The Impact

Hydrogen powered planes coming soon

To: The Impact Readers

Happy New Year 🎉

New exciting things coming this year!

We are working on new podcast episodes, curating exclusive content and bringing on new writers from within the industry to help us curate the best Op-Ed pieces about cleantech news.

Stay tuned as we help you better hear the perspectives and insights of operators from within the industry.

In Your Inbox: How one company is making ecommerce more sustainable; Hydrogen and zero emission flight is attracting big capital

🚀 STARTUPS & TECH

Making Ecommerce More Sustainable

By: Daniel Kriozere

Mandatum
Sustainability spans more than just traditional commerce. (Image: Nathalia Rosa)

This week, Damian Estrada, the Founder and CEO of Mandatum, discussed what he is working on. Mandatum is turning e-commerce’s unsustainable inefficiencies into money for the Amazon Rainforests, savings for shoppers, and profits for brands. Below are the key takeaways from the conversation.

Why does this matter?

  • The Amazon rainforest accounts for more than half of the entire world’s remaining rainforests. It is also referred to as the ‘Lungs of the Planet’ because it produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen. It plays a critical role in maintaining climate function regionally and globally, a contribution which everyone depends on.

  • In Colombia, where 10% of the Amazon Rainforest resides and covers 46% of the country, there is deforestation, which causes wildfires, impacts the biodiversity, and displaces natives, generating extreme poverty, unemployment, illnesses, and violence.

  • Despite all the effort to resolve these problems, The Natural Conservancy confirmed that there is a $700B nature financing gap (per year) on top of the $140B spent in 2019.

  • 99.9% of today’s shopping is made in an unsustainable way. Sustainable shopping is not only about what you shop, but also about the way you shop for anything.

  • Shopping trend makers like Amazon and Walmart continue pushing for value-added services that encourage the need for “immediacy,” like 2-hour delivery, 1-day free shipping, and same-day store pick-up. There is no such thing as a free lunch, so it makes products more expensive for shoppers and less profitable for brands. It also demands more resources, like additional inventory (one day of inventory in the USA accounts for $12 billion in resources), non-optimal packaging, and non-optimal last mile.

  • There are inefficiencies in the value chain process that can be turned into resources. Specifically, for every $100 spent on durable goods, up to $50 go to immediacy.

  • Mandatum’s My Planet Account™ helps people to understand the fight against climate change, the problem, the solutions at hand, and measure how their actions impact the environment.

What’s next?

  • We could close the nature conservation gap with the money we spend on immediacy when shopping for durable goods.

  • The solution helps commerce to transition gradually to a sustainable way of shopping while generating an immediate impact in the climate change fight by making monetary donations to protect our planet.

  • Shoppers use Mandatum to build a discount in seconds, pay for their climate actions, and make commerce more sustainable. Consumers and brands save money and pay for their climate actions at no cost to them, including making donations to protect forests and oceans and offsetting their carbon footprint. In exchange, shoppers wait longer for their deliveries.

  • The 2020s is the decade of the fight against climate change with 73% of Americans willing to change shopping habits to help the environment and 79% of Americans supporting the Endangered Species Act.

  • As soon as the sustainable mainstream starts to realize that the current way to shop for any product is not sustainable, they will look for a sustainable alternative way to shop.

  • Everyone – rich or poor – will contribute with monetary donations to protect rainforests and oceans at no cost to them.

Future Outlook

We will have zero-inventory virtual and brick and mortar showrooms for durable goods, where shoppers will decide the products they want and place the build-to-order order on their cell phones or in-store screens. Brand creators will delivery direct to the consumer. Marketplaces and retailers will continue having the immediacy approach mostly for fast-moving consumer goods, and the right amount of inventory to serve durable goods orders that will demand immediate delivery. The catch is that those products will have a high premium when compared to the prices available via Mandatum.

Sign up for The Impact and learn the perspectives behind the latest sustainability trends

🧬 SCIENCE

Funding Taking Flight

By: Daniel Kriozere

Ampaire & ZeroAvia
Zero emissions travel is becoming a hot sector for investors to push into. (Image: Ampaire)

ZeroAvia, raised a $37.7M Series A, backed by some big investors, including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Shell Ventures, and Ecosystem Integrity Fund. ZeroAvia is building a hydrogen-powered, zero-emission powertrain for commercial air travel.

Why does this matter?

What's next?

  • Val Miftakhov, the CEO of ZeroAvia, says that ZeroAvia has letters of intent from about 15 airlines. The company’s technology is projected to be commercially available in 2023.

  • Governments are also playing in the game, pushing for decarbonization, specifically in Nordic countries.

  • ZeroAvia is using their funds for the ongoing development of its ZA-600 hydrogen fuel cell powertrain, which can power a 10- to 20-passenger plane for a flight of 575 miles.

  • Aircraft programs usually take at least five or six years to develop once the technology is proven, meaning that the entire ecosystem will need to transition (hydrogen producers, manufacturers, and airports).

What's next?

Electrification of aviation will gradually gain market share, primarily in the form of hybrids. As this shift occurs, other pieces of the ecosystem will play a big part – from power density of batteries to hydrogen production and infrastructure. For long term success, collaboration is needed, especially between innovators, airports, and utilities.

Subscribe || Advertise || Feedback || Privacy

Writers: Swarnav S Pujari, Daniel Kriozere

If you aren’t absolutely thrilled with The Impact, reply and let us know why. Or you can unsubscribe from all updates by clicking here.

Copyright Š  The Impact 2021. All Rights Reserved || 19 Morris Ave, Bldg 128, Brooklyn NY 11205

Twitter Youtube Medium Linkedin Spotify
Twitter Linkedin Youtube
© Impact Climate Group, LLC 2021 • All Rights Reserved • Brooklyn, NY

Discover Pre Series-A Climate Startups Weekly

Develop your market map of up-and-coming climate startups and market opportunities by subscribing to our weekly newsletter for free.