GreenTech

Vertical farming has long done a very good job with a very thin sliver of the agricultural marketplace. Specifically, years of advancements in hydroponics and greenhouse farming have made it possible to grow a fine head of lettuce and other leafy greens under the glow of LED lighting. Now, suddenly, everyone wants in on the

We’ve been shipping things across the oceans for centuries, and the world’s supply chains increasingly rely on diesel-powered megaships big enough to block entire channels by themselves. How do you decarbonize this monolithic industry? FleetZero thinks it can with electric vessels making short hops all the way around the Pacific, while relying on smaller ports

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Luxembourg-based Leko Labs, a construction startup that’s developing sustainable wood-based building materials as an alternative to steel and concrete and applying automation to construction methods, has closed a $21 million Series A round of funding. The raise is led by urban sustainability-focused fund 2150 with participation from Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Tencent, AMAVI, Rise PropTech

Quick pop quiz: Is it better to recycle your cardboard boxes, or use a sturdier packaging bag that can be used again and again until it meets its maker again? Returnity‘s bet is the latter, and the company just raised $3.1 million from Brand Foundry Ventures to continue the work the company has been doing

Trying to deal with the huge amount of data associated with how companies are going to transition to a ‘net zero’ economy is an uphill task. The interface of numbers would tax even the geekiest of CEOs. What if it could all be rendered visually, but also accurately? That’s the germ of the idea behind

Vanilla is indeed “the world’s most popular flavor.” However, despite its popularity, its production is so complex that many people aren’t often getting the real thing, but a synthetic version of the flavoring. About 70% of the vanilla we consume is grown in Madagascar, and if you saw the weather news lately, the area was

The cleaning products you use in your house are 99% water. Yes, the same stuff that comes out of the spigot at your house. With the radical idea that the municipal water system is probably a better way to transport water around, Blueland just raised $20 million to expand its successful line of cleaning-products-in-tablet-form, in

When you think of green, climate-aware industries, you’d be forgiven if fashion isn’t at the top of your list. Rubi Laboratories wants to put a dent in that by creating new, environmentally friendlier fabrics. The company does that by capturing waste CO2 and creating natural textiles, bypassing agriculture and manufacturing. The company claims it is

Forrest Iandola Contributor Air conditioners are a major source of greenhouse gases. On Project Drawdown’s 2017 list of over 100 opportunities to reduce human-caused global warming, cleaner tech for refrigeration and air-conditioning is at the very top. So, back at my house, what’s so dirty about our air conditioner? Since I am using solar power,

Kenya-based EV startup BasiGo has closed $4.3 million in seed funding, three months after setting up operations in East Africa’s biggest economy, to provide clean-energy mass transit vehicles in a country that is heavily-reliant on fossil-fuel buses. The startup said it will use the new funding to set up an assembly plant in Nairobi and

Most companies today recognize the importance of global warming. As such, they are redefining their goals in an effort to address the climate change issue. Envisioning Partners, a Seoul-based venture capital firm, has secured its latest impact fund, the oversubscribed $64 million (76.8 billion KRW) Envisioning Climate Solutions (ECS) Fund, to back startups combating the

Hydrogen pioneers Verdagy — from “verde” for green, and “agy” for energy — raised $25 million from a fistful of strategic investors in the energy sector in a bid to take a messy, not-that-environmentally-friendly process of making hydrogen and replacing it with an industrially scalable solution with no nasties going into the air. It turns

In climate circles we spend a lot of time talking about manufacturing and power generation in the effort of cutting CO2 emissions. It’s pretty rare that I get a whiff of a company that has a clear path toward cutting global carbon emissions by a full percent — but that’s what Rondo Energy pitched to

Bruce Dahlgren Contributor Bruce Dahlgren is CEO of MetricStream, a risk management (IRM) and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) company. Browsing travel options on Google Flights, you may have noticed that airlines have begun to incorporate carbon emissions data into their offerings to consumers. As a frequent flyer, all things — including price — being

With toilet paper and kitchen rolls in its product portfolio for now, and a lot more coming down the pipe, Cloud Paper is a sustainable, bamboo-based alternative to toilet paper made from whatever toilet paper is usually made from. The company raised a $5m round from an impressive cadre of investors to expand its product

