A growing
number of scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs are learning from nature and
reimagining products and business models to help solve some of our most pressing environmental and social challenges. The Biomimicry
Institute is proud to announce the top 10
nature-inspired startups selected to participate in the 2021 Ray of Hope
Prize® — a transformational program designed to help startup innovators scale
their sustainable solutions. The 10-week virtual accelerator culminates in a
live pitch for the chance to receive the $100,000 grand prize — awarded by
industry and conservation leaders from WWF, Patagonia and Yale,
among others. Additional equity-free funding will be available to participating
companies.
Created in honor of late
Interface founder Ray C.
Anderson, the Ray of
Hope Prize provides expert training and mentorship in sustainable business
practices. Beyond eligibility for the $100,000 prize, all participants are
given pitch training, product refinement and storytelling techniques; and gain
access to a growing community of biomimicry designers and entrepreneurs,
industry leaders, and potential investors. Previous Ray of Hope Prize
finalists include breakthrough innovators such
as
ECOncrete,
Werewool, Spotless
Materials, Aruga
Technologies and
Nucleário.
This year, the Institute received 301 applications from 49 countries. Each of
the contending startups has the potential to disrupt or eliminate several
extractive industries and practices, while revitalizing degraded ecosystems.
The 10 finalists are:
-
Aquammodate (Stora Höga, Sweden) is
revolutionizing water purification by mimicking the way diatoms
(single-celled algae) form their cell wall out of silica and utilizing
aquaporins, proteins that transport pure water across cell membranes
throughout nature. Aquammodate’s energy-efficient and selective technology
produces high-purity grade water in a single filter pass, desalinates at
scale; and removes industrial pollutants and contaminants such as arsenic,
microplastics and pharmaceutical residues.
-
Biohm (London, UK) is a bio-based building
materials company that makes insulation from mycelium (the “root"
structure of mushrooms), and a 100 percent natural sheet material called
ORB (organic refuse bio-compound) out of biowaste and a plant-based
binder. By embracing circular design and the systemic nutrient cycling found
in nature, Biohm’s building materials — which are more affordable and
outperform current products on the market — could be one of a growing number
of innovations enabling a more sustainable built
environment.
-
GROW Oyster Reefs (Charlottesville,
VA) — Oysters are critical to maintaining healthy coastlines. They
clean the water and create reefs that protect from ocean swells. To help
revitalize oyster populations, GROW has created proprietary concrete mixes
that are chemically similar to oyster shells, and micro- and macro-designs
that attract and retain healthy oyster populations. By working with nature
to restore coastal ecosystems, GROW’s products enable long-lasting habitat
restoration.
-
Impossible Materials (Fribourg,
Switzerland) — Titanium dioxide is the most used colorant in the world,
found in the white traffic stripes painted on roads, in sunscreen and
toothpaste, and even in powdered donuts. However, titanium mining has an
environmental cost, and nanoparticles of titanium dioxide have recently been
labeled as a suspected carcinogen. In search of an alternative, researchers
studying the bright white Cyphochilus beetle found that the thin layer
of scales on its exoskeleton acts as a highly optimized scattering
structure, giving the beetle its bright white coloration. Impossible
Materials is mimicking this structure with cellulose, creating a safer and
better-performing white pigment.
-
Infinite Cooling (Somerville, MA) —
20 percent of all water used globally is in manufacturing sites and power
plants, and much of it escapes as high-density vapor from industrial cooling
towers. Infinite Cooling has developed an add-on process to capture 100
percent of the cooling tower water vapor, enhancing fog-harvesting
strategies deployed by animals such as the Namib desert beetle. By
closing the water-cycle loop at industrial facilities, Infinite Cooling
helps customers save millions of dollars and millions of gallons of water
annually.
-
Mussel Polymers (Bethlehem, PA) has
developed a high-performance, non-toxic adhesive known as poly (catechol)
styrene (PCS), mimicking the adhesive proteins that mussels use to
adhere to surfaces in extreme marine environments. PCS is 300 percent
stronger than other underwater adhesives, and bonds to a wide range of
materials. Mussel Polymers will be used in a number of industries, but they
are bringing their product to market first for coral restoration, solving a
critical problem within the conservation ecosystem.
-
New Iridium (Superior, CO) has created a
suite of organic chemicals that enable photocatalysis, or light-driven
chemistry — eliminating the need for heavy metals or heat as catalysts.
Their technology dramatically reduces the energy and time required for a
wide variety of chemical reactions, lowering costs and paving the way for
green chemistry to become industry standard. With its products already being
used by pharmaceutical and chemical companies, New Iridium is working toward
developing a platform that mimics photosynthesis by using light energy to
convert water and CO2 into chemical energy.
-
Novobiom (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) is
tapping nature’s most powerful recyclers — fungi and microorganisms
— for use in brownfields, Superfund sites and other contaminated industrial
land. By selecting fungi that target specific contaminants such as oil or
heavy metals, they perform mycoremediation on site, without the need for
hauling away soil to a central treatment facility. Novobiom has the
potential to revitalize millions of contaminated sites around the world by
naturally decomposing harmful toxins through this systems-level biomimetic
approach.
-
Renaissance Fiber (Wilmington, NC)
— Cultivating hemp for textile fiber is an ancient practice; however
with the advent of modern agriculture and the invention of synthetic
textiles, the processing required for hemp meant it could not compete
economically with these alternatives. Renaissance Fiber has developed a
degumming method based on natural degradation of plant fibers observed
in tidal streams, using far less energy than traditional hemp processing
and creating more affordable and higher-quality hemp fiber. Renaissance’s
process also sequesters carbon in the effluent, which can be returned to the
ocean as a natural carbon sink.
-
Spintex Engineering (Oxford, UK) —
Spider silk is often cited as one of the strongest biological materials
in the world, and scientists have long been searching for a way to
synthesize this silk for use as a textile
fiber.
Spintex has finally cracked the spider's code and has developed a solution
that mimics a spider spinnerets’ ability to spin fiber at room temperature
without harsh chemicals, from a liquid gel. Spintex’s process is 1,000 times
more energy efficient than synthetic, petroleum fibers, with water as its
only by-product.
“This year’s Ray of Hope Prize cohort is collectively taking on global
sustainability challenges that represent billions of dollars of business
opportunity,” said Jared Yarnall-Shane, Entrepreneurship Director for the
Biomimicry Institute. “Our goal is to help them cross the barriers that many
science-based entrepreneurs face, providing them the momentum needed to scale
operations.”
The Ray of Hope Prize participants are engaged in the 10-week virtual program
and will be delivering their pitches to an expert judging panel in early June.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published May 21, 2021 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST