🥝 Crypto Rewards for Being a Global Citizen
(053) And other big promises from the world of climate tech VC this week
Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
Navigating America’s net-zero frontier: A guide for business leaders
The New York Times challenges the impact of airline carbon offsets, raising larger questions about airlines’ carbon accounting
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fabcb2f00-a776-4c6f-9b6a-395f15a7f3e6_1390x781.png)
Encamp, a five-year-old Indianapolis startup whose platform helps companies understand, manage, and report their environmental data to regulators, raised $30 million in Series C funding. Investors included Drive Capital (IIB)
Brazil-based Agrotools, which provides services for startups including helping with environmental compliance, raises $21M (TC)
Quaise Energy, a startup looking to scale geothermal energy, raised a $12M Series A extension led by TechEnergy Ventures (BW)
Brevel, a six-year-old Tel Aviv startup that is developing an affordable color and flavor-neutral microalgae-based protein, raised an $8.4 million seed round. Participants in the financing included FoodHack (VC)
Prometheus Materials, a startup manufacturing zero-carbon building materials, raised an $8M Series A led by Sofinnova Partners (BW)
Strella Biotechnologies, a four-year-old Philadelphia startup that has developed sensor technology designed to reduce food waste and improve quality, raised an $8 million Series A round led by Millennium New Horizons (BBG)
Navigate, a Singapore startup that issues crypto rewards to users who share information about air pollution, carbon emissions, water pressure, noise levels, utility efficiency, airspace activity, and network signal strength, raised a $7.6 million seed round led by Distributed Global (TB)
Virridy, a 10-year-old, startup based in Boulder, Co., that makes sensors that monitor and manage water, energy, and agricultural resources for issues such as e coli contamination, raised a $5.5 million Series A round led by Accord Capital (TC)
Salient Predictions, a three-year-old startup based in Cambridge, Ma., that provides weather intelligence for the energy, agriculture and insurance industries, raised a $5.4 million seed round led by Wireframe Ventures (A)
Green Theory
The Green Brick
Plastics clog the ocean, with about 4% of all plastic produced each year ending up in the deep blue sea. The average American accounts for almost 300 pounds of plastic waste, annually, as less than 10% of plastic gets recycled here. Recycling practices and regulations vary widely by county—and sometimes within them—but there are steps that even those in the least recycling-ready areas can take to spare plastics from a watery or trashy grave.
![Ecobricks-are-bottles-packed-with-non-biological-waste.jpg (886×800) Ecobricks-are-bottles-packed-with-non-biological-waste.jpg (886×800)](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F51c998a8-d9f8-45da-bea3-28dc4f2528db_886x800.jpeg)
Plastics perform nearly supernatural services for humanity: they’re light and airtight, and strong, but flexible. Unfortunately, we discard remarkably durable hard plastics, or return them for energy-intensive recycling after one quick use. Further, loose scraps of light, flimsy plastics flitter into litter, leaping from landfills into a mismanaged mess. Enter ecobricks, a low-energy (albeit effortful) next life for non-recyclable, non-compostable materials.
Drawing on lessons from ancestral traditions, ecobricks create a cradle-to-cradle lifecycle for our single-use plastics, by transforming trash into treasure, and engaging with the earth. To form an ecobrick (there are very detailed specifications on the above-linked page), ecobrickers simply pack scraps of clean, dry, non-recyclable plastics into large bottles. These “bricks” can then be used to build simple furniture, or even housing.
As the Global Ecobricking Alliance explains, “Earth Building is known by different names around the world—‘adobe’, ‘wattle-and-daub’, ‘cob’, ‘organic cement’ etc. These low-energy and low-cost traditions have resulted in incredibly beautiful and varying structures around the world.” The Alliance goes on to explain how to employ your new plastic building blocks in concert with natural materials in crafting structures. If you’re tossing lots of plastic, and have space for a small, new dwelling, ecobricking could present an exciting project, and yield a new setting to relax and recharge while contemplating the climate crisis.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F9909d244-9f96-4d3d-9468-280a45fe2d47_2402x1800.png)
For SF residents, and other dense, recycling-forward communities, the value of your ecobricking efforts may not extend as far—at the same time, however, the lessons from the movement still build a bridge to more sustainable lifestyle. Securing little pieces of loose, non-recyclable, non-toxic material can make it easier to manage in its unfortunate resting place. This practice comes in especially handy when out for a long stroll or backpacking. If you’re traveling outside of convenient compositing communities for a few days, save one large plastic container from the recycling bin, and bring it along. In a dry, dark area, store food scraps in your container. Then, seal it for the homeward journey, and empty it into the compost upon your return.
Ecobricking won’t eliminate the glut of new plastics spilling out into the world. The practice, nonetheless, draws attention to the materials of everyday life. In a time when single-use plastics slip swiftly through our fingers, it reminds us to ask: where do they come from, what can they do for us, and where are they going? Addressing the global production and demand for plastics presents a much farther-reaching problem, yet ecobricking can help sequester the abundant plastic pollution already saturating the land and sea. Even if you’re not a good candidate for ecobricking yourself, attention to the concept provides a path to examining the things that pass through your world, and finding ways to help ensure they end up in the right place.
The Closer
Twitter bots are getting a lot of hate these days but @Shoebillhours might be my favorite account on Twitter.