About the cards
Remember those trading cards sold in packs at the corner store? On the front of each card was a photo of an athlete or fictitious character that we looked up to and, on the back, a description of their superpowers.
As we feel climate change more frequently and intensely, we went looking for a different kind of a superpower: people inventing the future and redesigning the systems that for generations have perpetuated extractive economies and social inequities. These 19 teams are applying their ingenuity in service of our planet and people, something we admire at Elemental.
Vote by sharing a card. The teamʻs card with the most shares will come to life in a NowThis video, bringing their climate solution story to millions of people.
Each year, Elemental invests in a new cohort of companies and helps them deploy projects and technologies that address real-world challenges like net-zero infrastructure, unsafe drinking water, and harmful greenhouse gases beyond just carbon dioxide.
This year, Elemental is celebrating our 10th cohort. In 2009, we built a new non-profit model for funding climate tech deployment. Breaking down barriers to innovation alongside entrepreneurs helped us identify the policy, market, and technology innovation needed to build systems that uplift people and communities around the world.
So far, we have invested in 136 growth-stage companies and celebrated more than 20 exits, funded more than 70 technology projects, and built a platform for scaling equitable, market-driven solutions to climate change.
Learn more at elementalexcelerator.com.
The Better Packaging Co. operates at the forefront of sustainable packaging innovation. They manufacture and commercialize solutions that displace traditional single-use packaging (such as mailers, poly bags, and bubble wrap) and reduce the environmental impact of the growing e-commerce industry.
The Big Picture
Packaging generates over 141 million tons of plastic waste per year, which is almost half of the annual global total of plastic waste.
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Matter is pioneering ways to capture, harvest, and recycle microplastics in commercial and industrial contexts. The company has developed the world's most advanced technology to filter microplastic emissions in wastewater without the need for disposables, cartridges, or replacement components.
The Big Picture
There are 5.25 trillion microplastic particles in the earth's oceans, and synthetic textile fibers are largest fraction of that.
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Nth Cycle’s clean electro-extraction technology helps recyclers and miners upgrade waste into production-grade critical minerals. All the critical minerals needed for the energy transition are already in circulation today; we just didn’t have a clean, profitable way of retrieving them — until now.
The Big Picture
Nth Cycle's product could cut 3.8 gigatons of emissions by 2050.
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Reath is building the digital infrastructure required for businesses to shift to the circular economy and create a world where reuse is more common than single use. The company specializes in the tagging and tracking of circular assets, and building the “digital passport” they need — think Google Analytics for the circular economy.
The Big Picture
Transitioning to a circular economy can reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 39%.
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WEEE Centre is a key e-waste management player that serves some of the largest businesses and institutions in the world. WEEE collects and dismantles e-waste to recover raw materials for recycling into new electronic products, in the process creating a cleaner environment, and kickstarting technical careers.
The Big Picture
In Kenya alone, 51.3M tons of e-waste is generated annually, but only 1% is safely disposed and recycled. WEEE Centre can recover and re-use 87% of the e-waste collected.
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SENTRY offers real-time water quality monitoring at treatment plants. With this data and intelligence at their fingertips, plant operators can improve treatment performance, make smarter decisions around energy and chemical use, and reduce the likelihood of discharging pollution.
The Big Picture
Facilities using Sentry for aeration optimization can save approximately 15% in energy costs.
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120Water helps water professionals manage critical lead and drinking water programs. Comprised of secure cloud-based software, services and point of use kits, 120Water’s solution provides tailored workflows for complying with lead and water quality programs that protect public health.
The Big Picture
More than 9 million homes across the U.S. still get water through lead pipes.
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Climate Robotics develops advanced robotics to sequester carbon and improve soils. The company's in-field biochar production system allows farmers to convert their waste into a valuable product that boosts soil pH, nutrient and water retention, and crop yields, while removing up to 2-5 tons of CO2 equivalent per acre — roughly the emissions from driving a car for one year.
