Mushrooms as a Solution for Waste Management Mycocycle
Mycocycle has managed to train one of Earthâs mightiest mushrooms, mycelium, to secrete enzymes through materials using a biologic synthesis process.
The Most Promising Electric Solution For Boating Pollution
Flux Marine has designed an electric marine engine for boats that bests both the traditional and developing outboard products on the market.
How Extracting Natural Biogas From Lake Kivu Can Prevent A Limnic Eruption
Philip Morkel, Hydragasâ founder, built expertise in major energy projects in Africa over the past 30 years, which includes ins and outs of Lake Kivu. Lake Kivu can extract up to $50 billion in revenues from the lake over at least 50 years. The technology has the potential of managing the arctic permafrost being threatened by climate change.
CarbonCraft: Carbon Utilization For Sustainable Homes
How has international investment into debt financing supported solar products in addressing climate change and energy inequity in sub-Saharan Africa
Osmoses: Transforming Chemical Separations
Osmoses (CleanTech Open Northeast Finalist), founded by CEO Francesco Maria and CTO Holden Lai, is working on scaling and marketing molecular membranes to reduce energy and resource use in the industrial chemical industry.
InfiSense: An Important Company To Watch As Companies Decarbonize Through Rich Data
InfiSense was one of six finalists in the 2021 Cleantech Open Northeast Cohort. While not a traditional clean technology, InfiSense found success through positioning itself as a key component of decarbonization, resilience, and meaningful action regarding the built environment.
Precision Agâs âRight to Repairâ Issue ⢠Howe Neat
Daniel Howe runs a precision agriculture venture called Howe Neat which is providing farmers the flexibility with both hardware and software solutions that avoid the âright to repairâ limitations placed upon existing products and services.
The Spheromak Approach To Fusion ⢠CTFusion
Fusion is a suitable replacement for fossil fuels because it is carbon-free and provides equal or greater reliability with higher power density working in concert with conventional renewables to provide deep decarbonization across the entire energy ecosystem.
The Technology Bringing Texture to Alternative Meats
Gelatex has created a scaffolding technology that enables companies like Beyond Meat to produce plant-based meats that contain the exact same textures as the authentic meats weâve come to love.
A Scalable Technology Decarbonizing Trucking ⢠Remora Carbon
Remora Carbon is building a device that captures the carbon emissions from a semi-truck. They sell the captured carbon dioxide to concrete producers and other end-users, helping companies earn new revenue while meeting their climate commitments.
The Company Scaling Reforestation to One Trillion Trees
Terraformation is working on fighting climate change through scaling reforestation efforts. Their team starts at the ground level for reforestation projects, where they come to assess the land, plan out what seeds and native trees are in the region, plan and monitor using their apps and sustain and scale projects through financing mechanisms such as carbon offsets.
An Alternative to Food Based Bio-Fuels
Hexas may stem negative externalities from both deforestation and the use of marginal cropland with the successful deployment of its biomass solution. This would be accomplished by converting marginal farmlands into quality farmland in about five years while providing biomass to be used for a number of applications instead of trees.
Bringing Transparency to Reforestation Efforts ⢠Pachama
Pachama enables remote verification over the life of reforestation projects by utilizing satellite data mixed with AI to ensure reforestation projects are being maintained and are performing for the life of the project.
Hydrogens Tangled Tie to Climate
What makes hydrogen unique is the science isnât new and, depending on the application, is proven to work. More than 90m tonnes are produced each year, resulting in revenues of over $150bn.
The majority of that production comes from producing ammonia, a foundational ingredient in artificial fertilizer.
Climate Tech VCs may be missing out on compelling and under-invested Food & Ag opportunities
There is a tremendous opportunity to further invest in Food & Ag, solve one of the worldâs biggest problems and have a net positive impact on our planet.
Making climate-based business decisions a year in advance
In 2021 (as of July 9), there have been eight weather/climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each to affect the United States.
BlueTech Blooms in Miami â Seaworthy Collective Launches Inaugural Cohort
That is until now, as Seaworthy Collective, an ocean technology venture studio and startup community, opens with its first cohort to build entrepreneurs in BlueTech and an ecosystem of experts and innovators to make real change to Earthâs largest aquatic environment.
