From Oddbox to MULTUS, London has always been fertile ground for companies changing those fundamental relationships to food, fashion and energy for the better.
And as a London-based start-up focussed on cutting the cloud industry’s carbon, we’re more than happy to share this city with some of green and climate tech’s leading lights.
The five green techs below are who we’re most excited to follow into 2024 and beyond.
1. Connect Earth
Mission
Enabling consumers and businesses to make greener decisions with embedded carbon reporting.
How they do it
At the heart of Connect Earth’s project is empowerment. Their two products – Connect Insights and Connect Report – lift the veil on carbon emissions for respective users: B2C financial institutions and products in the case of Connect Insights and B2B in the case of Connect Report.
Put simply, the two tools show people and businesses the carbon impact of their purchases via an integrated API.
From there, it’s down to the user.
Connect Insights presents clear data on the carbon cost of each purchase or transaction, letting consumers know what’s good for the planet and what they should cut down on.
Connect Report works the same way. By giving institutions data on the carbon impact of the loans and services they supply, Connect Report empowers greener lending. This is all the more relevant considering emissions financed through lending are often 10x that of banks’ operational carbon emissions.
Why we love it
Most of the entries on this list feature technologies disrupting a material process. Connect Earth is aimed at a different type of intervention, at the heart of which is a refreshing optimism.
You can learn more about Connect Earth here.
2. Seabound
Mission
Capturing and recycling up to 95% of the shipping industry’s carbon.
How they do it
Seabound was founded in response to one of the few major carbon-contributing industries with no immediate solutions: shipping.
With current methods barely making a dent in the tonnes of CO2 pumped out by the shipping industry – and more effective technologies decades away, Seabound responded to a clear and present danger.
Their carbon capture devices can be built into new ships or fitted into existing ones – a pragmatism not all green techs get right.
From there, they capture up to 95% of all would-be-emitted carbon in the form of pure CO2 pebbles, which are stored aboard the vessel until docking.
These pure CO2 pebbles can then be placed safely underground or sold to materials companies for use in the production of certain plastics and polymers.
The proceeds are shared between the shipping company and Seabound – a smart, cyclical and mutually beneficial intervention in an industry crying out for one.
Why we love it
Seabound’s is a real hero story. Featuring in many 30-under-30 lists, CEO and founder Alisha Fredriksson launched the company at a young age, taking on a problem single-handedly and solving it with a fresh approach.
You can learn more about Seabound here.
3. Hoxton Farms
Mission
To deliver cruelty-free animal fat via computational biology.
How they do it?
Any readers of New York Times Bestseller Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat will know the unsung story of this much-maligned ingredient.
The reputation of fat as a dietary staple has been rehabilitated by the mainstreaming of paleo and keto diets, with the public increasingly aware of animal fat’s place in a balanced lifestyle.
The problem, however, remains the hefty ethical price tag. On top of the suffering of animals, the meat industry is one of the single largest carbon contributors.
Trade in animal fats for plant oils, however, and you’re still in murky waters. Palm oil, one of the leading animal-fat alternatives, is now synonymous with the green impact of ostensibly healthier, more sustainable choices.
With an enormous carbon footprint (and a hand in much of the world’s deforestation) palm oil and similar products have fast become a gotcha for anti-meat campaigners. So, what’s the solution?
Enter Hoxton Farms. Founded in 2020, this pioneering biotech company uses advanced modelling combined with stem cells to produce cultivated fats: essentially a synthetic, low-carbon and cruelty-free animal fat.
This cultivated fat is grown in small bioreactors taking up a fraction of the landmass of traditionalal agriculture – and no animals are harmed in production.
When Hoxton farms hit the levels of scalability they’re aiming for, the landscape of fat production and consumption could change radically.
Why we love it
Hoxton Farms is the archetypal green tech story: a huge carbon-producing industry disrupted by an ethical, scientific innovation.
You can learn more about Hoxton Farm here.
4. Arda Biomaterials
Mission
Cutting the CO2-powerhouse meat industry out of leather production by utilising the beverage industry’s waste.
How they do it
It’s no secret that the meat industry is one of the most prolific carbon producers, which is why two entries on this list feature interventions in animal products.
For Arda Biomaterials, intervention means cutting out the role of the meat industry entirely in the production of leather by using an unlikely alternative.
For every 100ml of beer produced, 20kg of brewer’s spent grain (BSG) is wasted. That’s all the plant material from barley, wheat and corn from which the sugars have been extracted. To paint a picture, that means 20 bricks’ worth of BSG is accumulated for each 330ml bottle of beer.
Solving a food waste issue in one industry and a CO2 problem in another, Arda has developed a process that turns BSG into their patented New Grain leather (a wonderful pun).
While New Grain isn’t commercially available at the time of writing, the automotive, home goods and fashion industries will all benefit from carbon-light, plant-based leather, and there will be one less reason for meat producers to pursue their current business model at the environment’s expense.
Why we love it
Beyond the comically perfect New Grain, Arda Biomaterials is a great example of lateral thinking in green technology.
You can learn more about Arda Biomaterials here.
A 5th and final green tech start-up – Turn it Off
About us
What if you could flip a switch and save the planet? That’s the question Turn it Off was built on.
With the cloud industry’s CO2 production climbing to millions of tonnes per year, the public perception of an abstract, weightless cyberspace is finally shifting.
But while there may be an appetite for cleaner cloud, cloud adoption shows no signs of slowing. And given the fundamental, irreplaceable nature of virtual computing, the question becomes – how can we make the cloud industry carbon neutral?
This is a question with a thousand answers, but we’re proud to have one good one.
How we’re helping to make the cloud industry carbon neutral
For those without a deep understanding of cloud, you might say that most companies’ environments are like houses with faulty thermostats. The heating is on 24/7 – but turning it off is too complicated or requires a qualified electrician.
This is the case for many commercial non-production cloud environments. They’re in use a fraction of the time, but because they’re difficult to control, they’re left running.
Turn it Off is the smart thermostat for your cloud environment. Like Hive or Nest, Turn it Off turns off your cloud environment to a schedule set by you – or uses AI to learn your usage patterns and create smart rules.
Find out more about Turn it Off here.
Why we love it
We’re biased on this one!
Beyond London
We’re very proud to be part of London’s green tech boom. But the fight against climate change is global.
In future, we’ll be covering green tech across the world; in the meantime, if you want to cut carbon and your monthly cloud spend, all you have to do is sign up.
