The NatureBacked Podcast

Sid Kitisakkul from Nature2need discusses their mission to decarbonize the plastic industry by incorporating agricultural residues into the polymer, potentially achieving negative emissions.The company has been operational since 2017, with a production facility in China, producing 4,000 tons of decarbonized plastic raw material annually. They are raising funds to scale production and expand operations to Thailand, leveraging the country's strong agricultural and polymer industries.The company also plans to franchise its model to maintain low carbon emissions and costs, with a potential franchisee in East Africa. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ali Horriyat transformed from a top-tier capitalist to an activist founding Compassiviste, a movement advocating for systemic change through education and practical action. His journey began with a life-altering trip to Ecuador, leading to the relinquishment of his wealth and the pursuit of meaningful societal contributions.Compassiviste, structured like an octopus with various initiatives as tentacles, aims to educate the public on environmental issues, notably through a TV show designed to reduce carbon footprints. The movement's focus extends to ethical practices in production and consumption, and it collaborates with global charities to provide sustainable solutions for refugees through education and resettlement.By 2025, Compassiviste seeks to make a significant impact, with projects like a publishing house for marginalized voices and innovative programs to foster environmental responsibility."2025 is our year. 2025 is the year where we will have an impact," Horriyat said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arkio Industries pivoted from bioplastics to developing a sustainable monomaterial from cellulose. Founder Timo Haanpää highlights the material's flame resistance and aesthetic qualities, emphasizing the importance of design in sustainability. He discusses the company's strategy to produce high-quality, desirable products with a focus on circularity, aiming to reuse materials to maintain or enhance their value. Arkio Industries plans to scale production and explore applications for their material, with ambitions to use it in building structures eventually. The conversation concludes with reflections on the transition from software to tangible products and the challenges of introducing new material to the market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aquaria, a technology company producing Atmospheric Water Generators, aims to make commonplace its innovation of creating clean drinking water out of thin air."We have a very large vision, and that is to build Aquaria into a technology solution for water that one day at least we have the option actually to replace tap water," said founder and Chief Executive Brian Sheng.Sheng highlighted the vast amount of water available in the atmosphere and Aquaria's technology that captures it using low energy. He emphasized the lack of attention and investment in water solutions despite their critical role in climate change effects. "Our focus is on making atmospheric water capture more and more energy-efficient over time so that in the future we hit this point where we have the option to build city-scale, society-scale water infrastructure without pipes or large centralized infrastructure," said Sheng, whose company built last year water supply for some of the first homes in the world whose water supply comes from the air.As a serial entrepreneur, Brian co-founded The Vanguard, Fresh VC, and he founded Asia Horizon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

HeavyFinance incentivizes farmers to adopt climate-friendly practices by providing financial support for the transition from conventional to regenerative farming. Founder Laimonas Noreika, with a background in FinTech, was inspired to start the company after learning about the financial challenges faced by farmers, he said in an interview on sidelines of TechChill conference in Riga.HeavyFinance has evolved from a lending business to a climate-focused enterprise, leveraging a business model based on Verra standards to issue carbon credits to farmers who sequester CO2. They are now active in six European markets and are launching an Article 9 fund to further support regenerative farming practices. The company aims to create a financial ecosystem tailored for farmers, offering products like green loans to facilitate the switch to sustainable farming, with the ultimate goal of scaling up to meet the significant financial needs of small and medium farms across Europe.The company is working on unlocking institutional capital and launching a securitization deal, with plans to expand its support and educational efforts in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Martin Kelly from Innovo Network discusses the company's mission to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by promoting and deploying profitable clean technologies."It is now actually technologically and profitably possible to achieve this reduction, but a huge amount has to happen in terms of the scale of the capital investment, and so on," Kelly said.He emphasizes the importance of making these technologies known to major companies and investors, as they are the key players in commercializing them on a global scale.Martin highlights several technologies, including fuel cells and algae biorefineries, which can transform waste CO2 into valuable products. He also discusses the potential of converting desert land into productive agricultural areas using algae.The challenges ahead for Innovo include raising capital and increasing public awareness about these technologies. Martin's vision is to accelerate the adoption of clean technologies, making them profitable for businesses and beneficial for the environment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Garden for Wildlife is an e-commerce business that simplifies the process of learning about and purchasing native plants for customers' yards.Founder Shubber Ali shares his personal journey from a career in management consulting to becoming passionate about gardening and the environment after reading a book called "Nature's Best Hope." This book highlighted the issue of native plants being replaced by invasive species, leading to a decline in pollinators and birds. Shubber's mission with Garden for Wildlife is to educate people and make native plants accessible, aiming to restore natural habitats and support wildlife.Shubber emphasizes the importance of native plants and compares the growing interest in them to the rise of organic and non-dairy products in mainstream stores. He encourages people to start small in their own yards to see the positive impact on local wildlife.Shubber Ali highlights the benefits of exposure to nature for mental and physical health, referencing the book "The Nature Fix" and the concept of forest bathing. Shubber also addresses the critical role of insects, particularly pollinators like bees, in our environment and food production, emphasizing the alarming decline of native bee species. Garden for Wildlife, his company, aims to address these issues by making native plants accessible, creating habitats, and educating the public. They've expanded to 41 states and are working on localizing plant production to reduce carbon footprint and support local growers.Shubber's passion for the environment is evident as he discusses the interconnectedness of various environmental issues and the simple, actionable steps individuals can take to make a difference.We discussed the business and environmental strategies of Garden for Wildlife. Shubber Ali emphasizes the importance of applying business acumen to environmental issues and describes the company's innovative crowdfunding campaign, which allows customers to become investors.The campaign also encourages the distribution of native plants through gift cards, aiming to increase biodiversity and support wildlife.Additionally, Shubber outlines the company's new platform for not-for-profits, which helps them raise funds through an affiliate program. Garden for Wildlife is expanding its reach through partnerships with retail chains and aims to sign up growers on the West Coast to cover all 48 states. The overarching goal is to promote the planting of native plants globally, starting with a focus on the U.S. and Canada. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gregory Dewerpe, the founder of A/O, a venture capital firm, talks about his company's focus on "positively transforming" the built world, which includes real estate and construction.A/O, launched in 2020, is the largest VC firm in Europe and globally in this sector. The company invests in various solutions, including satellite companies and AI, to address the industry's challenges, such as its significant contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions.Dewerpe emphasized the urgency of sustainable transformation in real estate and the current market conditions that create opportunities for innovation and change."40% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from real estate. So when you compare that to cars, everyone's so excited about electric cars, cars are high single-digit emissions. So when you think about aviation, it's 2%. So the order of magnitude is so staggering that it has to be a wake-up call for people," Dewerpe said."Okay, we're running out of time. Supposedly, by 2030, we'll need to be in a much better place than we are today. Where are we going to spend our time and our money?"However, he noticed that the climate sector has become overheated lately, as many investors have raised climate funds over the last few years and startups have been unable to keep up with the investors."There's too much money for the amount of bankable opportunities right now," he said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Concrete is one of the most widely used and important materials in the world. It is essential for building infrastructure, improving human development, and providing shelter. However, it also has a huge environmental impact, as it accounts for about 8% of the global CO2 emissions due to the use of cement, its main ingredient.But what if there was a way to make concrete more sustainable and profitable at the same time?What if we could use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to optimize the design of concrete mixtures, reduce the amount of cement, and lower the cost and the carbon footprint of concrete production?That is exactly what Concrete.ai, a company founded by Alex Hall, is doing.We had a thorough deepdive into the vision, the concrete manufacturing technologies, and the challenges of transforming the concrete industry with AI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With international actions on halting climate change showing no signs of progress, the mission to save the planet and the environment has been left to startups, said Jana Budkovskaja, the head of Beamline Accelerator."That's why I'm here — because I truly believe that these are the only ones who can save, only startups. All the, in a good way, crazy guys who don't believe that something is impossible. They have passion. They have ideas. These are the scientists, these crazy scientists, the ones who argue with obvious things, the ones who argue with corporations who say, but we have done like this," Budkovskaja said in the episode.Beamline is a Tallinn-headquartered accelerator working with pre-seed and seed-stage cleantech startups across Europe.We covered a wide range of topics ranging from pandas and climate change to greenwashing. What is cleantech? How does it differ from greentech? Beamline invests in teams and provides them with a 3-6 month program and an alumni club. Beamline's current batch is focused on deep tech and material science and uses non-equity money from Estonia's Ministry of Climate. Jana shared her personal journey into the cleantech sector, starting from her love for nature and animals as a child. In Kiikla, Mäetaguse abandoned mines are used as a renewable energy source for heating a village. Beamline aims to be a bridge between the startups and the policymakers, governance, and corporates, who have a high level of inertia and resistance to change. The future challenges with growing the fund, accelerator and the alumni club of Beamline. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices