How MEER works

From Science to Scale

MEER is building an end-to-end passive cooling innovation platform — from fundamental physics and materials science through engineering, manufacturing, field deployment and real-world validation.

  • Research
    Science & materials
  • Make
    Engineered & manufactured
  • Deploy
    Measured in the field
SUNREFLECTIVE SURFACESHEAT → SPACE

The cooling challenge

The world needs cooling that doesn't cost the climate.

Extreme heat is accelerating. Demand for cooling is exploding. Air conditioning alone cannot solve the problem. What the world needs — and what almost no one is building at scale — is passive cooling.

Rising

Extreme heat is accelerating

The last decade contained the ten hottest years on record.

Exploding

Cooling demand is surging

AC use is projected to triple by 2050 — a growing emissions problem.

Insufficient

AC alone can't solve it

It cools indoors while heating the outdoors, and the poorest can't access it.

Needed

Scalable passive cooling

Cooling that works without electricity, refrigerants or emissions.

Our mission

An end-to-end platform for passive cooling — adaptation and mitigation together.

MEER doesn't just evaluate existing cooling technologies. We work across the full innovation lifecycle — physics of heat transfer, materials science, new concepts, engineering, prototypes, manufacturing where it unlocks scale, field deployment, environmental and human research, and continuous improvement — so effective cooling can reach the places that need it.

ADAPTATIONProtect people today· Cooler homes & schools· Shaded streets & markets· Crop & water protection· Immediate local benefitMITIGATIONCool the planet tomorrow· Surface reflectivity· Passive radiative cooling· Lower Earth heat uptake· Long-term climate benefitMEERINTERSECTIONBoth, together
Adaptation

Protect people today

Reflective surfaces cut local heat exposure immediately — homes, schools, clinics, markets, crops and water. Benefits arrive where and when they are needed most.

Mitigation

Cool the planet tomorrow

Higher surface reflectivity and enhanced radiative pathways to space return energy directly to the sky — complementing, never replacing, deep decarbonisation.

The MEER innovation pipeline

Research → materials → engineering → manufacturing → deployment → evidence.

A continuous loop, not a linear process. Every deployment feeds the next generation of science, engineering and manufacturing.

0:00 / 0:00
Stage 02 · Materials science/Dr. Ye Taoexplains the materials behind MEER's passive cooling systems.
  1. Stage 01

    Scientific research

    Physics of heat transfer, surface energy balance and radiative pathways.

  2. Stage 02

    Materials science

    Coatings, polymers, metals, composites, radiative films and reflective surfaces.

  3. Stage 03

    Concept development

    New ideas and opportunities for improved passive cooling.

  4. Stage 04

    Engineering design

    Practical, scalable, manufacturable products designed for real environments.

  5. Stage 05

    Prototype development

    Building and testing early systems in the lab and in the field.

  6. Stage 06

    Manufacturing

    Producing selected cooling products where it's the fastest route to affordability, quality and access.

  7. Stage 07

    Field deployment

    Schools, healthcare facilities, communities and urban environments.

  8. Stage 08

    Environmental & human research

    Thermal performance, durability, microclimates and physiological outcomes.

  9. Stage 09

    Continuous improvement

    Operational evidence feeds the next generation of materials and designs.

Evidence from stage 09 loops back into stages 01–02 — the pipeline never ends.

Materials science at MEER

We're not just applying existing materials. We're researching new ones.

MEER actively researches materials across the full spectrum of passive cooling — tuning not only for cooling performance, but for the balance between performance, durability, affordability, sustainability and scalability.

Performance Durability Affordability Sustainability Scalability
  • Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) materials
  • High-reflectance coatings
  • Advanced paints
  • Reflective polymer films
  • Sustainable composites
  • Aluminium & metallic reflective systems
  • Hybrid multi-layer materials
  • Low-cost manufacturing techniques
  • Locally producible materials
  • Next-generation passive cooling surfaces
Manufacturing as mission

Manufacturing is how we deliver impact — not a commercial objective.

Many high-performance cooling materials remain too expensive for widespread deployment because they were designed for premium commercial markets. MEER aims to redesign and manufacture cooling products that achieve comparable performance at a fraction of the cost — so deployment can reach the scale required to protect vulnerable communities, public infrastructure and entire cities.

Cost

Redesigning products so cooling performance is priced for the communities that need it.

