Spotted: Most people are trying to reduce their consumption of plastics, but this is not always easy to do. For example, most people throw away or recycle empty containers of shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, etc. – only to re-purchase the exact same products. A French startup hopes to change this habit with containers that can be refilled with new products. What makes their system different from other refillable containers is that all the products are solid – making them much easier to ship and fill.
The company, named 900.care after the average number of seconds spent in the bathroom at one time, launched in 2020 with a fundraising campaign on French crowdfunding site Ulule. The founders exceeded their pre-sale target by 13,000 per cent and knew they were on to something. By the middle of 2021 the brand was being sold in 135 Monoprix stores and the company had raised €10,000,000 in capital, allowing it to increase production and drop prices by 40 per cent.
There are three colourful containers – one each for shower gel, toothpaste and deodorant. Each can be refilled with solid products from 900.care – a shower gel in the form of a ball, toothpaste in the form of pastilles, and a stick deodorant. The shower gel and toothpaste are designed to foam up on contact with water. Making the refillables in a solid form saves on waste in both production and shipping.
Although the containers are made of plastic, 900.care says this is actually an eco-friendly choice. The plastic used is recycled and recyclable, it is sturdy enough to last a long time and light enough to keep emissions from transportation low. It also jibes with the company’s message of keeping things simple. Co-founder Thomas Arnaudo has pointed out that, “at 900.care our approach isn’t self-righteous. Our emphasis is on fun, happy, playful content that speaks to everyone, especially families. Our brand is meant for the general public, it’s not at all status oriented. In fact, our logo isn’t even visible on our products, it’s hidden.”
While 900.care’s approach may be unique, the company is not alone in feeling that refillable products are an important part of the move towards sustainability. We have seen various versions of this, including a vegan refillable deodorant and a toothpaste dispenser that can be refilled with compostable capsules. Like 900.care’s offerings, these products are also available on subscription.
Spotted: Materials science company LifeLabs has developed a new generation of thermally efficient textiles. Wearers of the company’s CoolLife t-shirts experience a continual reduction of body temperature by three degrees Fahrenheit. The fabric is recycled, engineered polyethylene, a material that is transparent to infrared wavelengths, allowing heat to easily flow away from the wearer.
Wearing the company’s CoolLife or WarmLife clothing can help to reduce reliance on cooling and heating systems, both of which contribute significant amounts of emissions. Continuous cooling of three degrees of body heat can make a huge difference throughout the day and night, making it easier to target the use of HVAC systems for limited amounts of time and at the most efficient rates. Indeed, LifeLabs suggests setting the thermostat two degrees warmer in the summer and two degrees cooler in the winter – this, the company claims, can save up to 153 pounds of carbon dioxide per person per year.
The brand’s in-house technology saves water, heat, steam, chemicals, and plastic through its dedicated sustainability processes that track the energy footprint of every article of clothing. The clothing is 74 per cent recycled content by fabric weight, and manufacturing improvements have reduced water consumption by 70 per cent. For packaging, the company uses reusable fabric garment bags and other environmentally friendly materials.
From cooperation amongst brands to leverage recycling technology at scale to collections embedded with climate change data, the fashion industry innovations Springwise is spotting are helping to make sustainability the norm.
Spotted: Considered a cost-efficient source of renewable energy, wind farms are under near-constant pressure to produce more power as quickly as possible. To help meet the demand, designers and manufacturers are working to create ever longer blades. While the longer blades produce more power, they also require additional maintenance. Current monitoring systems are not built to track the full length of the world’s largest blades, and updated materials technologies are also adding complexity to such oversight, with designs that bend more and in multiple directions.
One company seeking to provide a smart solution to the growth of the industry is Porto and Rotterdam-based Fibersail. Fibersail is piloting its shape-sensing wind turbine blade monitoring system in five European locations. The shape sensor tracks the full shape and curvature of each blade, identifying the most efficient positions for each turbine.
The continuous monitoring also provides owners and maintenance managers with the means to detect when a part is working below capacity – much earlier than is currently possible. Rotor and blade loads are adjustable—depending on weather conditions and local needs—and the system helps calculate the volume of production that maximises the lifetime capacity of each turbine.
