GreenTech

UNESCO calls water pollution one of the main challenges facing societies, with 2 million tonnes of sewage entering the world’s water each day. Oxyle wants to help solve the crisis with a new wastewater treatment that removes micropollutants. The Zurich-based startup announced today $3 million in pre-seed funding that it will use to bring its

Honda is pulling away from a design practice that’s (literally) shaped auto making since the ’30s. The $43 billion company still depends on life-size clay models to evaluate its designs, a tried and true method pioneered by GM designer Harley Earl. But Honda is gradually relying less on the practice, ever since the Coronavirus tore

Overnight, news broke that the National Ignition Facility, a U.S. government research lab, was the first to achieve net-positive nuclear fusion. When lasers hit the tiny fuel pellet, it created an explosion that released more energy than the lasers delivered. For decades, fusion power has been just around the corner. Is this the moment we’ve

Financial institutions are waiting for the SEC and other regulators to pass rules about how to disclose emissions from their portfolio companies. Until then, many are following the standard set by the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials (PCAF). Pathzero helps them with a platform to exchange carbon information securely and analyze it. The Sydney, Australia-based

For companies aiming toward net zero, tracking scope 3 carbon emissions is a key challenge. Scope 3 are emissions along a supply and value chain, which means they have to account for a large number of partners. Avarni automates much of the process and says it can cut down the amount of time spent on

One of the biggest hurdles to decarbonizing the grid is getting electricity from point A to point B. But that’s often easier said than done. Today, nearly a terawatt of zero-carbon generating capacity is waiting to be hooked up to the grid. That’s enough to decarbonize 80% of U.S. electricity by the end of the

Vanguard announced earlier this week that it was leaving the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, a nascent attempt by the industry to self-regulate its carbon emissions. Its departure reinforces the need for government oversight of climate risks in investments. Absent legal, financial or professional repercussions, industry self-regulation is often little more than window dressing so

I have nothing against the investor class, but sitting in a room with several VCs while I try to sell them on my billion-dollar idea sounds very stressful. When an investor inevitably asks founders about their valuation expectations, it is a trick question of the highest order. If the response is too high, it’s a

David Rusenko Contributor David Rusenko is a full-time climate tech investor. He was previously the founder and CEO of Weebly, which sold to Square in 2018. Leeor Mushin Contributor Leeor Mushin is a principal at Floodgate Fund, where he focuses on application SaaS, climate and healthcare. He also is the co-founder of the GSB 20|20

How do you know when you have a hit on your hands? When your competitors complain about it. Over the weekend, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act constituted a “new assertive industrial policy” and that Europe needed a “structural answer.” Von der Leyen’s measured words contrast with

Salesforce has always fashioned itself as a socially responsible company, and that includes working on a Net Zero carbon emissions goal. In fact, it launched Sustainability Cloud (now called Net Zero Cloud) in 2019, a product for tracking customer Net Zero goals. This year, they are taking that idea a step further with a new

As electric vehicles begin to take some market share, the nation’s charging infrastructure is playing catch-up. Some folks already have an edge in this race, including some California residents and Tesla fans, but many EV owners in America still face charging deserts and unreliable stations — two key obstacles to decarbonizing transportation and doing right

To help electric planes take off, German battery company Customcells says it landed about $63 million (€60 million) in Series A funding from Porsche and several climate-tech investors. World Fund, a one-year-old venture firm that backs European climate startups, led the deal. Abacon Capital and Vsquared Ventures also chipped in. Customcells develops and recycles high-performance

Electric leisure boat startup Navier has managed to bring its concept hydrofoiling watercraft into reality, and has opened pre-orders — if you happen to have a few hundred grand laying around. It may not be affordable, but it’s not like the other 30-foot boats you can order are a bargain either. At least this one

It’s all good and well to sell a carbon credit, but if you chop down the tree representing that credit as soon as the money hits the bank account, it’s not exactly a win for the planet. Gaia AI is building a tool that can be used for that, and other aspects of forest management,