The Future of Solar
NovaSolix is developing a new solar device that will generate the cleanest and cheapest form of energy on Earth by converting all light in the solar spectrum.
Sequestering Carbon in the Built Environment
Carbon sequestration is a critical component to mitigate climate change. Where technology innovations to capture carbon fall short, traditional techniques can help.
BamCore is harnessing the power of timber bamboo and industrialized construction techniques to decarbonize the built environment.
Vistex Composites: Enabling Broader Adoption of Composites with Improved Manufacturing Methods
Vistex Composites is solving a big problem for the manufacturing sector. Traditional methods and processes are lengthy and expensive.
Eliminating Hexavalent Chromium from the Coating Industry
Corrosion and wear are two major problems with manufacturing metals. The impacts of corrosion costs industry around $2.5T. Current solutions, such as hexavalent chromium and cadmium, are ineffective and dangerous. Creating a better solution for corrosion can protect the environment. A durable corrosion resistant coating can address all the issues enable the future. This is what Mehdi Kargar, CEO of Maxterials, is solving.
Helping Green Hydrogen grow with… Oil Storage Assets?
Carbon 280 has basically developed a liquid battery, except rather than holding energy in the traditional electrochemical sense (i.e. lithium-ion battery), they have developed a material called hidrilyte which enables them to store hydrogen in a mineral-based magnesium oil. It is one of the few technologies I have come across that manages to improve its storage capacity with each cycle rather than diminish, and CO2 is never emitted during their process.
How To Convert A Diesel Engine To Run On Ethanol
Electrification of everything is a growing trend in the market. However, electrification is not necessarily the be all, end all solution, especially when it comes to transportation. ClearFlame Engine Technologies offers a complementary solution to reducing emissions from diesel engines. BJ Johnson, ClearFlame CEO and co-founder, talks about how the company is enabling heavy-duty and off-highway industries to transition to fossil-free heavy-duty powertrains faster and at a lower cost than any alternative.
Re-Nuble â Enabling Vertical Farms to go Organic
Globally, agriculture accounts for nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, uses nearly two-thirds of freshwater, and in many countries is also the biggest contributor to water pollution. Vertical and indoor farming is one solution that can fix these problems by reducing carbon footprint and resource usage. The one catch is if these farms want to produce organic produce, some of the inputs used are not organic. This is where Re-Nuble comes in, producing inputs for vertical and indoor farms that are organic-enabling. Tinia Pina digs into this issue and how Re-Nuble is filling in this gap.
Precision Agriculture & Carbon Management To Aid Rising Water Costs
Climate tech startups have always had to navigate multiple âvalleys of deathâ to create successful business models. With all the attention and momentum there currently is around the world to manage carbon as well as water, these startups, and those similar to them should find it a lot easier to get the funding, talent, customers, and partners they need. Necessity, perhaps.
The Leading Edge Of Solar Wafers
The solar industry is booming, and it is going to keep accelerating â solar is here to stay, and Leading Edge is innovating to improve on energy generation in solar cells. In 2020, 82% of all new power capacity at the utility-scale was renewable. Leading Edgeâs technology will only continue to help drive the prices of new solar projects down.
The Future Of Mobility Post Revelâs Approval In NYC
Revel is a transportation company thatâs electrifying cities through charging infrastructure and shared electric vehicle fleets. Starting on August 2nd, Revel will be launching an app-based car service for 50 Tesla Model Y SUVs in New York.
Daily Catch – The Hidden Story Behind Our Food
This combined with social media can make for rapid changes in consumer trends as well as how producers operate and produce food. More importantly, the value that Daily Catch mentions can be amplified by promoting its value through creative outlets like TikTok, Instagram, and live and in-person. Effectively bringing education to the masses by leveraging technology could spur a “climate education sector” that could contribute to significant carbon reduction by promoting climate positive brands and practices.
Turntide â Accelerating Electrification Of Everything
The electrification of everything has been a growing trend since 2020. Turntide Technologies is one company that is acting and innovating to help accelerate this trend.