A recent funding round is helping the startup to expand its team, and the company is seeking industry partners for further pilot sites.
Other recent wind power innovations that Springwise has spotted include home turbine systems and a forecasting system for renewable energy that helps producers match supply and demand.
Spotted: Lisbon-based Virtuleap is a health and education startup using artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) to elevate the cognitive assessment and training industry. The company believes that VR brain training can add value to any healthy lifestyle as a frequent activity taking up less than 10 minutes per session.
Virtuleap’s core product, Enhance, is a VR app with a library of brain training games that test and train various cognitive skills like memory, problem-solving, spatial orientation, and motor control. The company says that VR “engages multiple learning systems, which makes it a more effective and natural environment for cognitive training than 2D screen-based brain training apps”.
Enhance’s games are designed by neuroscientists and game designers with the intention of being both fun and effective. The app currently offers more than 14 short games across nine different categories: memory, problem-solving, flexibility, working memory, spatial orientation, motor control, auditory cognition, task switching, and planning – with Additional skills to be introduced in the near future.
The app also allows users to track their progress with reporting tools to know how their quality of sleep and moods affect their cognitive performance.
In 2020, the company published a white paper citing 76 peer-reviewed studies explaining why they believe that VR cognitive training systems may transfer and improve specific domains or global cognition.
Parallel with Enhance, Virtuleap also developed a web-based dashboard for corporations, such as senior living communities, hospitals, clinics, and educational institutions, to access reporting and data tools. The company hopes its platform will provide caregivers with additional capabilities to help the aging population with cognitive conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Other medical uses of VR spotted by Springwise include a virtual environment for treating phobias, gamified neurology treatments, and a VR live stream of surgical procedures for remote learning.
Reflecting our global Springwise readership, we explore the innovation landscape and freshest thinking from a new country each week. This week, we’ve headed to the Iberian peninsula…
Climate targets: at least 40 per cent domestic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990,carbon neutral by 2050.
Sustainability issues:
Air pollution – levels of the pollutant nitrogen dioxide are so high in three of Portugal’s air quality zones, that the European Commission has decided to sue the country. Emissions of the noxious gas come mostly from road traffic – especially diesel vehicles.
Energy poverty – Portugal has one of the highest proportions of people living in fuel poverty in the EU. This is because the country has some of Europe’s highest electricity and natural gas prices, as well as a high proportion of poorly insulated homes.
Drought – There has been little rain anywhere in Portugal in 2022, with 95 per cent of the country facing severe or extreme drought conditions. This is making the growing season extremely difficult for farmers. Climatologists believe that climate change is playing a part in the current drought.
A SPACE DEBRIS TRACKING SYSTEM HELPS PREVENT COLLISIONS
Historically, the race to space has focused on getting teams and countries into orbit, with far fewer resources dedicated to cleaning up after missions. But with space traffic growing rapidly, there is a growing need to track the rubbish left behind in order to prevent dangerous collisions. Portugal’s Neuraspace, part of the European Space Agency’s Business Incubator programme, recently raised €2.5 million to bring its intelligent monitoring platform to market. Read more.
A SENSOR MONITORS THE STRENGTH AND EFFICIENCY OF WIND TURBINE BLADES
Current wind turbine monitoring systems are not built to track the full length of the world’s largest blades, and updated materials technologies are also adding complexity to such oversight. Porto and Rotterdam-based Fibersail is piloting a shape-sensing wind turbine blade monitoring system that tracks the full shape and curvature of each blade – even the newest, longest blades. Such monitoring helps to identify the most efficient positions for each turbine. and also provides owners and maintenance managers with the means to detect when a part is working below capacity – much earlier than is currently possible. Read more.
Lisbon-based Virtuleap is a health and education startup using artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) to elevate the cognitive assessment and training industry. The company believes that VR brain training can add value to any healthy lifestyle as a frequent activity taking up less than 10 minutes per session. Virtuleap’s core product, Enhance, is a VR app with a library of brain training games that test and train various cognitive skills like memory, problem-solving, spatial orientation, and motor control. Read more.
