Back-to-school: With the summer behind us, we showcased 6 promising companies in responsible consumption & production

On Tuesday, September 8th, EuroQuity, Bpifrance’s online matchmaking platform and the Solar Impulse Foundation held a new edition of their online pitching programme promoting mission-driven companies offering solutions with positive impact on the environment and a strong business value. Driven by the mission to identify and label 1000 of these solutions to empower governments and legislators to be more ambitious in their environmental regulation, the Solar Impulse Foundation teamed up with EuroQuity to put in the limelight six entrepreneurs behind those solutions, in what turned out to be a remarkable lineup.

Couldn’t make it to the event? Don’t worry, we have it covered! Here’s a recap post that’s fueled with inspiration from passionate innovators all working toward the same goal - to bring groundbreaking solutions to life and committed to create a better future.

Carbo Culture: Turning carbon from a liability to an asset

Carbo Culture commercializes a breakthrough technology in the carbon conversion domain. The patented technology can process a multitude of biomass waste in a semi-modular facility designed to be rapidly deployable on site. The resulting biocarbons are remarkably stable, high in fixed carbon and conductive, which is increasingly understood as a potential key to bacterial processes.

They have 1M€+ in LOIs and they are focusing on pre-sales now with still limited production capacity, as the team looks to scale up the production in 2020-2021 to meet growing demand from environmental remediation (water, soil, toxins) and novel materials.

Do you want to hear an interesting fact about their company: CarboCulture sequester CO2 into a stable carbon form that stays intact for a minimum of 1000 years - and up to 10 million years?

Cirplus: the global marketplace for recycles and plastic waste feedstock

Born out of the Entrepreneur First Ltd (UK) talent investment program, Cirplus is developing a global marketplace for recycles and plastic waste feedstock on the backheels of sweeping new regulations (e.g. EU Plastic Tax) forcing brand owners to use more recycled plastic in all their products. By bringing the recycling and plastics industries together on one platform, Cirplus enables the industry to close the loop on recycled plastics.

Christian Schiller - the CO-Founder & CEO of Cirplus - explains the making of his company: 

“On my world journey in 2017, after quitting my previous job after 4 years, I decided to take on a five and a half day sailing trip from Colombia to Panama. And an event occurred on our second day on the open sea that had a profound impact on me.

While we were cruising, I stuck my legs in the water at the rear of the boat, facing the path we had come from. Suddenly, I felt something hit my legs. When I looked at it, I realized we were just sailing through a thick carpet of algae and plastic trash floating on the ocean. I got up and looked around: this “carpet of trash” was easily spanning over 30 meters in width and covered the ocean as far as the eye could see. It even affected the rudder of our ship and we had to stop because some trash got caught up in there. It was disgusting. The same sad sight under water near the next islands. Lots of trash, including the plastic head of a baby doll! We humans are really raping this planet. It made me sick to see this. And wanted me to do something about it for real.

Thus, upon my return, I investigated organizations and companies whose aim it is to clean the oceans of all this plastic trash that is seriously affecting the well-being of all marine wildlife and humans, too. As I struggled to find one, I decided to take up this task on my own. I got the chance to join Entrepreneur First in the fall of 2018 where I not only met my CO-Founder Volkan Bilici but also incredible people that encouraged us to tackle the plastic crisis together. This was the start of a long journey we are currently on together with an amazing team, creating a global marketplace for circular plastics. 

This was the start of Cirplus and our mission to make buying and selling recycled plastics easier and more efficient than ever before. And ultimately avoid dumping our plastic waste in our oceans.”

Daumet: A new generation of gold

Gold is certainly precious, but its resource is diminishing, its mining is very polluting, and its price is soaring. Warren Buffet, the famous American investor, has just invested massively in gold mines, anticipating its rising price for many years.

To address this challenge, Daumet has developed innovative materials and processes, which can both reduce gold consumption and pave the way for new gold applications. The solution decreases the environmental impact of gold mining and is an alternative to the rising price of gold. The technology has first been successfully deployed in luxury and the start-up now works to implement it on a much bigger market: jewelry. In the long term, this technology conceals other development opportunities in high value-added markets such as the biomedical and chemical industries.