The Hidden Impact Of Using Traditional Sunscreen
Gadusol Labs, a synthetic biology university spin-out company based in Corvallis, OR, has begun to produce a natural, powerful antioxidant that harnesses the inherent UV protective abilities of marine life. Katie Pettinger, CEO and Co-Founder, explains why she and her team began to work on materializing new, organic UV-protective compounds to protect our skin and the environment.
Lab Grown Meat Could Decarbonize The Climate Quickly ⢠Orbillion Bio
Roughly a third of all emissions that come from the agriculture sector is driven by factory farming and meat production.
Storage Innovation Is Key To Hydrogen’s Next 5 Years
Not many people know how to store the smallest element in the universe at nearly 700 times the pressure of our atmosphere (1 atmosphere= ~14.69 pounds per square inch). As it turns out, in the hydrogen economy, such knowledge is deeply coveted.
Finding The Next SOURCE Of Water
SOURCE, a hydropanel technology startup backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, is focused on producing clean water for consumption. Cody Friesen, SOURCE’s CEO, elaborates how big this problem is, how SOURCE is tackling this problem, and how SOURCE is thinking about impact/impact metrics.
Mycelium As A Super Material For Reducing Plastic Pollution
As reducing plastic pollution and greenhouse emissions from animal agriculture have become priorities in stopping the climate crisis, companies have been searching for material substitutes that can both sustain their business long term as well as promote a sustainable lifestyle for consumers.
Wildfire, Youâve Met Your Match
Wildfires are not only devastating to communities and habitats, but also to economies. The need for powerful new firefighting capabilities is higher than it’s ever been, and growing. The urgency to bring more technology to this market has never been stronger.
Acuity Agriculture Puts Data To Work for Farmers
Acuity Agriculture is a California-based precision agriculture company and Steven Dodge is the founder. Steven and his team have done a remarkable job contracting work with farmers in the West and delivering data-based solutions to help farmers manage their crops.
How Amazon Is Supporting Sustainability Startups
Consumerism is rampant and is contributing to climate issues. Amazon is one of the biggest e-commerce businesses in the USâin 2020, Amazon captured 49.1% of the market.
Drones And Climate Change
As corporations tackle climate change, many industries and verticals can leverage new technologies in their day-to-day operations to reduce their emissions and costs while increasing safety. Drones, a subcategory of autonomous vehicles, can play both a direct and tangential benefit in the environmental space through a variety of alternatives to “business as usual” with some being implemented at scale while others still being tested. Drones are particularly interesting because they touch both the consumer and enterprise verticals, meaning they can have broad reach and appeal.
How To Deliver Supply Chain Transparency And Equity In Farming
Throughout the pandemic, sustainability and quality are back in focus for many brands, since consumers are paying attention to these issues and are willing to pay for a better product. David Davies took time to discuss how AgUnity is helping by providing transparency to the supply chain.
Executive Insight: Executing International Green Hydrogen Projects
So when I say circular economy, I mean that a population of 10,000 generates the waste that is just the right amount to power the vehicles that are owned by these 10,000 people.
Using Phytoplankton To Sequester Carbon
This week, I had the opportunity to chat with Philip Kithil, CEO, and Salvador Garcia, CRO, from Ocean-Based Climate Solutions to chat about how their Autonomous Upwelling Pump systems are pumping deep-ocean nutrient-rich seawater to fertilize phytoplankton on the ocean surface to sequester carbon.
Resorting To Reservoirs For The Future Of Energy Storage
For the world to become climate neutral by the coming 30-40 years, enormous amounts of renewable energy will be deployed.
Building the utility of the future to support 100% EV adoption
In a significant milestone for the development of its microgrid technology, ElectricFish has been issued a patent that uniquely covers the creation of a “utility of the future” that is built of locally decentralized energy storage units and dynamically optimizes energy to enable a seamless and grid-resilient transition to EV charging.
Oil wells for clean energy production and storage
Renewell Energyâs timing may be opportune as theyâre working on a prototype in Texas and it should be ready to test in mid-July as the White Houseâs pending infrastructure plan includes about $17B to remediate oil wells, which is what Renewell would like to do.
