Copyright NBC10 Boston
Climate-focused companies are turning lampposts into electric charging stations and agricultural waste into clothes. They are manufacturing WiFi-enabled showers that save water and plastic that promises to be fully biodegradable. Entrepreneurs are finding ways to green society as the climate crisis intensifies. They are drawing up business plans and creating products to help contain global warming and cut pervasive pollution and waste. But as federal money for climate projects tightens, many of these startups find themselves looking for alternatives funding, whether from investors, private lenders, university incubators or state grants. "Programmatic support and incubators are becoming increasingly vital in helping climate tech startups bring effective solutions to everyday Americans,” said Todd Khozein, founder of SecondMuse, an innovation company focused on climate, equity and tech challenges. Angeli Patel, executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business, said she has found young entrepreneurs even more emboldened to find solutions to climate problems. They may change their marketing or where they search for financial backing, but they are going to keep working on innovations, she said. "Yes, the funding environment plays a significant role in curbing their ability to be successful at scale and quickly but you still find that a lot of these entrepreneurs get into climate not because it’s going to make them millionaires, they get into climate because they value the solution they’re building for society," she said. "That’s a mission that no matter how many hurdles you put up to it, you can’t just get it out of somebody’s system." The public is broadly supportive. A poll by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication found that most registered voters oppose eliminating government programs on global warming and support policies that are friendly to the environment. Close to two-thirds, 64%, think developing sources of clean energy should be a high or very high priority for the president and Congress. Nearly half, 48%, believe policies that promote clean energy will improve economic growth and provide new jobs. Despite those sentiments, President Donald Trump has made assailing environmental projects a keystone of his second administration. The country that has historically emitted the most greenhouse gases, and is second to China annually, is now promoting the use of fossil fuels. Under Trump, the federal government is taking aim at green programs across the United States. His tax and spending package eliminates tax breaks for electric vehicles, solar and wind power and other clean energy, and mandates expanded oil and gas leasing. He wants to throttle state initiatives such as California’s restrictions on car emissions and New York City’s new congestion pricing. The president's offensive is having an effect. In the first half of the year, $22 billion in clean energy projects was cancelled, $6.7 billion in June, according to e2.org, a nonpartisan group of environmental entrepreneurs. That included $11.7 billion in investments in Republican districts, and 11,700 jobs. The work of the green start-ups provides a counterpoint. Some are in the thick of the clashes over tariff wars but others are pursuing projects — improving the country’s energy grid, for one — that could go forward under any administration. As government-driven clean energy initiatives become ensnared in political battles and lawsuits, we spoke with several entrepreneurs and asked them to describe their project and their challenges and consider whether they would have succeeded were they starting out now in the current political climate. Here are their stories and a look at the companies they started: This green venture is transforming lampposts into electric vehicle charging stations, removing one of the biggest EV adoption barriers Voltpost, as its name suggests, retrofits lampposts so that they also are electric vehicle charging stations, with the goal of making stations more available to people who live in cities. It’s an idea that was born in Brooklyn, New York, when the company’s co-founder, Jeff Prosserman, needed to charge his own electric vehicle. He realized that the challenge confounding many New Yorkers could bedevil city residents anywhere. “We really look at this as a solution for densely populated cities and environments, people who live in apartment buildings who don't have access to private garages, who need that convenient charging access point,” he said. Read the full article. From crop scraps to the latest fashions. This company is creating a new source for fabric What’s a hurd? A key clue to what this company does, for one. It’s the inner core of the hemp plant that remains after the fibers, seeds and flowers have been removed, what’s left after the traditionally valuable parts are put to various uses. That’s still 70% to 90% of the plant and that’s where Taylor Heisley-Cook and David Mun come in. They are making clothes from agricultural waste — or more precisely, their company takes that biomass and turns it into a new and sustainable material for fabric. The company began as a thesis project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where Heisley-Cook and Mun met at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, and today they have built a pilot facility with a capacity to produce 10 kilograms of pulp each day. That’s enough to make sample garments. “So that’s where we got our start,” Heisely-Cook said. “That’s where we got our name.” Read the full story. As the U.S. faces droughts and fires, these new showers can recirculate sanitized water Showers squander water, especially hot water. A 10-minute shower typically uses about 25 gallons of water that touches our skin for seconds before it goes down the drain. RainStick Shower aims to short-circuit that waste and save 80% of the water and energy by recirculating sanitized water. “It’s our vision to develop water technology that allows people to thrive using only 13 gallons of water per person per day,” said Alisha McFetridge, who co-founded of the company with her husband, Sean. It is based in British Columbia, Canada. Read the full story. Offices create loads of plastic waste each day. This service helps them find a way to reduce that waste Lindsey Hoell understood the devastation of plastic pollution when she and her husband hiked to a remote beach in Hawaii where the sand was rainbow colored. It was not natural. It was the result of microplastics. “I realized at that moment the enormity of the issue, and wanted to do something about the way we consumed, she said. Today she’s the chief executive officer of Dispatch Goods, founded in the San Francisco Bay area in 2020 to provide reusable food containers that can be washed and redistributed. The company started with corporate offices as customers, an attractive place to begin because of the large numbers of diners in one place, she said. Yelp was their first. Read the full story. 'We want to change the world:' This company says it is creating a new kind of plastic FutureBio is also tackling the problem of plastic pollution, but head-on by creating what the co-founder describes as a new kind of plastic. Different from both the petroleum-based and the biodegradable ones now in use, it is not only durable but also bio-renewable and easier to recycle, the co-founder, Zilong Wang, said. “It proposes a different and a novel plastic, which is different from all other kinds of plastic,” he said. Read the full story. Moving to a renewable grid can be tough for cities. This technology makes it less expensive to increase their capacity for green energy Switched Source’s technology offers a less expensive fix for cities boosting their use of green energy, places that are moving from fuel oil to electric heat, for example, or that need more capacity for residents charging electric vehicles. The technology automates the operation of power distribution grids and increases the capacity for renewable energy — and it comes in a 5-by-10-foot sea green box that sits on the ground. By making the most of the existing infrastructure, it can substitute for an expensive re-haul of a distribution circuit. “So instead of doing a $3 million, $5 million upgrade of a distribution circuit, you can put this device out there and it will give you an extra 20% of load serving capacity,” said one of the company’s co-founders, Charles Murray. Read the full story.
