Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
![Geely's Farizon Auto unveils 'Homtruck' electric semi for global market in 2024 | Electrek Geely's Farizon Auto unveils 'Homtruck' electric semi for global market in 2024 | Electrek](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F722d4da5-379e-4779-8e44-de777e87ce4d_2000x1000.jpeg)
Electric commercial vehicle manufacturer Farizon Auto is considering raising up to $300M in funding ahead of a potential US IPO (BBG)
Sustainable protein startup Unibio received a $70M investment from the Saudi Industrial Investment Group (FN)
Hardee Fresh, a vertical farm facility, received a $56M loan from X Caliber Rural Capital (BW)
Danish climate and fintech company Agreena raised a $50.2M Series B led by HV Capital (BW)
Stellarator fusion startup Type One Energy raised a $29M round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, TDK Ventures, and Doral Energy Tech (BW)
Spiral, a startup helping banks and fintechs embed sustainability and social impact into their core businesses, raised a $28M Series A led by Team8 (BW)
Irrigreen, a startup building robotic irrigation systems, raised a $15M seed round led by Ulu Ventures (PRN)
Energy management startup Mixergy raised $11.3M in funding led by EDP Ventures and Nesta (FN)
Lun Energy, a startup aiming to decarbonize homes, raised an $11.2M seed round from Norrsken VC, Partech, Lowercarbon Capital, and more (FN)
Flaim Systems, a startup providing immersive learning solutions for firefighters, raised an $8.6M Series A led by Breakthrough Victoria (FN)
Environmental SaaS platform and services provider Manufacture 2030 raised a $6.2M Series A led by Maven Ventures and Amati AIM Ventures (FN)
Impact Observatory, an AI-powered global mapping and monitoring company, raised a $5.9M seed round led by Esri International (FN)
3E Nano, a startup developing a low-cost solar control coating for windows, raised a $4M seed round led by Energy Foundry (BW)
HeavyFinance, a climate tech investment marketplace for the agricultural industry, raised a $3.2M seed round led by Practica Capital (FN)
Toronto-based climate tech startup Carbon Neutral Club raised a $1M seed round led by Emend Vision Fund, Blue Vision Capital, and Good News Ventures (PRN)
Green Theory
Whose food waste is it anyway?
Human food production leads to over a quarter of our annual emissions, these days. Since over 20% of our global food is lost in supply chains, or wasted at the consumer level, over 6% of total global emissions can be attributed to good food that went bad. Layering on the effects of not composting, and the resources that went into waste at the farm level, the true cost of food waste grows even higher.
Waste happens at every stage of foods’ journeys, and some is bound to occur at each level. Nonetheless, every continent has produced over 2,000 calories per person per day for over 50 years, and still almost 10% of people suffer from hunger. Almost one in three people is moderately or severely food insecure. How can we feed everyone, and decarbonize our wasteful food systems, too?
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F2e8f7c89-a465-41a5-8fad-65e04fc3a9c2_1600x790.png)
Once perishable food has made it home, eating it or composting are likely your only good options, after some time. Backing up to the store-level: opting for plant-based or plant-rich items will play an even larger role in reducing food waste emissions, as well as purchasing an amount closer to what you’ll actually eat. It’s not that people want to waste food at home, it’s just a byproduct of the desire to have the choice to eat something later. With perishable foods, this desire has a real cost to society when unchecked.
Given the resource intensity of animal agriculture, most alternative protein companies suggest replacing animal-based foods as the most effective lever for reducing food-related emissions, among other benefits, environmental and beyond. Operating orthogonally, climate tech companies focused specifically on food waste reduction come in all shapes and sizes: from Apeel Sciences (a massive physical shelf-life extension company) to GreenBytes (a small software startup helping restaurants order food less wastefully). It may come as a surprise that businesses can earn a profit by reducing food waste, but this area of climate tech holds compelling value propositions for their customers.
A Problem for Software
In every grocery store, and every restaurant, every piece of food that a shopper or eater may select had to be deliberately ordered or purchased, and a lot of it is likely perishable. Picking how many organic blueberries, conventional blueberries, organic strawberries, conventional strawberries, and so on, is a complex forecasting challenge. Simplifying this process into a daily decision with just one product, economists used a newspaper stand as a model to study optimal inventory levels, facing uncertain demand.
Even in its simplified form, this forecasting equation would pose a serious challenge to a Victorian child selling newspapers. The message of the model, however, is clear, from the perspective of a seller (such as a grocery store or news stand) trying to maximize profits; the optimal quantity of a perishable product (such as strawberries, or daily newspapers) is likely higher than the quantity the seller actually expects to sell, before they go bad. How could that be?
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F55204e77-26f4-48ef-8beb-1f0ec4622d7b_1600x795.png)
To a grocery store, the cost of a pallet of moldy strawberry containers at the end of the day is far less than the “cost” of missing the opportunity to sell containers of fresh strawberries to shoppers who wanted them that day, to a point. Indeed, businesses of all kinds prefer to overstock their shelves, for the same reason. Further, an individual tendency to overbuy food could be explained by this same idea: when not required to pay the true cost to society of wasting food at home, the optimal amount to waste gets even higher.
When it comes to food, the damages of grossly overstocking, are harder to ignore, and decision makers largely lack adequate tools to make accurate forecasts, anyway. Even though food waste may be built into a food sellers’ business models now, there’s room for software to reduce the prevailing level of waste. Next week, we’ll explore the pathways to solving food waste, and how climate tech companies are making money doing so.