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Dear Friends of Greentown Labs,

Did this week's IPCC report stop you in your tracks? Us too. It spurred a range of emotions across our team—fear, frustration, anxiety, and an ever-growing commitment to the work we do every day supporting climatetech entrepreneurs. We're grateful for our startups' efforts to develop and deploy solutions to the climate crisis, and we're honored to be part of their journey.

As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in releasing the report, we must “massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every timeframe. In short, our world needs climate action on all fronts—everything, everywhere, all at once.”

We need to transform how we power our world, how we produce food, how we travel, how we build, how we manufacture, and so much more—all with an eye toward equity and climate justice. It’s an enormous challenge, but now is not the moment to be intimidated. It’s time for all of us to roll up our sleeves and collaborate on the biggest opportunity we’ll ever have to make the world a better place.

“We have never been better equipped to solve the climate challenge—but we must move into warp speed climate action now,” Guterres said. We at Greentown couldn’t agree more; every day, we see startups developing solutions that can slash emissions, promote environmental justice, and help communities prepare for the impacts of climate change.

Our entrepreneurs are working to decarbonize the five key greenhouse-gas-emitting sectors and build resilient communities. While each of our 200+ startups have their own innovation, let’s take a look at just one from each sector to give a brief glimpse into why there’s so much hope.

Agriculture: Lignium Energy converts excess manure—a major climate and logistical problem on farms—into odorless combustion pellets that can be used as inexpensive, climate-friendly fuel and offer a new revenue source to farmers.
Buildings: AeroShield manufactures a porous glass material that is 50 percent more insulating than traditional windows, significantly increasing buildings’ energy efficiency.
Electricity: Form Energy is developing, manufacturing, and commercializing a new class of cost-effective, multi-day energy storage systems that will enable a reliable and fully renewable electric grid year-round.
Manufacturing: Sublime Systems pioneers an electrochemical process for cement-making that is on track to reduce over 90 percent of cement’s CO2 emissions—a massive climate impact, given that cement’s responsible for eight percent of global CO2 emissions.
Transportation: Ivys Energy Solutions is enabling e-mobility for fleet applications via hydrogen-dispensing and battery-charging solutions.
Resiliency + Adaptation: COI Energy’s digital energy-management platform eliminates energy waste in buildings and repurposes that waste for good, donating a portion of monetary energy savings to NGOs that provide assistance with energy efficiency, weatherization, renewable energy access, and utility bills for communities in need.

But here’s the rub: these startups need your help. We’ll only get these critical climate solutions deployed at the pace necessary to tackle climate change through collaboration among entrepreneurs, investors, corporate leaders, policymakers, and other climate champions who are ready to put their skills to work on climate. And yes, that means you!

The work we do today, tomorrow, and in the coming months will have an incredible impact on our planet's future, and each of us can play a role in building a decarbonized, resilient world. We need everyone who isn't already working in climate to get involved, and those who are already in the industry to double down on their commitment.

Here’s how you can support our startups as they scale their technologies:

Investors: get connected with our world-changing entrepreneurs.
Corporates: explore partnering with Greentown and our startups.
Industry experts: mentor a startup.
Job seekers: work at one of our startups—there’s a place for you, no matter your background or skill set.
Other climate champions: attend an event so you can learn about more ways to engage with our member companies and the climatetech ecosystem.

We thank you for your dedicated climate action, and look forward to working together on this challenge and opportunity of a lifetime.

Onward,
The Greentown Labs Team

Recent Reads

Eighteen startups joined our community in the first months of 2023, working on innovations as diverse as an ammonia-based energy system, sneakers made from food waste, and nano-filters that reduce energy consumption in chemical separations. Read about them in our quarterly new member roundup!

Sol Clarity has a dual mission: clearing solar panels of dust that can significantly reduce their power output, while saving massive quantities of water that are currently needed to conduct this cleaning. Learn about our member's quick, water-free, and labor-free process for removing dust from solar panels.

What does climate action look like? Climatetech startups receiving funding, forming partnerships, deploying their tech around the world, and more! Read a roundup of our members’ March milestones.

