Eco Innovations: Gutierrez Advocates for Sustainable Solutions
Guillermo Gutierrez (MS ’22) strongly believes in the overall benefits of a circular economy. “It has never made sense to me why our society throws away perfectly useful materials. When I look at my trash, most of what I throw away has a longer useful life left; we just don't have the systems in place to do so.”
He decided that earning an advanced degree would help him to make the biggest impact. Gutierrez chose to attend CMU because of the dual-degree Technology Ventures program’s focus on entrepreneurship. “I found a track in CEE, which totally aligned with my desire to learn about environmental decision-making. The cross-disciplinary class options and skill building really spoke to me.”
While working toward his degrees, Gutierrez performed independent research under the guidance of Professor Julie Chen. The research became a paper on the opportunities in a circular economy—where producers and consumers of materials recognize that there is value in goods past a single use. In his view, a circular economy “opens up opportunities for reuse and recycling while changing the way the supply chain is viewed.”
He adds that the paper discusses the current state and technologies of the recycling industry, its challenges, and actionable opportunities.
“Decision-making, probability, data management, and other classes gave me a solid understanding of what can be done in this industry. My previous career was in energy operations, so this new lens I received at CEE, and particularly through CMU's approach to engineering, has been really helpful.”
Armed with this knowledge and a desire to shine a spotlight on sustainability, Gutierrez co-founded his own start-up company, Eco Mercantile Corporation, with fellow CEE graduate Manish Mishra (MS ‘21). Their goal is to focus on “materials that would have the most potential for profit and emissions reduction by recycling.”
Gutierrez says his work at CEE provided a strong foundation for his career. “As we performed customer discovery for the start-up, I used the communication skills gained at CEE to discover a new way to connect with potential industry allies.” He found that too many people look at environmentalism from what he calls an altruistic point of view. “I agree, but you must recognize that life needs to be practical.”
Gutierrez believes that data-driven meaningful action, and he credits his education at CEE with giving him hands-on opportunities to learn and grow his skills in leveraging data to make an impact. “Decision-making, probability, data management, and other classes gave me a solid understanding of what can be done in this industry. My previous career was in energy operations, so this new lens I received at CEE, and particularly through CMU's approach to engineering, has been really helpful.”
Gutierrez remains active in research and advocating for a circular economy. He recently completed the Climatebase Fellowship program, a collaboration of professionals working to apply their expertise to address climate change. He’s also excited to announce that his start-up was recently admitted into an accelerator called Labstart—an opportunity that started when he met company representatives at a CEE event.
“This opportunity with Labstart is the result of the research and work that Manish Mishra and I completed at CEE,” said Gutierrez. Labstart was particularly interested in his educational experience in civil and environmental engineering, data analysis, systems, and decision-making skills.
“Getting into an accelerator is a huge milestone. We plan to leverage it to find technologies to address opportunities discovered during our research at CMU.”
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Header photo left to right: Guillermo Gutierrez and Manish Mishra