From Climate Threat To Climate Tech
Why Innovation Is The Vehicle We Need To Drive Sustainable Progress
Monday, August 28, 2023 at 7:27 PM:
“The reason I am contacting you is because my son Anthony heard about the Sargassum contest for Miami Dade County and he was so interested in providing a solution. I tried to explain to him that that contest was only open for startup companies that can provide resources to fix that problem, but as a 9 years old kid , he did not take that answer a final statement. Instead he insisted on writing a solution with his own ideas. Please see below for his explanation . . .
First, seaweed can create biofuel from sargassum seaweed. This process doesn’t require the waste seaweed to be removed from the salt water. Instead, it begins with two types of catalysts being added to a vat of the vegetation. These chemicals release sugars from the seaweed, that can be used to feed a special yellow which in turn produces a substitute for palm oil. However, there are also some downsides for this idea: Scientists are needed in this process, additional production cost, and it’s timely.
Ultimately l would like to propose an easier and quicker solution. You can make fertilizer from the seaweed. You just grab the seaweed from the beaches, shred it up in a mulcher, and bring it to the highway and spread it around the highway plants. It is a low-cost process and it is nutritious for the plants. This will require initial fees for the machinery and extra costs for workers who are doing this work.
In conclusion, the implementation of seaweed recycling in Miami Dade County offers numerous benefits and opportunities for a sustainable and circular economy. Seaweed biorefinery allows for a close to zero waste system, reducing overall waste production and promoting the reuse and recycling of waste fractions. In addition, the utilization of seaweeds in animal feeding or soil nutrition can help address environmental pollution caused by seaweed management in coastal areas. Overall, the implementation of seaweed recycling in Miami Dade County offers a range of benefits.”
— Anthony P. (via email from his father Reginaldo)
Unlocking A Sustainable, Circular Economic Opportunity
In 2022, Miami-Dade County spent approximately $4.2 million to clean up sargassum, a type of seaweed known for forming large floating mats and washing up on beaches during the warm summer months. The macroalgae can often accumulate along Florida’s Atlantic coast and the Caribbean basin, releasing hydrogen sulfide gas that can cause breathing difficulties when decomposed. It also irritates the eyes, nose and throat, causes a burning sensation, and expels a malodorous odor; ultimately impacting Miami-Dade’s local fishing and tourism industries, and necessitating expensive collection, removal and clean up.
When MDIA launched its inaugural Public Innovation Challenge focused on identifying solutions to Repurpose Sargassum for Beneficial Use, our aim was to recruit companies from across the globe. We did not anticipate generating interest from young innovators like nine-year old Anthony, whose email proposal above accurately forecasted the types of responsive technology we encountered.
From Sargassum derived manufacturing materials, bioenergy solutions to agricultural additives, the Sargassum Challenge attracted companies from 12 countries. 57% of applicants hail from Florida, while the leadership teams of more than 45% of companies reflected women ownership and 50% racial/ ethnic minority ownership. In partnership with The Nature Conservancy and a selection committee composed of investors, climate innovation leaders and experienced entrepreneurs, our team narrowed the slate down to 12 finalist companies. Visit MDIA’s digital platforms to explore profiles of the finalists companies. As we conclude the final stages of due diligence associated with the $100,000 investment intended for each winning company, stay tuned for a future announcement.
Sargassum is not just a South Florida issue, it’s a global one. By expanding the global reach of our facilitated pilot testing program, anchored by a unique collaboration with economic engines within Miami-Dade County, MDIA hopes to help successful companies deliver market-ready solutions to pressing public challenges that drive tangible socio-economic benefits across our community, the State of Florida and the nation as a whole. The sustainable repurposing of Sargassum is one of many innovation-led interventions that is poised to help Miami, and similarly situated communities, transform our greatest obstacles into opportunities.
