Shaken Not Burned From Formula One to food aisles: Nick Wirth’s ROI-driven sustainability revolution
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Jul 31, 2025 
In this discussion, Nick Wirth, an aerodynamicist and former Formula One team owner, now cleantech entrepreneur, shares his insights on fast-tracking climate solutions. He reveals how treating sustainability as an engineering challenge leads to impactful innovations like EcoBlade and AirDoor, cutting energy costs by up to 70%. Wirth emphasizes the importance of aligning sustainability with strong financial returns and critiques the slow adoption of heat pumps. His journey shows that the keys to a more energy-efficient future already exist, but we must implement them at scale.
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Nick's Early F1 Career
- Nick Wirth started his career right after university as the only aerodynamicist for a new Formula One team.
- He worked alongside Adrian Newey and experienced early successes and tough setbacks, leading him eventually toward sustainability tech.
Tech From Racing Transforms Retail
- Applying computational fluid dynamics (CFD) from racing to retail enables massive energy savings.
- Focus on ROI rather than just sustainability makes adoption more feasible for businesses.
M&S Challenge Spurs Innovation
- Richard Gillis at Marks & Spencer challenged Nick to retrofit energy-saving tech with strong ROI for open supermarket cabinets.
- This led to the development of the EcoBlade, greatly reducing energy loss without impacting sales.