Scale

Producing at the volumes required to protect vulnerable populations, not just premium buyers.

Access

Ensuring supply of durable, effective cooling products where markets currently don't deliver.

Quality

Direct control over materials, tolerances and field performance.

Continuous improvement

Products are never "finished."

Every deployment generates environmental, operational and human-performance data. That evidence feeds directly back into how we design, make and deploy the next generation.

Evidence-driven cycle

A continuous loop of research → deployment → measurement → refinement, driven by evidence rather than assumptions.

  • Improved materials
  • Improved engineering
  • Improved manufacturing
  • Improved deployment methods
  • Improved durability
  • Improved affordability

How we decide what to build

Five principles. Every technology has to pass all five.

A cooling technology that fails any one of these does not scale in the real world.

ScalableAffordableDurableSustainableMeasurableMEERFILTERS
  • Scalable

    Can millions use it?

  • Affordable

    Can low-income countries deploy it?

  • Durable

    Will it last?

  • Sustainable

    Does it fit within planetary boundaries?

  • Measurable

    Can we prove it works?

The MEER platform

Engineering + Science + Evidence — in one continuous loop.

Not engineering. Not research. All three. Very few organisations combine materials science, engineering, field deployment, environmental measurement and human physiology inside a single feedback cycle.

  1. 01

    Materials science

  2. 02

    Engineering

  3. 03

    Prototype

  4. 04

    Manufacturing

  5. 05

    Field deployment

  6. 06

    Environmental monitoring

  7. 07

    Human physiology

  8. 08

    Data

  9. 09

    Refinement

  10. 10

    Next-gen materials

Each stage informs the next — and the last feeds back into the first. That iterative loop is what turns science into cooling that actually works in the field.

Why measurement matters

We can't responsibly scale cooling if we don't know how it behaves.

Every technology on the pipeline is instrumented, measured and evaluated before it is scaled. Evidence is the gate.

  1. Step 1

    Prototype

  2. Step 2

    Sensors

  3. Step 3

    Field trials

  4. Step 4

    Human physiology

  5. Step 5

    AI analysis

  6. Step 6

    Improved design

  7. Step 7

    Next deployment

Cooling across time horizons

Working on now, next and next-next — simultaneously.

Almost nobody talks about the different time horizons of cooling. We build across all four at once.

01 Near-term

Deploy today

Roll out existing cooling technologies to communities under heat stress right now.

02 Medium-term

Improve today's materials

Reduce cost, extend durability, refine deployment methods.

03 Long-term

Invent the next generation

New materials, new coatings, new radiative-cooling systems.

04 Very long-term

Transform cities

Whole urban systems designed around passive cooling.

Adaptation + Mitigation

One intervention. Two climate benefits.

Passive cooling doesn't replace emissions reductions. It compounds them — while protecting people today.

Passive cooling deployed
Adaptation branch
  1. 1Lower local temperatures
  2. 2Health & wellbeing
  3. 3Education continuity
  4. 4Livable communities
Mitigation branch
  1. 1Lower AC demand
  2. 2Higher surface reflectivity
  3. 3Reduced heat absorption
  4. 4Cooler urban environments

Both branches operate in the same watts-per-square-metre that describe Earth's energy balance.

Why multiple technologies matter

Different environments need different cooling.

This is why MEER doesn't have — and shouldn't have — one product. Each context demands its own combination.

Africa

Low-cost reflective roofs

India

Reflective coatings at scale

Middle East

Urban cooling

Europe

Heat resilience retrofits

Agriculture

Crop and canopy cooling

Cities

Cooler pavements & surfaces

Schools

Modular shade canopies

Water

Reservoir reflection

The MEER innovation cycle

The single system behind everything we do.

Every part of MEER — research, engineering, deployment, measurement, refinement — feeds every other part. There is no start and no end.

MEERINNOVATION CYCLE
Scientific research
Materials science
Engineering
Manufacturing
Field trials
Environmental monitoring
Heat-health research
Evidence
Optimisation
Scale
  • Scientific research
  • Materials science
  • Engineering
  • Manufacturing
  • Field trials
  • Environmental monitoring
  • Heat-health research
  • Evidence
  • Optimisation
  • Scale

Climate science, materials science, engineering, manufacturing, field deployment, environmental measurement and human physiology — connected through one continuous cycle of research, innovation, validation and improvement. That integrated platform is what makes MEER different.