The Big Picture
Earth’s soils contain more than 15 times as much carbon as the atmosphere, and have room to permanently and safely store much more.
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TradeLanes is building a digital supply chain platform for the future of global trade. By bringing trade operations entirely online, TradeLanes enables companies to automate manual paperwork, minimize risks, and turn their supply chain into a competitive advantage. The company's platform's also enables key elements of a circular economy, such as traceability and re-use of raw materials.
The Big Picture
74% of businesses still process exports manually.
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Vibrant Planet harnesses adaptive planning and market incentives to help land managers more rapidly flip forests back to health as massive carbon sinks. Ultimately, Vibrant Planet's platform powers the restoration of natural systems and unlocks other benefits of good land management like water security and abundant biodiversity.
The Big Picture
In 2020, California's wildfires put more CO2 into the atmosphere than the total emissions from providing power to the state.
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Courial seamlessly connects consumers and businesses with a curated fleet of on-demand gig workers to deliver anything, from documents and food to dry cleaning and furniture. Its technology aggregates and optimizes trips into the most efficient route, preventing unnecessary vehicle miles traveled, reducing congestion, and lowering emissions.
The Big Picture
There are more than 250,000 antiquated delivery and courier services in the U.S.
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Dimensional Energy gives CO2 a new life as a cost-effective building block for products traditionally made with fossil fuels. The company's first offering is a jet fuel made from carbon dioxide and concentrated solar. They are building the carbon-neutral economy of the future, today.
The Big Picture
Aviation is responsible for 1.2 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year, and projected to be 5% of total global emissions by 2025.
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Rally's bus rideshare service solves regional transportation challenges and reduces reliance on personal cars for individuals and groups going to the same destination. These efforts help lower emissions and encourage the adoption of electric buses while benefiting local communities through contracting with existing bus operators and increasing access to mass mobility.
The Big Picture
The private bus industry already executes 640M passenger trips per year, yet the bus fleets are idle half the time
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WeaveGrid solves one of the most critical emerging electrification challenges — connecting a growing wave of electric vehicles to a grid that was not designed to support the high power needs of widespread charging. WeaveGrid helps utilities monitor and manage EV charging, transforming EVs into flexible assets that support grid resilience and renewable energy growth.
The Big Picture
EVs in the U.S. are projected to grow from 1.6M in 2020 to nearly 20M by 2030.
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EnergyRM is solving the split incentive where building owners rarely invest in energy efficiency in buildings where tenants pay for their energy use. The company's clean energy fintech platform gives building owners and project investors the software and financial structure needed to solve the split incentive, generate new revenues from large-scale energy efficiency investment, and rapidly decarbonize buildings.
The Big Picture
Commercial buildings are the least efficient building sector and routinely overconsume energy by 30% or more
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enVerid's air cleaning technology addresses two critical issues for buildings — indoor air quality and energy efficiency. By scrubbing indoor air of contaminants rather than constantly replacing it with large volumes of outside air, enVerid delivers healthier indoor air while lowering a building's carbon footprint and operating costs.
The Big Picture
Commercial buildings contribute 17% of the total U.S. carbon emissions each year, and heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) is responsible for 36% of commercial building energy intensity.
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Gas insulated switchgear (GIS) technologies are key hardware found in electricity grids, and use the world's strongest greenhouse gas — sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) — as the insulating medium. Nuventura develops GIS technologies that replace SF6 with dry air while maintaining their compact dimensions and reliability.
The Big Picture
SF6's annual emissions are equivalent to the CO2 emissions produced by 100 million cars.
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SHYFT is accelerating the energy transition in emerging markets, where unreliable access to power can hinder adoption of clean-energy solutions. With technology that allows energy service providers and renewable energy companies to monitor, manage and control distributed power systems, SHYFT is helping to leapfrog to a modern energy system.
The Big Picture
The IEA estimates that by 2030 more than half of the new electricity connections will come from off-grid or minigrid systems.
