Fall Frenzy For Climate Innovators
For ClimateTech’s monthly newsletter highlighting upcoming opportunities for climate innovators, thought leaders, and community connectors.
Community Opportunities
Missed The For ClimateTech Summit? Watch the recordings here!
The inaugural For ClimateTech Summit brought together over 700 people from 48 different countries for two jam-packed days of climate tech talks. Whether you want to relive the fun, watch a session you missed, or catch up on the Summit altogether — check out the recordings. There’s something to learn for everyone.
Find the recordings here.
INVESTORS & STARTUPS TO SHOWCASE INNOVATIVE CLIMATE TECHNOLOGY AT JONES BEACH ENERGY & NATURE CENTER
Join For ClimateTech IN PERSON, along with the New York State Office of Parks Recreation & Historic Preservation, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA), and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) at the Energy Innovation Showcase on October 12, 2021.
Held in the Jones Beach Energy & Nature Center, a net-zero building on Long Island, the Energy Innovation Showcase presents an opportunity for investors and the general public to learn about emerging climate technologies developed by startup companies which were supported through a suite of NYSERDA-funded programs.
Register for the event here.
Round 5 of the American-Made Solar Prize Begins!
Round 5 of the American-Made Solar Prize submission deadline on October 5th is fast approaching! This U.S. Department of Energy program features a two-track structure, which invites U.S. teams working to develop both hardware and software to compete separately.
The Hardware Track offers $3 million in cash prizes to competitors over three progressive contests. The Software Track offers $1.6 million in cash prizes over three progressive contests.
Competitors have access to a diverse and powerful support network—including Newlab—that will help them solve pressing technology challenges, forge connections, and advance potentially game-changing ideas and innovations.
Join Scale For ClimateTech at VERGE 21 From Oct 25 - 28, 2021
VERGE 21: The climate tech event. Join Scale For ClimateTech and more than 10,000 leaders online — from the private and public sectors, utilities, solution providers, investors, and startups — advancing systemic solutions to address the climate crisis through five key markets: clean energy, sustainable mobility, carbon removal, regenerative food systems, and resilient infrastructure.
Featured Speakers
Network with and learn from more than 250 expert speakers who will explore the pressing challenges, emerging trends, and promising opportunities ahead.
Speakers include:
- Gloria Walton, President & CEO, The Solutions Project
- Yishan Wong, CEO, Terraformation
- Elizabeth Willmott, Carbon Program Manager, Microsoft
- Shalanda Baker, Deputy Director for Energy Justice, U.S. Department of Energy
- Paul Hawken, Executive Director, One Generation … and more.
Calling All Climate Tech & Science Innovators!
Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI), a program at Argonne National Laboratory supported by the US Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office is scouting for world-class researchers and innovators to join their two-year fellowship focused on clean energy and science-based technologies to fight climate change. The team is currently recruiting for their 6th cohort.
Program benefits include:
- 2-year Fellowship including a stipend and benefits
- $220k in non-dilutive support for de-risking technological innovations
- Access to the Argonne National Laboratory
- Technical expertise from Argonne scientists and other commercial partners
- Networking with business experts, mentors, & corporate partners
There are two upcoming webinars on October 1, at 10:00 AM CT and October 21, at 3:00 PM CT where you can learn more.
The deadline to apply is October 31st. Apply here.
Governor Hochul Announces $6 Million for Climate Justice Fellowships
In the beginning of September Gov. Kathy Hochul announced $6 Million available over three years to support Climate Justice Fellowships.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) is seeking applications from host employers to support the professional development, training, and mentoring of full-time fellows currently residing in disadvantaged communities or from priority populations—including individuals that are low income, disabled, homeless, formerly incarcerated, residents of environmental justice communities, veterans and Native Americans, among others.
Applications must be submitted by 3 p.m. EST on October 28, 2021. Host employers must apply to the program with a fellow candidate identified. Employers will need to provide an outline of specific activities the fellow will undertake over the 12-month period.