Words: Matthew Hempstead
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Before the current scientific consensus on man-made climate change emerged, many climatologists believed that any extra carbon dioxide released by human activities would be absorbed by the world’s oceans. This proved to be a sticking point in the mainstream acceptance of the greenhouse effect, and it wasn’t until the late 1950s that researchers demonstrated that seawater will not absorb all of the extra carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere.
Oceans have been at the centre of climate science because an estimated 83 per cent of the global carbon cycle is circulated through marine waters. Man-made global warming is, in essence, the short-circuiting of this cycle, so understanding and respecting the oceans—the biggest part of the cycle—is crucial for mitigating the damage we have done.
Although we now know that oceans will not absorb all of our carbon emissions, they have absorbed around a third of the CO2 produced by humans. Moreover, the ocean is home to resources that are extremely useful in the fight against climate change. Seagrass meadows sequester carbon up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests, and seaweed is used in a wide range of sustainable innovations. In short, when it comes to climate change, oceans are our best friend.
But oceans are also vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Marine eco-systems are sensitive to climate shocks, with coral cover declining by over half since the 1950s. Human activities also impact oceans in other ways. Oceans are the cradle of life, making up 95 per cent of the space available to living things, yet research shows that marine biodiversity is declining dangerously, with humans the biggest cause. And each year 8 million tonnes of plastic waste escape into the sea.
Given the importance of oceans to our shared future, many innovators are looking to the ocean for inspiration. And some of the most exciting ocean innovators will be at this year’s ChangeNOW summit in Paris.
According to research, 60 per cent of chemical leaks, oil spill-offs, and micro-plastics end up on the sea floor. These pollutants damage the environment, but so too do traditional clean-up methods, which rely on excavations and harmful chemicals. Latvia’s PurOceans Technology believes there is a better way.
The company has developed a proprietary process called ‘deepwater rehabilitation’. During this process, bubbles of ambient air are piped to the lowest depths, where they stick to chemical pollutants before floating back to the surface. Once at the surface, the toxic waste can be safely collected and processed into purified water. PurOcean’s approach avoids the damage to flora and fauna that accompanies excavation and chemical-based approaches, improving the health of the entire marine eco-system. And as a further bonus, the process enriches the water with added oxygen.
A WEST AFRICAN WATER COMPANY TACKLES PLASTIC WASTE FROM BOTTLED WATER
Single-use plastic water bottles are both common and expensive in West Africa. And much of the waste plastic ends up cluttering the streets, going to land fill, or polluting the oceans. Addressing this issue is Senegal-based water company MIYA.
Miya provides 11- and 19-litre water bottles that can be re-used under a deposit scheme where customers return the bottles for refills. In addition to preventing plastic from littering beaches and harming marine life, the MIYA scheme has several additional benefits. Drinking water in the company’s native Senegal is not always safe, yet bottled water is expensive. Many people therefore face an unfortunate trade-off between hygiene and cost. MIYA’s water is more affordable with customers paying $2.08 for a 19-litre bottle compared to the average price of $1.73 for 10 litres.
A WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT THAT PRODUCES MORE ENERGY THAN IT CONSUMES
Globally, around 80 per cent of sewage is dumped into the ocean untreated. And all this pollution from wastewater damages marine eco-systems in a number of ways. At the same time, current wastewater treatment technologies are energy-intensive and cause one per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in France.
NXO-Engineering takes a revolutionary approach to wastewater, seeing it as a repository of resources rather than something to be treated. The startup’s proprietary NxSTEP process uses micro-algae and bacteria to convert the wastewater into biomethane that can be used as a source of energy. As a result, the process is not only less energy-intensive than traditional methods, it actually produces more energy than it uses. The company has also developed a flotation unit that separates biomass from water, leaving the water fit for human consumption – a process that can reduce the cost of drinking water.
Photo source Airseas
A SEA KITE THAT HELPS SHIPS SAVE FUEL UNDERGOES TRIALS
Maritime shipping accounts for at least 2.5 per cent of global CO2 emissions. However, this is considered by many to be a gross underestimate of the environmental damage done by container shipping. One study found that, in 2009, a single large container ship emitted almost the same amount of cancer and asthma-causing chemicals as 50 million cars.
