Brilliant Planet is utilizing the potential of algae to permanently and quantifiably sequester carbon at the gigaton scale.Their method is not only ten times more affordable but also ten times faster than legacy algae producers, which allows for affordable carbon removal through algae. The company’s innovative process enables vast quantities of microalgae to grow in open-air pond-based systems in coastal desert areas without the use of freshwater. By harnessing a natural process, the innovative method contributes to the health of both the oceans and the air.

Fogponics from Lite+Fog is an innovative solution that enables up to 400x more yield than conventional agriculture, without the need for soil, pesticides, favorable weather conditions or global supply chains. As a result, it effectively eliminates the primary source of poisoning, deforestation and CO2 production to date and secures a way to feed the ever growing population of the future.
Lite+Fog has international customers, from high-tech cellular meat productions, fertilizer companies and local energy-to-food initiatives, and is currently setting up pilot facilities to provide reliable growing modules to productions and cities. These modules can potentially grow up to 20-tons-per-week productions on a mere 1000m2 surface area.

In December 2022, Renewcell opened the world’s first commercial-scale plant for chemical recycling of textile waste in Sundsvall, Sweden. The plant produces a novel biodegradable raw material called “Circulose”. Produced with 100% renewable energy, used cotton and other cellulose-rich textiles are broken down to create “Circulose”, which can be used to produce new high-quality textiles. At the site of a former paper mill, Renewcell aims to contribute to making fashion circular by recycling the equivalent of 600 million t-shirts every year, while making extensive use of existing machinery and infrastructure as well as providing new green jobs.

Aiming to change the construction sector, which is responsible for 60% of waste and 40% of CO2 emissions worldwide, Concular is developing a digital ecosystem for circular construction. Beginning in 2012 with Restado, a marketplace to buy and sell materials from
deconstruction, Concular has grown to Europe’s largest marketplace for reused materials. As this mainly reached small companies, Concular was founded in 2020 to cater to the professional actors of the construction sector. By digitizing materials in both new and existing buildings and redirecting them into new construction instead of landfilling them, Concular has created closed material loops which help to reduce global CO2 emissions by up to 15% and waste by up to 30%.

PolymerActive upcycles industrial plastic waste, such as fishing-nets from the ocean, into an adsorber that can be used to purify air and waste-water. This achieves three goals at once. Firstly, it reduces plastic waste by giving it a new value as a raw material for this process, preventing it from ending up in the environment or our water streams where it causes damages and diseases. Secondly, it cleans air and water from pollutants by adsorbing them to the recyclable material. Thirdly, by substituting activated carbon, which is typically used in wastewater treatment plants as the standard adsorbing material, PolymerActive’s regenerative filters reduce the release of CO2 since the filters do not have to be burned after use. By that, PolymerActive strives to turn waste into value.

Living in one of the most polluted cities, Angela channeled her grief into a positive impact after she lost her aunt to the pollution in Skopje. She created EnRoute, a machine learning-powered application to aid people in reducing carbon emissions through their daily commuting activities. Furthermore, it assists users in making environmentally conscious shopping decisions by enabling them to scan a label and check if a product is sustainable or not, while providing alternative options of similar price and more eco-friendly.

Beyond the technology, she developed an international community, uniting ambassadors in over 55 countries.

Sharona Shnayder is a Nigerian/Israeli environmental activist, National Geographic Young Explorer, and Founder of the global grassroots movement Tuesdays for Trash– tackling the garbage crisis facing our planet. Despite how intimidating climate change often feels, in 2020 she chose to channel her fear into mobilizing a movement that has now brought people from 40+ countries together to remove over 30,000 pounds of litter from our environment in 6/7 continents. As a BIPOC youth activist she aims to provide a unique perspective to the climate movement that will reduce global waste while creating a cleaner and more equitable home for everyone on this planet.

At the age of 17, Jeremiah Thoronka founded the start-up “Optim Energy” to tackle the challenges of energy poverty and environmental impact in his home country of Sierra Leone. The idea: To use piezoelectric materials and locally sourced energy harvesting technologies to provide energy to low-income households and schools. Piezoelectricity is gained from heat and vibrations. Optim Energy positioned their devices under the pavement, using one of the greatest natural assets of the areas where they were implemented: weather, traffic and people. A sustainable and affordable system for low-income communities in a region where outside of the urban areas only a minority of the population has access to electricity.