Urbanisation is the result of the modern world! This pace and scale of urbanisation is not only degrading the natural environment but affecting the communities and the economy as well. In fact, the quality of life in towns and cities is threatened by climate change.
As a result, the people in rural areas have also been affected by climate change, since the crop harvests suffer from extremes of weather. The situation we are going through right now is the outcome of human advancements in industry and tech over the past decade.
In an attempt to reverse the consequences, many startups are developing innovative solutions, using new technology to reconsider the business aspects that contribute positively to both the company and environment. Below is the list of 10 European startups that leveraging innovation to protect the earth from climate change.
Fastned (The Netherlands)
Founders: Bart Lubbers, Michiel Langezaal
Funding: €40M
Fastned offers a network of charging stations for electric cars along motorways and in cities. It enables electric drivers to travel throughout the Netherlands via its services.
How they fight climate change: The combustion engine is a disaster for the climate and our health. By switching to electric driving based on sustainable energy as quickly as possible, we can avert climate change and make cities cleaner and quieter.
Teraloop (Finland)
CEO: Ted Ridgway Watt,
Funding: €2.4M
Teraloop is a grid-scale energy storage system that can provide a future alternative to batteries. This cleantech startup provides a highly efficient method of storing energy, where it operates in synergy with renewable generation assets, balancing the natural variation of supply and demand. By enabling a fully renewable electricity generation system, it can safeguard the World’s resources for future generations.
How they fight climate change: Teraloop is developing a way to store energy that can meet the needs of the population, and provides a zero-waste solution that respects the Earth’s natural resources. Growth no longer needs to come at the detriment of our environment.
Flixbus (Germany)
Founders: André Schwämmlein, Daniel Krauss, Jochen Engert
Funding: N/A
FlixBus offers an alternative, comfortable, and green way to travel which suits every budget. The company’s green buses and long-distance trains comply with the highest safety and environmental standards offering a sustainable, convenient and comfortable alternative to private transportation.
How they fight climate change: While booking tickets in the FlixBus ticket shop, users get an option to tick the “CO2 compensation” box. The CO2 emissions from your journey are then calculated based on the duration and distance of your journey.
The calculated amount is then automatically added to your ticket price. The donation is then invested in a certified climate protection project in accordance with international environmental standards.
Igloo Energy (UK)
Founders: Duncan Ellis, Henry Brown, Matthew Clemow
Funding: £606.9K
Igloo Energy enables users to consume energy smartly and reduce energy bills. The startup offers customised energy services with simple variable electricity and gas tariff.
How they fight climate change: Through smart meter data and connected home technology company helps customers to live simply while helping them use energy efficiently and save money.
Verv (UK)
Founder: Peter Davies
Funding: € 10.3M
Verv, an intelligent IoT hub uses patented AI technology to give users the authority to take control of their energy usage to reduce energy bills and lower their carbon footprint. This home energy assistant provides you with information about your home appliances and other electricity data directly from the mains, helping you to tackle your electricity bills.
How they fight climate change: With its analysis tools and learning abilities, it offers users greater insight into their household electricity consumption including the real-time cost. By incorporating blockchain technology into the hub, the company is also providing affordable access to low carbon energy for those without solar, and incentivising uptake of renewables.
Co2OK (The Netherlands)
Founders:Milo de Vries, Jos van Nieuwburg
Funding: N/A
CO2OK has developed a free plug-in for retailers – a green checkout button for consumers. Named as ‘make CO₂ok button’, online retailers can install it free of charge, providing their customers with a chance to fight climate change themselves.
How they fight climate change: If a consumer clicks the button when shopping online, he/she pays an extra 1 percent of their purchase to compensate for the greenhouse gases that are emitted during the production and transport of their products.
In this case, the emission of greenhouse gases is calculated using a climate scientist as precisely as possible for each and every product. On this basis, the amount that the consumer needs to make is determined. Notably, 75 percent of the profits collected from the ‘green’ checkout button will be used to finance sustainable projects that are aimed at the reduction of CO2 emissions.
Land Life Company (The Netherlands)
Founders: Eduard Zanen, Jurriaan Ruys
Funding: €5.9M
Land Life Company helps maintain the ecosystem by developing sustainable tree planting processes. The company has developed a cocoon planting technology, which is a low-cost, sustainable and scalable solution for large scale ecosystem restoration, dry agriculture, agroforestry and horticulture. in arid soils.
How they fight climate change: The company is addressing climate change by helping to restore the world’s 2 billion hectares of degraded land within our lifetime.
Skytree (The Netherlands)
Founders: Alexander Gunkel, Max Beaumont
Funding: € 600K
Skytree offers a direct air capture technology enabling its users to capture carbon dioxide from the ambient air and concentrate it for use in greenhouse crop fertilization, algae production, and other industrial and personal activities. The company units filter CO2 from outdoor and indoor air and dispense it in concentrated form
How they fight climate change: The company offers a technological solution to climate change through the direct removal of CO2 from Earth’s atmosphere.
Blue Green solutions (UK)
Founder: Professor Maksimović
Funding: N/A
Funded by EIT through its Climate KiC program, the Blue Green Solutions aims at harnessing the synergies between urban water infrastructure, urban green spaces and other urban ecosystems and functions to generate sustainable, resilient city systems that move from centralised water, energy and waste utilities to decentralised but integrated systems.
How they fight climate change: According to the company, the benefits include increased amenity and urban health, enhanced resilience to drought and flood risk, reduced air pollution, noise and energy requirements, mitigation of extreme heat and urban heat island effects and enhancement of biodiversity and quality of life.
Be Circle
Funding: N/A
BE CIRCLE, a consulting service based on a web platform, supports industrial ecosystems in their transition towards a circular economy. It helps the company by designing and transforming industrial parks to close resource loops and improve environmental performance and competitiveness. It is funded by EIT through its Climate KiC program.
How they fight climate change: When it comes to a circular economy, one would go with creating closed-loop processes in which waste serves as an input. In this case, it eliminated the notion of an undesirable by-product.
Stock photo from ParabolStudio/Shutterstock
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Meet the 11 social innovators pitching at DNNL X Social Enterprise NL Launchpad Demo Day 2024