The magic mix needed to get to $1.50/kg Hydrogen – Origen Hydrogenâs solid state electrolyzer innovation
Not even the best policy environments can overcome the reality of physics and unit economics. Cheaper materials to produce more efficient and affordable electrolyzers will enable low cost production of green hydrogen, but some rather steep market milestones still need to be met. Getting electrolyzers to a scale that enables sub $1.50 / kilo of hydrogen is a major milestone that will enable incredible decarbonization across the board.
Mending the Fashion Supply Chain
The fashion industry is often cited as the second largest polluting of our planet today, and it’s often not just bad for the environment, but also for the garment workers who most often live in communities disproportionately affected by climate change.
Getting California Out Of A Drought – By Using Trenches
Surface water evaporates and Umida AGâs underground trenches will try to mitigate evaporation. During the winter months, when thereâs an abundance of water, the trenches will help recharge underground aquifers for future water use.
Board Games as a Solution to Climate Change
From talking to hundreds of founders over the last couple years, Iâve learned that one of the biggest challenges to technology adoption is educating consumers. Education is key for changing consumer behavior.
LevelTen Energy’s Approach To Acclerating Toward 100% Renewable Energy
When it comes to hitting our ambitious renewable energy goals, be it by 2030 or 2050, the rate at which we are building isn’t fast enough. A lot of the reason for that is because of the number of parties involved in building and energizing a single solar or wind project.
All Power Labs | Turning forests into clean energy and fertilizer
All Power Labs (APL) can help California manage the forest fuels that led to these wildfires and can provide clean energy remotely. And, APLâs biochar as output from their biomass conversion process can help sequester carbon in the soil that in turn grows food.
YellowTin â Helping Electrify America
Corporations and municipalities are working to meet greenhouse gas emissions reductions commitments. Additionally, many states in the US have announced climate action plans with a greenhouse gas reduction target. YellowTin is here to help by providing a clean electrification platform to engage residential consumers to advance their decarbonization goals.
Sway – Making Consumer Goods Compostable
The ocean is a unknown place whose resources are becoming more known as we innovate to reverse the effects of climate change. From power generation to carbon sequestration, ocean technologies span the gamete for how they can impact life on land. One specific case of this is in plastics, something often thought of as polluting the ocean.
Neutron Blue â Using Nuclear to Regenerate Carbon back into Fuel
Natural Gas is trending right now â it burns cleaner, and the use of cogeneration, fuel cells, and polyethylene production means that natural gas will continue to be an energy staple for years to come.
Organic Waste Management Made Just as Simple as Taking Out the Trash
Food waste is an enormous environmental, social and economic problem. The issue at hand has as much to do with the need for innovation but also for regulatory-induced alignment of incentives.
Synthetic Biology and a Window into the Future of Food
The pre-pandemic world of May 2019 might seem like an eon ago but it is less than two years since Beyond Meat went public and kicked off an explosion in the alternative protein market. Weâve since seen a proliferation of start-ups tackling plant-based meat and dairy, as well as a burgeoning cultured meat space.
Joule Case – An Electric Alternative To Diesel Generators
Joule Case is a module battery system that can stack and does not require an installer, unlike other energy generators.
Miravel â Distributed Food Resources
One main driver behind foodtech innovation is to reduce food waste and the resources that go into producing food. Supply chain logistics is another contributor to the problem.
How Carbon Collective Builds Consumer ESG Portfolios
Carbon Collective is a new investment platform that allows you to invest in low-fee, diversified portfolios that are 100% aligned on solving climate change.
How CalWave Is Reducing The Cost Of Wave Power Harvesting
Wave power is the third largest renewable resource after wind and solar in the US. We can provide power at night in the wintertime where other renewables canât, and so far it is completely underutilized.
Working on saving the planet: Even robots will get a green collar job
Today, the push to replace a white with a green collar is real and that is great. Yet, the titles on green job boards sound quite familiar: data scientist, designer, product owner, project or sales manager.
