. 350 Renewables is a valuable partner of CARBON TURNAROUND for its flexibility in exploring and developing innovative solutions which perfectly fit the client’s needs and at the same time significantly support the global energy transition.
We share the same vision of a decarbonized and decentralized energy system as the main pillar of a decarbonized economic system. CARBON TURNAROUND can count on the expert knowledge from the experienced and international team of 350 Renewables as valuable support for specific technical and engineering challenges related to CARBON TURNAROUND’s decarbonization projects for its clients in the field of renewable energy generation and integration.
ecoconsultants
Established in 1999, ecoconsultants has become one of the leading consulting engineering companies in the environmental sector in Austria. It is currently involved in many distinguished national projects, where complex environmental technical questions must be addressed. The company has proven on many occasions how economically efficient as well as technically and legally sound environmental protection can be. As a professional partner with a vision and a complete range of services in all areas of environmental technology, ecoconsultants provides companies, authorities and research institutions with everything from consultancy, sampling and analysis to preparing expert opinions. The main expertise of ecoconsultants are waste management, recycling, circular economy, environmental analysis, emission measurements, construction industry & property development, contaminated sites management, landfill planning and supervision, carbon footprinting, and environmental permitting procedures. With its expertise and technical expert knowledge, ecoconsultants is the perfect complement and partner for CARBON TURNAROUND in order to drive our clients’ decarbonization and sustainability transformation.
TÜV Süd
Since 2021, CARBON TURNAROUND has established a work cooperation with the prestigious standardization and certification body TÜV SÜD in the field of sustainability assessment of corporate clients. Our cooperation’s subject is the use of a proprietary and unique assessment methodology developed by the TÜV SÜD in order to measure and monitor the contribution of companies to reach the UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs), which were agreed by the UN member states by the year 2030. The SDGs are a holistic set of 17 sustainability goals with 169 targets and more than 1,500 indicators, covering environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainability. This makes reliable measurements – both of the actual current impact of activities from companies and of the improvement or deterioration resulting from implemented measures – extremely complex. NGOs are demanding more and more concrete data about the SDG assessment of international companies. The TÜV SÜD Sustainability Assessment methodology was developed in order to address the pressing need for tangible data and to reduce the complexity of sustainability assessments. It does so by reducing the extensive and complex data sources of environmental reporting to an easily observable set of key metrics, visualized in simple, understandable diagrams. CARBON TURNAROUND cooperates with TÜV SÜD in the implementation of this novel sustainability assessment approach for the sake of helping our clients to get better answers about their current standings and progress in their sustainability transformation.
Centro Economía Circular
The Centro Economía Circular (CEC) is a specialized Colombian consulting company which is committed to promote the circular economy concept on the Colombian market.
CEC develops strategies, solutions and new business models based on circularity for its clients. It enables them to achieve an optimal use of resources by preventing waste production at its source. The aim is to develop innovative solutions for its clients in order to help them in the transformation process towards sustainability.
CEC is composed of a team of experienced consultants from diverse backgrounds, all dedicated to circularity in order to find integrated solutions for its clients based on their sustainability challenges. The scope of services covers aspects such as circularity strategy development, circular product design and environmental engineering.
The aim is to discover the potential of waste as a sustainable business model for its clients, thus pushing the Colombian economy towards circularity.
CARBON TURNAROUND shares a common vision with CEC about how a decarbonized and sustainable economic system based on circularity should look like. That’s why we are cooperating on the Colombian market as strategic partners for the sake of circularity.
Sonnenerde
Since the year 2012 Sonnenerde is operating one of the first biomass pyrolysis plants in Europe for the production of biochar for soil amendment and other commercial uses. Sonnenerde was awarded in the past with several high prestigious sustainability awards for its innovative production facility for biochar and the diversity of final products, which range from soil fertilizers and with biochar enriched compost, up to products for animal feed for horses and dogs. The high product qualities and the achieved added value allows a highly profitable valorisation of lignocellulosic organic waste for the production of biochar. The long-lasting experience with the operation of its pyrolysis plant and the achieved process optimizations make Sonnenerde to one of the technology leaders in the field of biochar production and use.
We are very glad to count with Sonnenerde as strategic partner for the development of CARBON TURNAROUND´s biochar business. We consider biochar as a key technology for the use of waste biomass with a maximized climate change mitigation effect. The use of biochar for non-energetic applications is still seen as the only commercially available technological option for the active sequestration of carbon dioxide and will play an important role to achieve the Paris Agreement goals. Biochar production also will be a cornerstone of a sustainable bioeconomy by transforming organic waste into highly demanded sustainable resources as input for different industries and in parallel sequestering carbon dioxide.
