Promising Green Startups For 2021
Startups working on slowing down the impacts of climate change.
With cars virtually flying above our heads, I ask myself every day, why is it that technological progress hasn’t yet stopped the climate change danger. But science is unpredictable and we can only hope that scientists will continue to come up with innovative ideas for turning to more sustainable inhabitation of the planet.
However, sometimes, you don’t necessarily have to have a degree from a prestigious technological university. The power of visualization and creativity will do nicely in order to start realizing your ideas into long-term projects.
The best way to fight environmental grief is to TAKE ACTION, doesn’t matter how. Shouting your opinion and showing the world that you care is the most powerful tool to change something. But every pattern which needs to be changed because of its unsustainability has to have an effective substitution that can fully take over the functions of that previous version, only more eco-friendly.
Since green startups aren’t very traditional, in comparison to the standard entrepreneurs, they usually face challenges in attracting the right environmentally-aware investors. Achieving success is therefore not only about the initial ideas, but more importantly about the process of convincing about the advantages and encouraging social good with the technological development.
As you can probably already tell, breaking through the world's market requires especially persistence, exceeding the mainstream, standing up for your plan and ideology — but also a bit of luck. It’s nothing to be taken for granted, but still, some unique startups already resonate with society by bringing new ideas to mitigate environmental impacts, so let’s briefly look at some of the fastest-growing ones:
Fuergy
Slovakian debut, founded in 2018 by four engineers from Bratislava, has been described as the “Airbnb of clean energy”. Their mission is to change the way people are using and sharing electric energy, and therefore, accelerate the transition to renewable sources of energy. The solutions, that the company develops to effectively and ecologically share the energy, are based on the employment of artificial intelligence.
The base of the functioning is a highly-scalable hardware design powered by software called brAIn. This unique solution can help users optimize energy consumption and maximize the efficiency of renewables with significantly reduced costs.
The principle is that the prosumers bypass high processing fees thus allowing them to earn more from their renewables. Meanwhile, the buyers are able to purchase the shared energy at cheaper rates than buying it from the main grid — a classic win-win for both the seller and the buyer.
There are more startups working with these kinds of technologies in the energy trading market. For example, Power Ledger, based in Australia, is growing fast thanks to the employment of blockchain technology which facilitates electricity and environmental commodity trading.
Facedrive
Facedrive is a ride-sharing platform founded by Imran Ali Khan in Toronto. It could be described as Uber — only it offers customers its green alternative. Their mission is to ease the movement around the city more sustainably through partnering with The Toronto Parks and Tree Foundation (TPTF), a charity that works in partnership with the City of Toronto, community groups, neighborhoods, individuals, and the business community to reimagine local parks and improves the health of Toronto’s urban forest by supporting tree-planting and stewardship efforts.
The process is simple. There are two types of apps. One is for the registered drivers and the other for the customers. The algorithm in these apps calculates estimated CO2 for each car journey and allocates an equivalent monetary value that will go to the TPTF. In addition, you, as a customer, are offered to choose among electric vehicles, hybrids, or regular fuel-based cars. The money that goes towards the tree-planting is allocated from the company's commissions, which allows both the riders and drivers to enjoy a progressive ride-hailing app without paying a premium for CO2 emissions offsetting.
Facedrive is currently operating in the following cities and municipalities of Ontario: The Greater Toronto Area, Hamilton, London, Guelph, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Orillia, and Ottawa, but it’s only a question of time until this innovation will change the ridesharing, food delivery, e-commerce, and health tech narratives for the better, in other parts of the world.
Apeel Sciences
With their quote “Food Gone Good”, the startup Apeel Sciences managed to develop an extension for fresh produce, by using the microscopic materials inside the seeds and peels of the fruit and vegetables. The process is based on adding a layer of tasteless protection to the fruits, made exactly from these extracted materials, which seals in moisture, keeps oxygen out, and helps produce last twice as long as it would without.
Try to compare the durability of lemon and of strawberry. Which one stays longer fresh? Lemon, because it naturally has a protective peel. The motivation of Apeel is to extend the freshness of fruits and therefore reduce food waste throughout the supply chain.
Evidently, it’s a long-distance run to extend the freshness of commonly bought fruit and vegetables. However, the usage of exclusively organic products to maintain the quality is, without question, a prospect in the worldwide issue of food waste.
Northvolt
Another European startup was created in Sweden by two former Tesla employees. Similar to Fuergy, this idea concentrates mainly on the easier transition to renewable energy, more specifically on the manufacture of green lithium-ion batteries for companies such as BMW or Siemens.
Northvolt is now awaiting the introduction of a gigawatt-scale battery production facility, called Northvolt Ett, that is being developed from a capital raise of $1 billion. The finished project is scheduled to first see the light in 2021 and it is promised to be a full-scale recycling plant.
We are lucky that lots of investors believe in green development and support all kinds of various startups promising a better planet for the next generations. Even though it might be a risky area to invest in sometimes, increasingly more and more people are interested in reducing the load we, humans, place on the environment.
However, it’s not only initially unknown startups trying to approach everyday problems with eco-friendly solutions, tons of the world’s biggest corporations have already set the year by which they would like to emit zero carbon emissions. It’s undeniable that the major responsibility for our future is in the hands of exactly these large companies, but it’s nice to know that there are innovators coming every day to help out with new, more sustainable solutions.