E-mobility has won the race: VW
Volkswagen held its first âPower Dayâ event on March 15th 2021. The CEO announced, “e-mobility has won the race” and laid out the companyâs vision for battery technology, charging infrastructure, and expanding its own battery manufacturing capacity.
A Green Solution for Insulation Materials, Hempitecture
Insulation is one of the fastest growing segments of the construction market, due to the increased focus on improving the energy efficiency of the built environment, which is currently responsible for approximately 40% of our domestic energy consumption and carbon footprint.
Wave Power Is Approaching Affordability With New Grants Flooding In
Globally, wave energy has a theoretical capacity to create 2 TW of power. By capturing even a fraction of this, wave energy collection systems can become a legitimate, reliable source of power for microgrids, coastal nations, and island nations.
Project Finance vs. VC, the Middle Ground â Corporate VC, Q&A with HG Ventures
HG Ventures launched back in 2018 as the corporate venture arm of the Heritage Group, a multibillion-dollar private Midwest conglomerate in the traditional industrial sectors of construction, environmental services and specialty chemicals.
Sympower Is Enabling Europe’s Demand Response Market
Dutch demand flexibility startup Sympower has completed a âŹ5.2mm Series B, backed by Kees Koolen, raised to bring increased demand flexibility to European electricity markets.
Cemvita Factory â Synthetic Biology to Reverse Climate Change
Cemvita Factory engineers microbes to use carbon dioxide or methane as a feedstock to produce carbon-negative industrial chemicals.
Beyond the Impossible: Kuleana Makes Plant-Based Seafood
Get ready for the next Impossible Foods, but for raw tuna â Kuleana. Kuleana provides plant-based seafood without the environmental and ethical consequences of traditional tuna farming.
TreeCard Plants Trees From Everyday Purchases
A credit card that plants trees every single time you make a transaction. Started by a Peter Theil Fellow, with a strong background and track record.
Demand Response Paired With Electric Supply – David Energy Is A Vertically Integrated Electric Retailer
David Energy wants to vertically integrate these software solutions with the traditional retailer model.
Carbon Capture Tech Is Getting The Funding It Needs
On March 5, 2021, The Department of Energy (DoE) announced a $24 million investment in carbon capture technologies.
TrueAlgae â Creating Metabolite Tea for Soil Health
TrueAlgae is a biotechnology company that has a very efficient, patented mode of production for making high-quality algae.
Flywheels As An Alternative Energy Storage Solution
Revterra is developing a clean, kinetic energy storage solution for long-duration energy storage for energy arbitrage and peak shaving.
Electric Airplanes Are Coming In Hot
Ampaire, an Elemental Excelerator portfolio company with $7M+ from NASA and backed by Techstars, is has been innovating in the space.
FloWaste â Providing Data and Insights to Minimize Food Waste
FloWaste recently announced the close of their $270K Pre-Seed round. The round was led by Plug and Play Ventures
A Low Cost Solution To Solve Water Insecurity
New Zealander, and 2021 Lexus Design Award Finalist Henry Glogau, has developed a multi-purpose, low-cost desalination system, overhead light, and energy storage system.
Analysis of the Plastics and the Circular Economy Sector
Manufacturers have produced 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics over the last 60 years. In the last four decades, global plastic production has quadrupled. If this trend continues, plastic manufacturing will make up 15% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
A World Powered by Algae
Manta Biofuel is using algae to make a cost-competitive, renewable replacement for crude oil. They closed >$1.3M in seed capital
TROES Goes Beyond Physical Batteries
Two Canadian government buildings are partnering up with TROES to install their units in two projects to move towards net-zero emissions.
Now Thatâs A Great Wrap!
Great Wrap is developing PHA-based products because it can break down in any environment â it’s marine biodegradable and home compostable
A Solution for Complex Plastics
This week Sebastian Sajoux, the CEO of Arqlite, talks about how Arqlite is fitting in to help with plastic recycling and re-use.
Why GreenTech Media Shut Down
The cleantech community was shaken today when Eric Wesoff announced on his new blog that GreenTech Media was shutting down.
PlasticBack is Converting Plastics Back Into Oil
PlasticBack has developed a unique and proprietary technology of plastic waste chemical recycling at far lower temperatures than current processes (below 100 degrees, compared to between 600 and 1000 degrees).