Two interesting facts worth knowing about Daumet:

1: This solution is the basis of work in a field that has initially nothing to do: microelectronics. In seeking to develop more efficient electronic components, Cyrile Deranlot and Albert Fert, 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics, succeeded in obtaining new gold alloys which are today at the basis of the solution carried by DAUMET.

2: DAUMET can save more than 100 tons of gold per year, which means reducing mining waste by 100 million tons and reducing the industry’s water usage by the same amount as the entire city of Paris would consume in the span of 10 years! 

Episome Biotech: eco-friendly enzyme solutions to replace chemicals for a sustainable future.

Episome Biotechnologies has developed paper production’s waste disposal technology, which enables the use of paper mill sludge in biogas/renewable energy and organic fertilizer production. Their technology is used in pretreatment of paper mill sludge and making it ideal for the biogas process. It helps the companies to reduce their carbon footprint. The solution has already been successfully tested with the largest paper producer in Turkey.

When Episome Biotech was established, they focused on enzyme and bacteria technologies in application across various fields. While they were working on Epicellulyse XT, they applied the excess bacteria to their gardens, soon realizing the flowers there started to bloom more than they did before. This prompted them to turn this discovery into a product called Green Zebra Biostick, used to revitalize soil, flowers and ornamental plants with 100% naturally beneficial bacteria. For more information about the company, watch their short educational videos: https://youtu.be/-xuCvxNFI-Q and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qh4RSm1t8o .

Polybion: Biological Additive Manufacturing

Polybion? is ‘brewing’ leather from agroindustry food-waste in Guanajuato, México, one of Mexico's most important industrial corridors, they call this leather Celium?. Celium? bio-manufacturing process is Animal Free and Plastic Free. Their solution has been awarded by MIT, Mass Challenge, Dow Chemical Company and INCMty and now by the Solar Impulse Foundation Label.  

The team behind Polybion? have successfully launched a pilot plant and they are negotiating an agreement with international Brands in the Luxury, Apparel and Shoe industries. Also, they are finalizing a multimillion-dollar Seed Round to scale their operation and boost their synthetic biology strategy to generate completely novel materials never seen before in nature yet organic and sustainable.

Globally, 30-40% of food produced for consumption is wasted every year yet 800 million people are undernourished globally. Food loss and waste is a massive resource drain, using 21% of the world’s fresh water and generating about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. If it was measured as a country, food waste would rank third in the world for harmful emissions. Polybion? is taking on this problem by upcycling agroindustry food waste, their technology turns organic food waste into a high-end leather-like membrane that can substitute Animal and Plastic leather. They have successfully developed a Bio-Fabrication process within a circular production process.

” We use living organisms’ metabolic processes as industrial production platforms. We humans are a ‘tool-using’ species and biotechnology is the greatest tool yet discovered, it will be the key to our survival here on Earth, and key to our transformation into a spacefaring civilization. Biology is our best ally to create more sustainable materials and a more sustainable future. We believe that the next industrial revolution comes from nature and the future of materials will be brewed”

Alexis Gómez-Ortigoza - the CO-Founder & CFO of Polybion? - explains

Recyouest: recycling of agricultural filamentary thermoplastics

RecyOuest has developed a technology that allows the dry cleaning and recycling of plastics from agricultural bales nets & twines. The technology is patented and certified by an ETV (Environmental Technology Verification). The pilot made it possible to produce the world's first agricultural nets from recycled material in closed loop.

Marcela, the founder & inventor, native from Peru, has developed an innovative recycling technology inspired by the knowledge of the textile industry acquired in the centennial family business. Their technology processes plastic waste like natural fibers. They secured its upstream supplies and has pre-sales agreements for its PCR (Post-Consumer Recycling Resin).

Enjoyed the read? You can view more companies on Solar Impulse’s label on EuroQuity. Next pitching session on October 8th on Sustainable & Smart Cities. Stay Tuned !