French company Airseas has developed a parafoil sail—known as the Seawing—that is designed to be installed on cargo ships to reduce fuel consumption and shipping emissions. The Seawing is designed to deploy automatically, rising up above the ship’s deck on a long cable to grab the steady, strong winds 200 metres above sea level. An automated system monitors and controls the Seawing. The system also monitors forward wind conditions and re-routes the ship to take the most efficient path possible without affecting arrival time.
Airseas is not the only company harnessing the wind to reduce shipping emissions. Rather than using a kite-like parafoil, another French company, AYRO, has developed wingsails—called ‘Oceanwings’—that rise vertically from the deck of a ship.
Oceanwings are compatible with most types of vessel, and can be retrofitted onto existing ships or incorporated into new-build designs. Moreover, operating the Oceanwings does not require the specialist skills traditionally associated with sailing, and the wingsails are safe to use in any weather condition. Sensors on the wingsails measure the wind, generating data that is analysed to adjust the angle and camber of the Oceanwings for maximum effectiveness.
USING DNA TO MAKE ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEYS EASIER AND CHEAPER
Environmental monitoring is key for environmental protection strategies. Monitoring data helps policymakers set priorities and activities. At the same time, businesses are faced with a growing need to report on biodiversity, yet monitoring has traditionally been costly and difficult to perform at scale. For biodiversity startup NatureMetrics, the answer is in environmental DNA (eDNA) – DNA that is released from organisms into the environment through faeces, urine, slime, scales, and other forms.
NatureMetrics carries out tests in a facility purpose-built for metabarcoding – a method of DNA sequencing that can identify multiple species in a single sample. The system can process more than 100 samples in parallel, reducing sequencing costs and time. The company’s marine division provides powerful data on ocean biodiversity, working on projects such as nature-based solutions in coral reef, mangrove, kelp, and seagrass habitats, and conservation monitoring in marine protected areas.
Springwise is a proud partner of ChangeNow, which takes place in Paris 19-21 May 2022. As the world’s largest event for the planet, the three-day international summit brings together entrepreneurs, business leaders and policymakers to accelerate change. To find out more and book your tickets, visit changenow.world.
Spotted: Increasingly, those interested in city planning and energy saving have been pointing out that it just doesn’t make sense to transport people or smaller amounts of goods around urban areas in traditional vehicles – even electric vehicles (EVs). Cars are large, heavy, and energy-intensive. Now, startup Infinite Mobility has developed an alternative – a solar-powered tuk-tuk designed for last-mile deliveries, or to efficiently carry just one or two people.
The company’s streamlined solar tricycles incorporate solar cells into the vehicle’s body. The diminutive size of the vehicles means they are cheaper to produce and buy than a four-wheeled vehicle. According to the company, six square metres of solar cells cost around $300 (around €284), and will produce up to 604 kilowatt-hours a year of power for the vehicle. At 60 watts per kilometre, the tricycles can travel up to 10,000 kilometres per year on solar energy alone – enough for the average urban user.
Infinite Mobility also points out that the tuk-tuks don’t need recharging from the grid, eliminating one annoyance of EV ownership. And there is another benefit – depending on where they’re based, many micro-mobility vehicles sales are now supported by subsidies from local, regional, or national governments.
Lupi Love, Infinite Mobility’s CEO, explains other benefits of micro-mobility solutions. “Micro-mobility vehicles are agile, can use cycle lanes, take shortcuts and park with ease. Meanwhile, traditional vehicles spent three times as long stuck in traffic and drive around looking for parking spaces. Whilst micro-mobility hardly needed to walk at all – having parked just outside the door, traditional vehicles drivers walked approximately a third of their total distance.”
While EVs have been getting all of the attention lately, solar-powered vehicles are definitely coming. We have seen this with innovations such as Squad Mobility’s solar microcars, a solar-powered mobility scooter, and even a parking garage powered by solar panels.
“Why don’t people want to read books about climate change?” That was what Financial Times journalist Simon Mundy found himself wondering a couple of years ago. “People have this impression of it being very heavy, abstract, and difficult to engage with,” he explains. “But I knew that behind the headlines must be some incredibly powerful and compelling human stories.”