Brightmark is Turning Plastics intoâŚMore Plastics?
Waste to value processes are gaining momentum. Brightmark, a startup innovating to solve the problem of waste, has announced its intent to form a joint venture with SK Innovation to build a plastics pyrolysis plant in South Korea.
SPAN Raises $20M To Accelerate Smart Electrical Panel Adoption
Span adds strategic investors Munich Re Ventures and Amazon Alexa Fund to support growth and provide integrated energy solutions for homes.
How Two Beards are Tackling Waste
mobius is making plastics that are good for the environment from industrial organic waste. They turn that waste into plastic like materials.
Startup Storing Energy in Ice Cream
Before Axiom Cloud there was Axiom Energy. Both companies were set out to make commercial refrigerators efficient. Axiom Cloud made it out.
Stepping Up Towards Zero Waste
This week Sandra Sajen from ALBA W&H Smart City talks about their solution for waste collection, and how they are thinking about the future of the sector.
LAVO is building hydrogen based batteries for your home
LAVO is betting that hydrogen becomes ubiquitous in the residential/consumer space as well – proposing a 40 kWh hydrogen battery that competes with the Powerwall 2 – which has 3x less capacity than the first iteration of a hydrogen battery from LAVO.
Eradicating Poverty With Upcycled Food
Agricycle recently won FoodBytes! Pitch 2020 with their vertically integrated portfolio of ethically sourced and upcycled CPG brands with the mission of eliminating extreme rural poverty through market-based solutions. The team gratefully shared more information on their business and impact.
Turn CO2 Into Gravel – Save The Planet
Carbon capture technologies is an emerging market in the cleantech space that needs to be watched as it is likely to be instrumental in enabling a future that actually results in a world where our climate crisis has been avoided.
The Arrival Of Climate Focused Banks
Ando (backed by Jigar Shah) and Atmos (Led by Ravi Mikkelsen & Pete Hellwig) offer savings accounts that are designed to help you grow your money and help the environment at the same time.
Automate Your Recycling Efforts
CleanRobotics is a mission driven startup that is reinventing the way we think about recycling across the globe. We are creating a robotic trash can by combining next-generation robotics and sensor technology to automatically sort recyclables from everyday trash. By deploying our TrashBots, we can achieve huge impact.
Funding Taking Flight
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.
Making Ecommerce More Sustainable
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.
Susty, a Marketplace for Conscious Consumers
Consumer behavior plays a big role in trends and markets. Tara Jafarmadar Mujica, the CEO of Susty, explains what she is working on and how she is hoping to influence consumer behavior through product awareness â social, health, and environment.
Is QuantumScape’s Breakthrough The Real Deal?
QuantumScape recently announced their breakthrough in developing a solid state battery cell. This new cell can charge to 80% within 15 minutes – while also packing an energy density significantly higher than the best lithium ion batteries on the market. Why does this matter? This would be significant for EVs entering into the market should these […]
Analytics That Turn Waste – Green
This week Nik Balachandran, Founder and CEO of Zabble, discusses what he is working on and the broader waste management sector. Can you describe what Zabble does and its impact?Zabbleâs mission is to enable organizations to achieve zero waste by delivering real-time actionable insights. We have developed a 360-degree zero-waste management platform that: 1) helps universities and […]
Coffee Lovers, You Can Now Use Coffee Grounds As Oil
The Kawa Project is taking spent coffee grounds and upcycling them to create coffee oil and refined oil â both have multiple use cases, from soap and cleaners to candles. Following a previous piece on Kaffe Buenoâs business, Aaron Feigelman, the Founder of The Kawa Project, discusses more about coffee upcycling and what he is working on […]
Leather Made From Mycelium
MycoWorks, a startup creating materials at the intersection of art, nature and biotechnology using mycelium, recently raised a $45M Series B.
Aum Energy Creates Low-Carbon, Renewable Natural Gas
This week Rohit Vedhara, the Director of Aum Energy, talks about their innovation in anaerobic digestion and how it ties in with policy and the market.