It’s that old chestnut: You are a fancy-pants brand wanting to make a product that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside because you only use fair-trade, sustainably grown ingredients and materials, but you don’t know where to turn. Next thing you know, Novi comes bursting through the wall holding a freshly squeezed pitcher

Vegetable oils like canola and palm oil have become a major part of our diet, whether we like it or not, and while they’re useful substances, they’re not exactly good for you and are a major cause of deforestation. Zero Acre Farms is a new company aiming to provide a improved alternative, produced by microorganisms

Rising pressure on big business to address the threat of climate change by decarbonizing their ops has, in recent years, led to huge demand for carbon offset schemes — enabling companies to buy carbon credits to ‘offset’ emissions so they can claim to be ‘greening’ their activities, without having to make more substantial changes (like,

Lisbon VC Indico Capital Partners is launching a climate tech fund – dubbed the Indico Blue Fund. The €50 million VC and growth equity fund will target ‘Blue Economy’ (technology to assist the oceans) startups and SMEs operating out of Portugal. So far €36 million has been raised with the €50 million target expected later

With the catchy moniker Deep Decarbonization Frontier Fund, Energy Impact Partners has captured $200 million of commitments for its $350 million fund, doubling down on its commitments to transition the world toward a sustainable future. The fund targets early-stage technologies that accelerate the transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. The Frontier Fund is built on

Husk Power Systems, a clean energy company that has been at the forefront of fueling rural electrification since 2008, is planning to launch 500 solar mini-grids in Nigeria over the next five years. The renewable energy firm revealed the plans today when it announced the signing of a voluntary commitment with the United Nations to

Kencko, the plant-based, blender-free smoothie company, raised $10 million in Series A funding to expand into new categories. Existing investor Siddhi Capital led the round and was joined by both current and new investors, including Next View Ventures, Riverside Ventures, Silas Capital, Cheyenne Ventures, Shilling Capital, Indico Capital, Mission Point, Gather Ventures and Nextblue Ventures.

Dublin-based Exergyn replaces refrigerants with solid materials, thus reducing the output of greenhouse gases. The technology could be applicable in data centers. The industrial-grade cleantech company has now raised a $35 million (€30 million) Series A round led by Mercuria, an energy and commodities company, and Lacerta Partners, a family office-backed fund. Also participating was

Jamil Wyne Contributor Jamil Wyne is an advisor, investor and author focusing on entrepreneurship, technology and economic development in emerging markets. He has worked with the World Bank, IFC, UN, Clean Energy Venture Group, Schmidt Futures, Ashoka, and other organizations. Abrar Chaudhury Contributor Dr. Abrar Chaudhury is a climate finance research fellow at Oxford Said

The first electric bus by Swedish-Kenyan EV startup, Opibus, has hit Kenya’s roads marking the beginning of the company’s venture into the mass transit industry. Opibus first announced plans to roll out electric public transport buses last year when it raised $7.5 million in a pre-Series A round. The startup is now running a pilot

Tado, the German smart home startup that specializes in thermostats and more recently moved into flexible “time of use” energy tariffs based on loadshifting technology, is today announcing the next step in its life as a business. It’s going public by way of a SPAC deal. GFJ ESG Acquisition, a German SPAC entity focused specifically

IBM announced this morning that it has acquired Australian startup Envizi to add to its package of ESG (environmental, sustainability and governance) offerings to help measure environmental impact up and down the supply chain. The companies did not share the terms of the acquisition, but with Envizi Big Blue gets a platform for measuring, managing

Travel, conferences, hotels, they all have something in common: Everything is designed to be used once, and then discarded. Of course, it would be delightful if everyone was able to not use single-use plastics for their cups, razors, toothbrushes and everything else, but unless consumers rebel, that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. It ain’t just

As a remote island nation in the middle of the South Pacific, New Zealand is experiencing the stirrings of a burgeoning startup scene. The country has historically been capital-starved, but recent investments from the government and foreign investors have significantly increased access to early-stage venture capital funding. Now, certain industries are emerging as potential areas