Find more information and how to apply here.
Innovator Spotlights
Heat Inverse and We Radiate Selected as Grow NY Finalists!
Heat Inverse, creator of durable metamaterials that cool passively, and We Radiate, developer of the ThermoSense system which provides digital and live-stream data to easily monitor compost systems, were announced as finalists for Grow NY. Both companies were in Cohort 2 of Scale For ClimateTech.
Grow-NY is a food innovation and agriculture technology business challenge focused on enhancing the emerging food, beverage and agriculture innovation cluster in Central New York, the Finger Lakes, and the Southern Tier. In total, 330 startups applied this year.
We Radiate was even interviewed on News 8 WROC! You can watch the full interview here.
All finalists will receive:
- Dedicated mentorship from a hand-selected business advisor
- Additional pitch training to hone their live pitches for the judges
- Business development support and workshops to connect them to potential partners and opportunities
- Introduction to the region’s leaders and resources
- Networking introductions, business tours, and valuable appointments for finalist team representatives.
Grow-NY will award a total of $3 million in prize money to seven winners. This includes a $1 million top prize, two $500,000 prizes and four $250,000 prizes.
See the full announcement here!
Scale For ClimateTech Team Tours Re-Nuble’s Rochester Facility
Scale For ClimateTech was fortunate enought to get the chance to visit Re-Nuble’s facility in Eastman Business Park in Rochester, NY. They got to see first hand how Re-Nuble manufactures and develops their water-soluble, liquid organic hydroponic nutrients sourced from sterilized vegetative waste.
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- Riyana shows the Scale For ClimateTech team what goes into their products.
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- Riyana from Re-Nuble showing off its water-soluble, liquid organic hydroponic nutrients sourced, product, Away We Grow©.
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- The Scale For ClimateTech and Re-Nuble group photo.
Program Updates
First Full in Person Team Meet Up!
With applications officially closed, the Scale For ClimateTech team kicked off the Fall season with our first IN PERSON application review since the beginning of 2020.
For this visit, NextCorps hosted the SecondMuse team at the NextCorps office in Rochester, NY. The teams met up with some of their favorite founders, partners, and manufacturers. See the gallery below!
Program Updates
Summit Success!
The For ClimateTech Summit brought 700 people together virtually from 48 different countries. Here are some highlights!
“Let yourself imagine what the world will look like if these solutions are brought to mass scale and commercialized. Let yourself imagine what our world will look like if we all let our choices reflect our hopes and not our fears.”
Jacqueline Ros Amable, Managing Director of Venture For ClimateTech
“Being friends was natural, being business partners wasn’t, especially with our very different styles. We had to figure out our differences and respect those differences. The aim here is a success, not getting our way.”
David Jilk, Co-Author & Serial Entrepreneur“The generalization of the errors I was making was I had not spent time against the backdrop of challenging things separating out what I wanted to spend time on and what I didn’t. I didn’t do the work on me. Whether that’s coaching, or psychologists or psychiatrists or long walks in the woods or journaling or whatever, I didn’t do that work. Do the work, be public with your team, provide resources whether the company can afford them or provide easy access to those resources.”
Brad Feld, Co-Author and Managing Director of the Foundry Group
“In general, when you think about what it takes to solve climate change, every single number starts with a T. It’s a trillion dollars. No matter where you decide to focus on, we’re talking about trillion dollar markets.”
Jigar Shah, Director of Loan Programs at the Department of Energy
“For us, climate tech is not a technological issue, it’s a human issue. We’re fixing human problems. We see it as a way to enhance and reshape 100 years of human habit. You’re looking at decarbonization but also community empowerment through clean air access to clear air and affordable fuel and energy.”Paul Francis, CEO of KIGT
“Right now 27 percent of our electricity is from renewable sources. For us to get to 70% — that doesn’t happen from doing the same old thing.”
Claudia Maldonado, CEO of Atrevida
Check out our recordings page to see the full recordings!