So, taking a leave of absence from his job, Mundy started travelling all over the world to find these stories. Two years, 26 countries, and many COVID-related quarantines later, he published Race for Tomorrow – a book about the global fight against climate change.
During his travels, he met not only with those suffering the consequences of environmental decline, but also with innovators working to tackle the problem.
For his book, Race for Tomorrow, Mundy visited 26 countries to meet those suffering from environmental impacts
When did you first become interested in sustainability?
One of the first stories I covered as the Financial Times Mumbai correspondent in 2016 was the droughts in Marathwada, India. When I met the farmers and saw the empty reservoirs and cracked floors, it hit me for the first time how severe the impacts of climate change already are. Before that point, I’d viewed it as more of a slow burn that would come home to roost in a serious way decades from now. In that moment I could see that wasn’t the case.
How does innovation hold the key to halting the climate crisis?
We’re fortunate to have seen incredible innovation already over the last 20 years – from electric cars to renewal energy sources. It means we now don’t have the horrific choice between shutting down the economy or heading for planetary disaster. Innovation has enabled a miraculous third option, which is to develop a greener economy using technology. And the latest advances in innovation are making solutions even more feasible.
Which area of innovation do you think is most promising for making a real difference?
Carbon sequestration is very exciting, particularly what Reykjavik-based Carbfix is doing. For millions of years, the basalt under Iceland has been sequestering carbon dioxide dissolved in water, turning it to limestone through a natural chemical reaction. And while scientists had assumed this took place over centuries, Carbfix has discovered that when carbon dioxide-rich water was injected into underground rock formations, 95 per cent of it became stone within just two years.
To get the carbon, Carbfix works with Climeworks, which was set up by two young, German engineers based in Switzerland. They’ve built machines that can suck carbon dioxide out of the air. Taken together, these technologies could make it possible to put the carbon cycle into reverse at an industrial scale.
What’s the craziest innovation you’ve come across?
Lab grown meat is such an interesting area. In 2021, Israeli company, Aleph Farms, raised $105 million in a Series B funding round. It grew out of scientific research by Shulamit Levenberg, a leading academic in the field of cardiac-related research. After she figured out a way to grow human cardiac cells to treat people with heart disease, someone suggested to her: ‘what if you could do the same with animal cells to make meat?’
While other companies in the field are producing a sort of minced meat, Aleph is trying to create muscle – an actual whole steak. And they’ve done it – albeit at a very small scale and at a very high cost. There may be people who find the idea of this ‘frankenfood’ uncomfortable, but it’s hard to deny it’s better for the environment. We don’t need to worry about methane emissions from cows, or the rainforest being cut down to make more room for farming. It’s also healthier because your ‘meat’ isn’t full of antibiotics. Plus, you don’t need to worry about animal welfare.
What other solutions do you think could be gamechangers?
People aren’t paying enough attention to fusion power – and it’s coming more quickly than we thought. Did you know: one kilogramme of fusion fuel can provide as much energy as 10 million kilogrammes of fossil fuel?
To find out more, I met with a company called Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which is based at MIT in the USA and has recently raised $1.8 billion from investors. I had a tour of their operations and was amazed by their fusion reactor. The temperature within that reactor when it was switched on was 100 million degrees Celsius – which made it the hottest point in the solar system. I found it extraordinary that this technology is being developed and raising $1.8 billion in funding – clearly it’s now reaching the point where serious investors are getting really excited about the potential of this stuff.
What’s currently holding back sustainable innovation in the business world?
There’s lack of a sense of urgency, and a certain distance from the impacts of climate change. Fundamentally, the people making the decisions at a high level for big companies tend not to be personally exposed in a very meaningful way to the impacts of climate change.
Now, having said that, I do think that they have other sorts of pressures on them – from investors, from customers, from the wider public, and from regulators. Business leaders feel under pressure to show some progress when it comes to their climate footprint. But it’s still not fast enough. And I think if we all had a greater connection with some of the sorts of stories that are featured in the earlier parts of my book, I do think that would help to give a greater sense of urgency.
