The hottest real estate you haven’t heard of
By Sherrie Totoki
With the increasing amount of mobility options, there is greater demand for a way to manage the hottest real estate in cities: curbs. This is where Populus comes in.
Populus is a SaaS platform used by more than 100 cities around the world to manage transportation pricing, carbon emissions, congestion and transportation policies. The software pulls data via application programming interface (API) from e-scooters, bikes, car shares, deliveries and autonomous vehicles, and shares that data with city officials to better manage these services. Cities can use this information to understand demand, and enact policies to create safer spaces by reducing congestion and cutting down on traffic incidents.
To reduce carbon, the Populus platform can help incentivize lighter use vehicles with lower carbon emissions. This may include restrictions on motorized vehicles, information on slow streets and preferred scooter parking and bike lanes. Populus can also be used to measure the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from micro mobility, as it did in partnership with funding from the EU. Through the initiative, Populus partnered with micro mobility companies in Finland, Estonia and Norway to add carbon emission reduction features to its platform. This data then allowed policymakers to measure the impact of switching between different mobility options.
More than 55 percent of the world lives in cities and this is expected to grow to 80 percent by 2050. The need to manage and reduce emissions due to transportation couldn’t be more pertinent, and Populus is the leading provider of transportation data to help achieve this.
Decarbonizing the built environment with grass
By Leah Garden
Tackling the GHG emissions associated with the built environment could be a massive boon to our goal of decarbonization before it's too late. The emissions associated with the operations of building (including construction and lifetime use) add up to almost 30 percent of global energy-related emissions. Enter startup Plantd.
The Durham, North Carolina-based company aims to replace traditional building foundation material with sustainable alternatives. Plantd was founded on the idea of "fundamentally changing [the built environment industry] to decarbonize our civilization," according to CEO and co-founder Josh Dorfman.
To make this goal a reality, Plantd challenges the status quo of using oriented strand boards (OSB) in construction. These are large wooden planks used in the foundations of homes and buildings, often created from a combination of poplar, aspen and a waterproof resin. Instead, Plantd has engineered an alternative option from fast-growing perennial grasses, mitigating land use and increasing carbon capture potential.
Dorfman told TechCrunch, "Unlike trees used for engineered wood products, which are harvested after growing for 10 to 12 years, our biomass regrows and is harvested every year from the same acreage." Faster-growing grasses should ensure larger amounts of carbon capture, in addition to the financial advantage of an annual harvest schedule.
Plantd recently closed its Series A funding round at $10 million, with the round led by American Family Ventures.
This startup converts food waste into economic opportunity
By Jake Mitchell
Food waste is a colossal climate and economic challenge. About 40 percent of all food is wasted, amounting to a whopping $940 billion in economic losses annually and 8 percent of greenhouse gas emissions (which is more than the entire airline industry).
Ecotone Renewables is a Pittsburgh-based, Black- and LGBTQ+-owned startup that has set out to tackle food waste through its patented system, ZEUS.
Ecotone’s ZEUS (Zero Emission Upcycling System) is an anaerobic digester that converts food waste into renewable energy and organic liquid plant fertilizer — a.k.a. Soil Sauce. According to Ecotone, this fertilizer improves crop yields by 30 percent and can be used for large-scale farms, gardens and indoor houseplants.
Additionally, the company said the system is a carbon negative operation because it captures methane and other gases released from the breakdown of food and converts it into energy that powers the system. Each year, the ZEUS produces more than 7,000 kilowatt-hours of energy and more than 2,600 gallons of fertilizer, Ecotone estimates.
The system is designed to sustainably process up to 500 pounds of food waste a week and to date, Ecotone said it has converted 30,000 pounds of food waste. The system could be a solid business opportunity for local communities — one ZEUS costs $50,000 for a 20-year lifespan, offering a 22-month return on investment, the company estimates.
Ecotone won the food category at VERGE 22's Accelerate Competition and recently launched an investment campaign with Honeycomb Credit. The fund will be used to expand the ZEUS system to the Pittsburgh International Airport, City of Pittsburgh, Meta and more. You can check out their campaign page to learn the details.
Using software for Scope 3 emissions
By Leah Garden
Pittsburgh-based Kloopify wants you to take advantage of data for your Scope 3 emissions. The startup offers a climate action platform that provides an integrated sustainability approach for any company’s procurement process. Co-founder Daniela Osio previously explained, "[Kloopify] is a software solution that enables procurement professionals to have the data, analytics and visibility into the environmental impact of all of their purchases…so they can operationalize sustainability inside of procurement."
The software is designed to comb through buckets of data, pinpointing which suppliers are associated with carbon emissions across a convoluted value chain. In a pilot with the city of Pittsburgh, for example, Kloopify sorted through $54 million of purchases across 1,419 suppliers. Ultimately, it was able to reveal that just 36 suppliers contributed to 33,800 tons of CO2, the majority of related emissions.
Additionally, Kloopify was created to enable conscious consumerism for customers and suppliers alike. "Where we spend our money is a vote in the things that we support," said Osio, "when you don’t know and when you can’t understand your supply chain, you are exposing your organization to an incredible amount of risk.”
Kloopify recently announced receiving $1.5 million in seed funding from Black Tech Nation Ventures, a VC firm focused on supporting startups with Black and diverse founders. The investment will go toward accelerating revenue growth for businesses making the transition to environmentally sustainable purchasing decisions.
[Do you know of a startup that should be featured in upcoming editions of Climate Tech Rundown? Send your suggestions to [email protected].]
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