Squair & 100+ Accelerator

AI Copilot for Industrial Refrigeration: How Squair Cut 20% Energy Waste

Squair and the 100+ Accelerator won edie’s Innovation Project of the Year Award for an AI copilot that transforms existing industrial refrigeration assets into intelligent, autonomous and efficient systems – without equipment replacement, construction work or operational downtime.

The challenge

Industrial refrigeration is one of the most energy-intensive yet overlooked parts of industrial operations. In distribution centres, cold rooms can represent around 60% of total energy consumption, creating a major source of operational cost, emissions and energy waste.

Many refrigeration systems still depend on fragmented controls, manual adjustments, spreadsheets and reactive maintenance, making inefficiencies difficult to detect and even harder to correct at scale. Traditional solutions demand equipment replacement, civil works and months of implementation, making them expensive, slow and difficult to scale.

The solution

Squair was built to make existing refrigeration infrastructure smarter and more efficient. Its core innovation is the proprietary Universal Connector, which integrates any existing refrigeration asset into the AI platform regardless of brand or model – including Schneider, Danfoss, ABB and Kron equipment. The system can be deployed in days, with results in weeks.

By lowering energy consumption and peak demand, Squair reduces pressure on the grid and improves the business case for electrification and renewable energy adoption. This is particularly relevant in essential sectors where refrigeration cannot be switched off, including food and beverage, cold chain logistics, retail and pharmaceuticals.

How the project works

Once connected, five specialised AI agents learn the individual thermodynamic behaviour of each cold room and adjust operational parameters – such as hysteresis, defrost cycles and evaporator synchronisation – in real time, reducing consumption by up to 30% without touching the product setpoint.

At the heart of the system is the AI Operational Copilot, an assistant that turns complex industrial data into simple, actionable decisions. Managers receive operational alerts directly on WhatsApp, giving them the equivalent of an energy efficiency expert available 24 hours a day.

The solution has been recognised by the United Nations STI Solutions Book 2026, MIT Innovators Under 35 LATAM and the IoT Breakthrough Awards 2024.

The results

The AB InBev pilot, deployed across 29 distribution centres in Brazil and validated by the client’s Finance, Sustainability and Operations teams, achieved average monthly energy savings of 19.29%, including 28% in São Paulo and 25% at CDD Litoral SP.

With an initial investment of US$40,163, the project reached breakeven in month five and generated US$59,952 in total net savings – a 49.2% return on investment, or R$1.49 returned for every R$1 invested. The share of refrigeration issues resolved remotely has risen from 20% to more than 80%, reducing field visits, unplanned stoppages and perishable product losses.

The next step is to expand deployment across all of AB InBev’s more than 100 distribution centres in Brazil, before scaling to Colombia, Mexico and other markets across Latin America and Europe. Because Squair is plug-and-play, it can be replicated without structural adaptations. Squair also leads She Moves Energy, promoting visibility for women leaders in the energy sector.

At a glance

Who: Squair, with the support of the 100+ Accelerator

What: An AI copilot for industrial refrigeration, piloted with AB InBev

Where: Brazil

Why: To help industrial operators decarbonise immediately by reducing avoidable electricity demand from the assets they already use

When: Pilot complete, with wider roll-out planned

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