What advice do you have for business leadersabout innovation and sustainability?
First, businesses can be very powerful voices, for good or bad, in influencing the direction of policy and the evolution of the wider economic system. Secondly, long-dated targets are not enough. Business leaders need to provide detail on what their plans are for the near term, for the next year, and the next five years – and have their focus there. Otherwise, businesses can rely on vague and long-term targets.
What advice would you give to innovators about making an impact?
Of the companies I visited, the ones who seemed to me to be doing best were those that had spotted a gap in the market and created something truly original. I was also struck by the scale of their ambitions. They all talked in very grand terms about the potential size of their business and the impact they could have. And I think that’s appropriate. Because when you look at the scale of the disruption that’s happening, and consider the epochal shift in the global economic system, it’s right to talk in terms of unprecedented growth.
Innovators in this space should think big because this is a historic moment. We’re talking about the end of the fossil fuel age of human history. It’s an unprecedented point in human disruption. Companies that find the opportunity and the right space can achieve something extraordinary.
What can Springwise readers do about climate change?
While it’s important to keep thinking about how to address your personal carbon footprint, I think we emphasise that a little bit too much. We should also look at what contribution we might be able to make to change the wider system. Because that system level change is what will be so important.
Do you feel optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
Both is the answer. I’m much more keenly aware of the scale of the problems, which are profound and wide-ranging. But I’ve also been blown away by the ambition and the brilliance of the innovators I’ve met, and the work that’s been done to tackle these problems. While I’m deeply concerned about the path that we’re on, there’s no space for resignation. There is so much that we can still do to improve the situation.
Simon Mundy is the author of Race For Tomorrow(William Collins). He has also reported for the Financial Times since 2010, most recently as Moral Money Editor – covering the push for a cleaner and more sustainable world economy. To find out more about Simon and to buy the book, visit simonmundy.com/book
In 1938, British scientist Guy Callendar demonstrated how records from nearly 150 weather stations showed that temperatures had risen over the past century – and that carbon dioxide levels had risen over the same period. At the time, meteorologists widely dismissed what was then called the ‘Callendar Effect’.
Today, the scientific evidence for man-made global warming is overwhelming, and climate change has emerged as the defining issue of our age. Greenhouse gas emissions are leading to rising temperatures, with scientists estimating that we have already caused warming of 1.2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Limiting further temperature rises to 1.5 degrees could prevent the worst effects of global warming. But the world is not on track to meet this target.
The structural changes needed to limit climate change will require the collaboration of everyone in society, and necessitate action from society’s biggest stakeholders –notably governments. But innovation has a vital role to play in tackling this most existential of issues.
Understanding the impacts of climate change
If we are to effectively adapt to the reality of climate change and take action to limit its effects, it is crucial that we understand how temperature rises and extreme weather events will impact global eco-systems. Over the past decades, scientists have gathered an extensive body of research on the effects of climate change, but innovators continue to develop new ways to collect data on climate impacts. For example, a partnership between marine environment non-profit Beneath The Waves, and digital data experts Hexagon AB, is using airborne lasers to map seagrass meadows. This technique will allow researchers to track year-on-year changes and understand the role that these eco-systems play in the overall health of oceans. In the future, windborne sensors, could also be used to monitor climate change.
Climate models are also incredibly important for forecasting the impacts of a changing climate. Nividia is developing an advanced supercomputer for modelling the entire earth. The extremely high resolution of this ‘digital twin’ for the planet will enable the development of even more accurate models.
Education and awareness
Around the world, people have become accustomed to seeing and hearing news about climate change. Yet, despite this familiarity, innovators are coming up with new ways to prevent complacency and ‘climate fatigue’. One of the challenges of climate change as a policy issue, is that it can seem impersonal and intangible in our daily lives. Tackling the first of these issues is an app called ISeeChange. The app alerts users when weather in their area is abnormal, while also allowing them to share and discuss climate impacts and solutions.