American Battery Factory’s big plan to build a bunch of, erm, American battery factories got a jolt Tuesday when Tucson, Arizona, gave the company the go-ahead to locate its first plant near the city’s airport. Over the course of a decade, ABF says it will pump around $1.2 billion into the facility, claiming it will be

The real estate and infrastructure sectors contribute about 40% of global carbon emissions, and part of solving the climate crisis is fixing how those industries work. Accacia gives large property owners a way to track their carbon impact in real-time by integrating with ERPs and property management systems like Yardi. It’s already been deployed to

Not quite a decade ago, two technologies were racing toward an unseen finish line. They weren’t competing with each other — the adoption of one didn’t lock out the other. But to avoid catastrophic climate consequences, the order of the finish mattered. Autonomous vehicles had to lose, and electric vehicles had to win. It wasn’t

Veteran investor Dan Goldman tells climate tech founders to mind the cash and the carbon Tim De Chant 14 hours In the climate tech world, Dan Goldman has seen just about everything: From the clean tech boom that led to the clean tech bust, the dark years that followed, and today’s bull market that’s transformed

Prefabricated homes always seem to be on the cusp of something big — solving housing shortages, tackling systemic waste or just generally ushering in the “very up-to-date.” But in the U.S., new prefab housing still represents a small fraction of the market (around 2% of single-family homes built in 2021, for example). By now it’s clear

The built environment is responsible for nearly 40% of carbon emissions worldwide, according to the International Energy Agency. While a portion of that is from the energy and materials required to construct buildings, the lion’s share — nearly 90% on an annual basis — comes from their use. Decarbonizing the grid could go a long

It’s the middle of the holiday season here in the U.S., that magical time between Thanksgiving and Christmas when stores are packed with bodies and porches are piled with packages. All those packages produce a lot of waste — anywhere from 33 million tons to 51 million tons annually, depending on the estimate. A majority

I rented a Tesla during the holiday crush. AMA Tim De Chant 9 hours When I went to book a rental car for Thanksgiving a few months ago, all that Hertz had left at O’Hare International Airport were Teslas. Usually, I end up with something like a Nissan Altima — not an amazing car, but

There are a few sources of power that are “free” here on Earth, namely wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal. Humans have been tapping hydro and wind for millennia, and we’re getting pretty good at harnessing the power of the sun. But with geothermal, we’re still not expertly exploiting the heat that’s generated deep within the

Stellantis, the parent company to brands like Jeep, Dodge, Fiat, Maserati and Peugeot, said Thursday it would reorganize its European dealer networks in July 2023 in an effort to cut costs and support its investment into electrification. Starting next summer, Stellantis said it would end all current sales and services contracts with dealers in Austria,

This past weekend, the world’s nations wrapped a meeting where they tried to figure out how to deal with climate change. It was the 27th time they’ve done it in as many years. Think about that. We’ve been at this for nearly three decades, and we’re still burning more fossil fuels than ever before. COP27,

For much of the 20th century, oil dominated foreign policy. Countries spent the better part of the century scrambling to secure supply. Sometimes it happened through negotiations and diplomacy. All too often it resulted in the overthrow of governments or outright invasions. But with fossil fuels on the wane, we’re starting to get a glimpse

All electric, everywhere, all of the time; that’s one of the many climate mantras. Induction stovetops take a lot of power, however — they can pull 40 amps at 240 volts. That’s the same as an at-home Level 2 EV charger. Needless to say, a lot of older houses aren’t wired to plug in a

Let’s face it: Most people aren’t early adopters, especially when it comes to their homes. Take the kitchen, for example, where many people still buy gas cooktops despite induction’s superiority. It’s not because everyone’s busy charring peppers over an open flame — it’s because they’re slow to adopt changes. When it comes to heating and

Two years ago, South Korea unveiled a plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. Getting there will be another story. Although Korean manufacturers say they are trying to change their ways, the country’s GDP is linked to some uniquely pollutive industries, including petrochemical producers, automakers and shipbuilders. Though some businesses may never be truly sustainable,