The Problem Is Much Bigger Than Seaweed
The last decade recorded eight of the top 10 warmest years in history, leading to more droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes. Scientists continue to measure the frequency and severity of storms, which have increased over the past decade. Notably, in the US alone, 2019 marked the ninth consecutive year with eight or more billion-dollar, weather-related disasters. On a global level, international organizations such as the World Bank and the United Nations, through its Green Climate Fund, have both upped their investments into climate-vulnerable nations. The World Bank in particular is targeting $200 billion in funding from 2021 to 2025 to support climate adaptation. What’s more, to meet the global average temperature targets codified by the 2015 Paris Agreement, to which 195 nations are party, we must reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases by roughly 50% by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050.
Luckily, the private sector has caught wind of the double bottom line returns greentech presents. In 2022 alone, climate tech investors deployed $41.1 billion across 2023 deals (which is a slight downward departure from the 2021 peak of $48.4 billion). The number of emerging technology companies focused on developing solutions to the climate crisis has quadrupled since 2010, reaching almost 45,000 firms by 2022.
The ready availability of capital to fund climate tech ventures remains an outlier amidst a tightening funding landscape. Despite this anomaly, we still see a need for greater diversity in capital sources, including more inroads to access alternative pools that carry varied risk profiles and return horizons such as government funding agencies, private equity, pension funds and insurance companies.
While electric vehicles, power grid infrastructure, industrial decarbonization and intermittent renewable energy sources raised the most venture capital funding in 2022, additional drivers continue to fuel this green wave, including:
- Regulation and policy, including Federal investment and incentives and efforts to place infrastructure around carbon offset industry
- Consumer interest, driven by Gen Z and millennials
- Corporate and government net-zero targets
- Investor pressure driven by audacious emissions reporting and reduction requirements
Notwithstanding this rapid momentum, climate tech’s untapped potential lies in transitioning the most promising solutions from siloes in the private market to scalable opportunities within the public domain. To do so effectively, we need more vehicles that intentionally focus on bridging the gap between private innovators and the public sector. One such platform is MDIA’s Public Innovation Challenge, which aims to fast track the discovery of climate-related technologies from across the globe and de-risk commercialization through pilot testing collaborations with local economic engines. The South Florida Climate Resilience Tech Hub is another.
Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure: A New Vision For A Climate Focused Miami Tech
Miami Dade County Innovation and Economic Development Office along with a consortium of public, private and philanthropic partners, including MDIA, formed the South Florida Climate Resilience Tech Hub, which was recently designated as one of 31 regional tech hubs by the US Department of Commerce Economic Development Agency through a competitive process that attracted over 200 applicant markets.
This coveted designation positions our region to unlock upwards of $75 million in federal funding to advance priority projects that align with our strategic focus on Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure (SRI) solutions for the global climate crisis.
As this consortium’s pitch to the EDA demonstrated, South Florida has a well- established track record as a global leader in this space. In addition to the creation of MDIA to serve as the go-to innovation sandbox to-scale platform, existing regional efforts that align with SRI innovation include:
- The “Dade standard” is the global benchmark for resilient building codes.
- South Florida produced 2% of all US patents in climate tech over the past 5 years, and climate-related academic R&D grew at ~10% per year during the same period.
- Partnerships with NOAA, including the National Hurricane Center housed at Florida International University (FIU), leverage locally-developed machine learning tools to create data sets and models used globally to understand and predict weather patterns.
- South Florida has seen a recent groundswell of investment, including $137m in climate tech in 2022
- Together with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, institutions in South Florida are designing a climate-adapted water management system with the support of Congressional funding.
The Tech Hub will develop, commercialize, and scale SRI technologies by building off the region’s unique combination of resources such as its coastal and marine infrastructure, cluster of clean cement and energy efficiency building industries, and academic and research institutions.
Initiatives like Miami-Dade Innovation Authority’s Public Innovation Challenge and the Tech Hub’s future projects aimed at climate adaptation, mitigation and sustainable resilient infrastructure are critically important to the growth of a more resilient Miami. These are, at present, the most effective vehicles to transform our community from being ground zero for the greatest climate threats to a world class hub for climate tech. By making such critical investments in innovation, at both a per venture and ecosystem level, we’re well on track to create a more sustainable world.