A marketing campaign from Australian insurer Suncorp is tackling the issue of intangibility. Citing the statistic that only three per cent of disaster funding is spent on prevention, the company introduced a prototype home designed to withstand bushfires, floods, and cyclones – weather events that are becoming increasingly common because of climate change. The campaign provokes consideration about how and when the costs of increasingly common extreme weather events are borne.
Climate finance
The cost of tackling climate change will be considerable. And target 13.A within SDG 13 highlights the importance of providing financial support to developing countries to help them mitigate climate change. The target challenges developed countries to jointly mobilise $100 billion in finance per year from all sources – both public and private. Governments will be key in mobilising climate finance, but innovators also have a role to play – especially as the Climate Policy Initiative estimates that climate finance must increase by at least 590% to meet global climate objectives.
One company that is developing an innovative method for mobilising climate finance is Generate Capital. The firm partners with companies or communities to provide them with the capital to build sustainable infrastructure projects – such as geothermal power plants. Rather than raising private equity funds, which must usually be returned after ten years, Generate lets institutional investors by a stake directly in the firm, so that they can invest for the long term.
Adaptation and resilience
In addition to finding ways to limit further climate change, innovators are coming up with solutions that help to make communities more resilient in the face of the reality of rising temperatures. For example, a UN-backed project has developed an app that leverages advances in AI and smartphone technology to help farmers fight plant diseases linked to climate change. In an urban context, Czech startup ECOTEN has used geospatial data to create a temperature map of Vienna that the city will use to plan adaptations in response to the climate crisis.
Supporting vulnerable countries
The burden of climate change is not spread evenly across the globe, with developing countries, and small island nations particularly at risk. Solutions that are tailored to the needs of these communities—and that involve local people—are particularly crucial. For example, in Tanzania, a charity is teaching women to farm climate-resilient sea sponges to protect their income as fish stocks and seaweed cultivation are impacted by climate change.
Coral reefs are particularly important for the livelihoods of those living in coastal areas. Worldwide, an estimated one billion people benefit either directly or indirectly from the ecosystem services coral reefs provide. Sadly, coral eco-systems are among the most vulnerable to climate change with global coral cover falling by half since the 1950s. In response, Portuguese company Blue Oasis Technology has a plan to save the world’s coral by building engineered reefs.
Words: Matthew Hempstead
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Spotted: At the very bottom of Chile, not far from Antarctica, is the wild and rugged region of Magallanes. Known for the constancy and strength of its wind, the area has traditionally supported a variety of farms along with a sizeable tourism industry. But now, Chile’s largest and southernmost region has been chosen as the setting for an innovative, $55 million (€50.6 million) facility that is exploring the commercialisation of synthetic fuel.
The project—called ‘Haru Oni’—is an initiative of startup Highly Innovative Fuels (HIF). The first-of-its-kind facility is designed to convert three ingredients, wind, water, and air, into a green fuel that could play an important role in the energy revolution.
The project combines the products of two separate processes: electrolysis and carbon capture. In the first, an on-site wind turbine produces an electric current that separates hydrogen from water. In the second, carbon dioxide is captured from atmospheric air and industrial sources. The CO2 and hydrogen are then combined to create a fuel that can be used in a range of everyday applications.
The process is billed by the company as ‘carbon neutral’, and two features in particular earn it this label. First, the hydrogen produced at the site is ‘green hydrogen’, as the electricity used to power the process comes from renewable wind energy that does not emit any carbon. Second, because the CO2 used to create the fuel is ‘recycled’ from the atmosphere, when the fuel is ultimately burned the CO2 released is not ‘new’. Instead, burning the fuel merely returns CO2 captured at the start of the process back into the atmosphere. This contrasts with the burning of fossil fuels which releases carbon that had previously been stored in the earth for millions of years.
The facility remains under construction and is due to begin production later in the year. Once up and running, the company says the site is capable of manufacturing 130,000 litres of fuel per year. A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) will monitor the volumes of carbon captured and produced in order to verify the project’s carbon neutrality.
Synthetic fuels are an important area of innovation, and Springwise has spotted several similar processes, such as an integrated process that turns hydrogen and CO2 into aviation fuel, a Canadian facility that creates fuel from thin air, and an eKerosene plant in Germany that will produce up to eight barrels per day in 2022.
