Gate Openers to a Brighter Future

Future Acres builds collaborative, autonomous tools to carry farms into the future. On many farms, 30% of a farmworker’s time and energy is spent hauling crops on wheelbarrows, a technology invented thousands of years ago. Moreover, intense heat continues to impact working conditions and put farmworkers’ lives in danger. Future Acres’ first product is a robotic cart that follows farmworkers and transports their picked crops to a centralized storing location, boosting harvest efficiency and worker safety while providing real-time yield data and analytics.

The Big Picture

Labor issues — ranging from farmworker shortages to reduced hours from rising temperatures — are among the biggest challenges in our food systems.

Hohonu provides real-time environmental monitoring, starting with water levels for coastlines, rivers and streams. The lack of substantial, granular data collection in these areas prevents a deeper understanding of the problems associated with climate change, and the ability to adapt accordingly. Hohonu installs sensors and data monitoring systems to help communities recognize and take action around risks such as hyperlocal flooding, hypoxia events or accelerating sea-level rise.

The Big Picture

Rising sea levels will put $100B worth of U.S. property in jeopardy by 2050.

Mythos AI is decarbonizing maritime shipping and vessel operations making it possible to move more goods on fewer vessels. Vast amounts of fuel are wasted by ships the size of skyscrapers idling to become lighter or bearing half loads so they don’t run aground near ports. Mythos AI provides optimized self-driving and real-time hydrographic mapping that helps ships safely and more efficiently navigate busy waterways with less environmental stress. This mapping is also the key to keeping ports healthy and commerce flowing.

The Big Picture

While 80-90% of global trade is transported by sea, maritime shipping is one of the most difficult sectors to decarbonize.

Nitricity distributes and electrifies the production of fertilizer. The company is commercializing a breakthrough technology that produces fertilizer using only air, water and renewable energy. By avoiding the need to ship, Nitricity focuses on fertilizers that are best for fields and farmers, rather than fertilizers best for factories and freight.

The Big Picture

Between production and application in the field, nitrogen fertilizer is currently responsible for over 2% of global emissions.

Transaera’s radically efficient approach to improving air conditioners can resolve one of climate change’s most confounding paradoxes. As temperatures rise globally, more people will need to rely on cooling appliances that strain electrical grids and contribute to climate change. The company uses novel materials to dehumidify air before cooling it, using 50% less energy than conventional AC. That also helps to make air conditioning affordable enough to actually use in the frontline communities and emerging markets that are the most vulnerable to climate change.

The Big Picture

Air conditioning units, already accounting for 4% of global emissions, are expected to quadruple to 4.5 billion by 2050.

Millions of tons of agricultural waste are incinerated or left to decay every year, leading to massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. Creative Food Labs tackles this problem by upcycling agricultural waste into new food ingredients through a low-energy fermentation process. Its first product is xylitol, a natural sugar substitute free from negative consequences like diabetes, obesity and tooth decay. And by paying farmers for each pound of waste, Creative Food Labs can double the income of Mexican farmers living in extreme poverty.

The Big Picture

Roughly 60 million dry tons of crop residue are produced in Mexico each year, representing an enormous opportunity to avoid emissions.

With its CO2 battery, Energy Dome has created an elegant long-duration energy storage solution. The company’s utility-scale system manipulates CO2 back and forth between gas and liquid states, with readily available off-the-shelf components that make it easy to deploy widely today. Energy Dome’s solution is highly competitive versus lithium ion batteries, with an unprecedented round-trip efficiency and durability, providing no degradation of capacity or performance over 30+ years.

The Big Picture

The ability to store energy from intermittent sources like solar and wind for prolonged periods has long been a missing piece of the decarbonization puzzle.

Forum Mobility is decarbonizing the heavy trucking industry’s movement of goods in and out of ports. The company is committed to electrifying the drayage industry, which is responsible for transporting goods from shipping containers in ports to distribution centers. With its zero-emission fleet services and charging infrastructure, Forum Mobility can help rid frontline port communities of the disproportionate burden of pollution that comes from diesel freight trucks.

The Big Picture

More than 39 million people — disproportionately low-income residents and people of color — are exposed to hazardous diesel pollution near ports.

NÜWIEL makes smart, electric trailers for bikes to transform last-mile delivery operations. NÜWIEL’s eTrailer can easily carry heavy cargo on uneven roads and automatically switch between biking and walking modes. The eTrailer has been recognized as the best international bike trailer and is already being used by UPS, Ikea, Belgian Post, and others. By replacing the cars and trucks that typically move goods around cities, NÜWIEL is reducing CO2 emissions, fine particles, noise pollution and other mobility challenges in dense urban environments.

