Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
Podcast: Solar Geoengineering Would Be Radical. It Might Also Be Necessary.
Australia’s election sets a heartening precedent on climate change
House Republicans to introduce climate change strategy with eye on midterms
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
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EcoVadis, a 15-year-old, Paris-based provider of business sustainability ratings, has raised $500 million in funding co-led by Astorg and General Atlantic, with participation from GIC and Princeville Capital. (R).
Agilitas Energy, an eight-year-old startup based in Wakefield, Ma., that builds and operates clean energy storage systems, raised a $350 million round with an option to increase this amount to $650 million upon the completion of certain projects. CarVal Investors was the sole investor. (BW)
California-based electric vertical takeoff and landing startup Overair secured $145M in funding from Hanwha Group to continue developing their prototype, “Butterfly” (YHOO)
Energy-efficient radar platform startup Echodyne raised $135M in funding co-led by Bill Gates and Baillie Gifford (TC)
Cirkul, a four-year-old Tampa, Fla.-based beverage startup that 'went viral' on TikTok -- it sells reusable water bottles along with flavor cartridges and invites users to adjust the taste using an 'intensity dial' -- has raised a $70 million Series C round led by SC Holdings at a pre-money valuation of $1 billion. (BBG)
Residential energy flexibility platform OhmConnect raised a $55M Series D led by ClearSky, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, and TELUS Ventures (PRN)
Ion Storage Systems, a seven-year-old startup based in Beltsville, Md., that manufactures high energy density, solid state lithium metal batteries, raised a $30 million Series A. Investors included Toyota Ventures. More here.
SCiFi Foods, a three-year-old San Francisco startup that is combining plant-based and cultivated meat technology to create its first burger product, raised a $22 million Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz. (TC)
XENDEE, a distributed energy resources planning and operation software, raised a $12M Series A led by Anzu Partners (BW)
Wind Catching Systems, a five-year-old Norwegian developer of floating offshore wind designs, has raised $10 million in Series A funding led by GM Ventures. Axios has more here.
SolarSquare, a 2.5-year-old, Mumbai, India-based startup that is racing to sell, install and help individuals finance solar panels, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Good Capital. (TC)
Brown Foods, a year-old, Delhi, India-based company developing a “real” whole milk created using mammalian cell culture technology, raised $2.36 million by Y Combinator and others. (TC)
Green Theory
Bottle Battle
The elixir of life: water. We need it desperately, lasting only a few days without. Billions of people lack access to clean water—fewer than 3 in 4 could wash their hands at home when the pandemic began.
Single-use plastic water bottles offer a panacea to those thirsty for clean water. Lacking safe infrastructure, or after a natural disaster, the modern wonder of “cheap” plastic, combined with rapacious capitalization of public water resources, provides drinking water in the form of a packaged, lightweight container. If you live in the US, you likely have safe drinking water from your tap, so why do people pay 2000x more for bottled water?
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Guzzling Myths
When you ask people why they drink from single-use water bottles, you’ll run into several common justifications. First, some claim that bottled water is “safer,” and while that may be true in niche cases, generally tap water adheres to more stringent safety standards, with over 99% of Americans enjoying reliable, clean tap water. Next-up, people develop attachments to certain brands of bottled water, suggesting that the “better taste” makes the excess energy, water, crude oil, and money worthwhile. Fresh and delicious, tap water actually holds its own in taste tests, and at-home or in-bottle filters make taste enhancement an outdated objection. Cirkul, one of the startups we highlighted this week, aims to tackle both safety and flavor, with their all-in-one reusable bottles. So if tap water is just as safe and tasty, how does the big bottle industry cram this inferior water down our throats?
Reusable vs. Recyclable
Sipping their single-use polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottle, one may exclaim, “It’s recyclable!” Unfortunately, less than 30% of PET bottles & jars get recycled. Increasing that % recycled presents a far better path forward than those plastics ending up in the ocean, but reducing our consumption of single-use plastics also avoids the extra energy and water used to process that large volume of recycling. Reusable water bottles represent the main solution to forgoing single-use, disposable PET bottles. Ultimately, the convenience of drinking water on the go, without worrying about keeping track of the empty bottle, seems to buoy blustering bottle buyers in their habit. Still, keeping track of your water bottle shouldn’t be too hard for an adult. The more you use it, the less you’ll lose it.
Microplastics: Macro Problems
Beyond the environmental impact, PET bottles endanger our bodies. Especially when left in a hot area or direct sunlight, the plastics degrade and enter the water. A 2018 study detected microplastic contamination in over 9 in 10 plastic water bottles. Though most plastic water bottles have stopped use of BPA (a synthetic estrogen that disrupts natural hormone regulation), PET is still not recommended for re-use, unless you want to replicate the risks of BPA. Glass and stainless steel represent far safer alternatives, and you can wash them with hot water without exposing yourself to microplastics. From losing sleep to stressing out our cells, the subtle and obvious impacts of ingesting these little plastic bits are well worth avoiding.
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Putting the Cap on Single-use Bottles
US residents enjoy remarkably high rates of access to clean tap water. Despite parity or inferiority in taste and safety, plastic water bottlers get away with charging over 2000x more than tap, while threatening public water sources. None can deny the convenience of tossing a used bottle when it’s drained, but if that convenience is draining our natural resources, is it worth it? Getting a reusable bottle (which can safely last years, if not longer, depending on the type) will go a long way in shifting your hydration to a more sustainable system. In the sunset of our highschool careers, we Green Bite writers rallied to fund bottle filling stations at school, and gave away reusable bottles to promote green drinking practices. Though the lifetime impact of these fillers is hard to know for certain, this writer sums up the bottle buying decision aptly: “You’d be justifiably crazy to pay for and drink bottled water, unless you had no other choice.”
By providing people with better choices, we can drink cleaner, tastier water, with a lower footprint on the earth. As you stay hydrated through this hot summer, think of where not only the liquid came from, but the container, too, and where it’s headed.
The Closer
On biking to Oracle Stadium on game days: “I like to limit my carbon footprint as much as I can and the bike is a really cool way to be more sustainable” -Klay Thompson, 🐐