The Greentown team has been heads-down helping our startups navigate the ripple effects of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and we are grateful to all the investors and other industry players who have signaled their unwavering support for climatetech startups. Read in Canary Media how Greentown and other incubators are aiding entrepreneurs during this time.

Mark Your Calendar for These Upcoming Events

March 28: 2023 Cleantech Open Boston Kickoff Party [Greentown Boston]
Join Cleantech Open Northeast for its kickoff at Greentown Boston! Attendees will learn how the accelerator program can help entrepreneurs develop their cleantech ventures and how to apply to the accelerator.

March 30: EnergyBar: Go Make Final Showcase [Greentown Boston]
Our March EnergyBar is dedicated to celebrating the culmination of Greentown Go Make 2022, a startup-corporate partnerships accelerator with Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas). Join us for an evening of networking and hear pitches from the five innovative startups that are accelerating the commercialization of technologies to revolutionize supply chains.

April 6: Canary Live Boston [Greentown Boston]
Canary Media and Post Script Media, leaders in climate journalism, will record a live episode of “The Carbon Copy,” followed by a discussion with experienced New England reporters on the region’s efforts to decarbonize.

April 11: Greentown Houston Career Fair [Greentown Houston]
Calling all professionals, students, and soon-to-be graduates! Join us for a career fair focused on connecting professionals directly with Greentown Houston’s network of founders, CEOs, and cutting-edge climatetech startups.

April 20: EnergyBar: Where Art + Climatetech Meet [Greentown Boston]
Greentown, Boston Ballet, and the Netherlands Innovation Network are excited to present an immersive dance experience with Boston Ballet’s ÜNI, a multimedia pop-up experience dome! Join us to jeté beyond the tech community to explore how the intersection of art and technology inspires ideas that lead to new innovations and spark engagement to solve the climate crisis through collaboration.

April 27: Transition On Tap [Greentown Houston]
Attend the April edition of Transition On Tap, Greentown’s monthly networking event devoted to fostering conversations and connections among the climate and energy transition ecosystem, in Houston and beyond.

May 11: EnergyBar: Go Move 2022 Final Showcase [Greentown Boston]
This EnergyBar is focused on celebrating the culmination of Go Move 2022, a Greentown Go startup-corporate partnerships accelerator program focused on decarbonizing automotive manufacturing and reducing vehicles’ life-cycle impact, in partnership with BASF and Magna.

June 5-7: Circularity 23 [Industry Event]
Circularity 23 convenes professionals working to build a circular economy for actionable discussions, networking opportunities, and more. Greentown is excited to be an Accelerate Partner for this event!

Spotted at Greentown

We love getting to bring prominent industry leaders into our incubators to meet with our members, learn how to engage with them, and explore how they can incorporate support for climatetech entrepreneurs into their work.

This month, we hosted U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm for her second visit to Greentown Houston. During the roundtable she led, Sec. Granholm met with our BIPOC- and women-led startup members to discuss the unique challenges they face in the energy transition, and also brought representatives from the Department of Energy (DOE)’s Economic Impact and Diversity, Loan Programs, ARPA-E, and SBIR/STTR teams to help clarify the federal funding process.

We also welcomed representatives from many of our corporate partners, including Equinor, Evonik, and Mitsubishi Electric Automation (MEAU)! MEAU has graciously donated more than $20k of electric automation control components to each of our incubators. These critical tools are the building blocks for our members’ prototypes; hear from our startups about how this equipment will support their work!

Open Applications

The Carbon to Value Initiative: applications due March 31
Go Energize 2023: applications due April 4
TEX-E Fellowship: applications due April 23

Greentown is Hiring!

Chief Executive Officer (Boston, MA or Houston, TX)
Communications Coordinator (Houston, TX)
Community Coordinator (Boston, MA)
Community Associate — Internship (Boston, MA)
Investor Associate — Internship (Boston, MA)
Operations Associate — Internship (Boston, MA)

Thank You to Our Partners 🌍

Responding to the IPCC Report with Urgent Climate Action

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Responding to the IPCC Report with Urgent Climate Action