The Big Picture

Booming e-commerce growth by 2030 is projected to increase emissions from last-mile deliveries by over 30%.

Origen’s zero-carbon process is reimagining the production of lime, a mineral that naturally removes CO2 from the atmosphere. Used in everything from cement and steel production to soil amendments and water filters, lime touches our lives in many ways but remains highly carbon-intensive to make. Origen’s zero-carbon lime process, combined with the mineral’s ability to absorb CO2 with no energy applied, makes it one of the most promising gigaton-scale carbon removal solutions.

The Big Picture

This is a dual-threat climate solution, decarbonizing a mega-emitting industry (responsible for 400M tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year) while enabling gigaton-scale carbon removal.

Vesta protects coastlines and amplifies the ocean’s natural ability to absorb CO2. The company adds a carbon-removing sand made out of olivine to shorelines, where it reacts with seawater to simultaneously reduce acidity and increase its capacity to durably remove CO2. By mimicking and vastly accelerating Earth’s natural rock weathering process, Vesta’s coastal carbon capture is an ideal solution to help the shoreline-protection industry and ocean-based communities become more climate resilient.

The Big Picture

Natural rock weathering has been removing CO2 for billions of years. At full scale, coastal carbon capture could permanently and affordably remove more than a gigaton of CO2 from the atmosphere every year.

Banyan Infrastructure makes it faster, easier and more financially rewarding to invest in climate solutions and sustainable infrastructure. Today, too many renewable energy projects are bogged down by complex, expensive and time-consuming financial management and contracting processes. Banyan’s software platform provides investors with digital tools to maximize liquidity and transparency, while accelerating the overall flow of capital flowing into planet-saving technologies.

The Big Picture

In order to solve the climate crisis, investment in sustainable infrastructure must grow from $1T to $6T per year.

Community Energy Labs builds simple, affordable energy management technologies for community buildings such as schools, universities, and government buildings. Many of these buildings have increasingly complex and expensive energy needs that can keep decarbonization out of reach. With its AI-powered, grid-interactive control system, Community Energy Labs is ushering in a future of clean, all-electric self-operating buildings.

The Big Picture

K12 schools spend $6B+ annually on energy — more than on computers and textbooks combined.

DigitalPaani is developing a new way to meet the world’s water needs. In emerging markets like India, wastewater systems are distributed among factories, warehouses, hospitals, hotels and more, but 75% simply don’t work. DigitalPaani’s IoT-based platform manages the entire lifecycle of treatment by automating both equipment and human workflows to transform these non-functional facilities into compliant operations that can manage wastewater properly, eliminate pollution and unlock an abundant and renewable source of clean water.

The Big Picture

Treating and reusing wastewater can meet 65% of urban water needs.

Modulous delivers healthy homes with 60% less embodied carbon than conventional construction. The company pairs digital design with a physical “Kit of Parts” that is assembled locally, promoting communities through job creation and training. Modulous is the first globally scalable model for sustainable and affordable home construction, giving developers, architects, and manufacturers the modular guides they need to build more efficiently.

The Big Picture

The buildings and construction sector are responsible for 39% of energy and process-related CO2 emissions.

MOLG tackles the growing e-waste problem by making manufacturing circular. The company’s robotic microfactory can autonomously assemble and disassemble complex electronic products like laptop PCs, servers, and battery packs. MOLG also partners with companies like Stanley Black and Decker and leading computer manufacturers to design new products with reuse in mind, ensuring that one product’s end is another’s beginning.

The Big Picture

57 million tons of e-waste are generated annually — outweighing the Great Wall of China — and only 17% gets recycled.

Oonee is helping bicycling become a dominant mode of getting around cities with a network of modular bike parking, charging, and service stations. Even as cities invest in safer bike lanes, the lack of secure parking keeps many people from becoming regular cyclers. With a full cycling infrastructure in place, more people can confidently turn car trips into bike trips and put a dent in greenhouse gas emissions. Oonee has begun operations with a particular focus on serving delivery workers (of which there are more than 60,000 in New York alone) who need secure storage for their livelihoods.

The Big Picture

As 50% of car trips in the U.S. are under three miles, cities can decarbonize transportation by creating infrastructure networks for bicycles, scooters and other sustainable modes of transportation.