#100 | aluminum recycling success story
Understory newsletter on climate and sustainability tech
Good morning everyone. As we close out the March, we want to say thank you for being a part of our community. We have more updates to come about our Understory Investor Community as well as new initiatives!
We had a successful startup showcase event this past week and learned so much from Varuna, Limeloop, Re-Nuble, and Robotic Cats. Missed the event: watch here. RSVP for our April Startup Driving Sustainability Showcase!
And this is our 100th newsletter - a small side project launched at the beginning of Covid has turned into something bigger. 💚
Learn more about Understory Investor Community?
The Understory Investor Community brings curated climate tech startups and accredited investors together.
Are you a climate or sustainability tech startup that is currently fundraising? Let us know here!
Are you an accredited investor who wants to connect with fundraising startups? Let us know here!
📚 Worth Reading
Two things worth reading: the first one is the SEC update on climate risk disclosures by public companies, and the second is an article on aluminum recycling.
SEC is soliciting comments during the public commenting period. It is more than likely that SEC will institutionalize some form of climate risk reporting.
The Securities and Exchange Commission today proposed rule changes that would require registrants to include certain climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic reports, including information about climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition, and certain climate-related financial statement metrics in a note to their audited financial statements. The required information about climate-related risks also would include disclosure of a registrant’s greenhouse gas emissions, which have become a commonly used metric to assess a registrant’s exposure to such risks.
Aluminum recycling is a bright example in circular economy. Over the years, the use of virgin aluminum production is declining, and many aluminum products (soda cans for example) are from recycled aluminum.
🚀 Funding and Congrats!
CarbiCrete closed a $12 million Series A round. The company creates carbon-negative pre-cast concrete.
Sunfire, hydrogen power company, increases its Series D capital raising to $215 million, partnering with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Blue Earth Capital (BlueEarth) and existing investment partners such as Carbon Direct.
Perch Energy, a Boston-based clean energy technology and services company, raised $7.2 million in financing.
SparkMeter, a Washington, DC-based provider of grid management services, equipment, and software solutions, raised $10 million in financing.
Beep, a Lake Nona-based provider of multi-passenger, autonomous EV mobility solutions, raised $25 million in financing.
Span.IO, a San Francisco-based creator of a smart electrical panel and EV charger, closed $90 million in a Series B round.
Bower, a Sweden-based provider of an app that directly rewards users with money or coupons when they recycle everyday waste items, raised $4.7 million.
🌱 Startup Resources
Showcase your dedication to environmentally friendly initiatives! Join Greencom's Green Community of businesses and create special consumer offers like cash-back, coupons, and discounts available in the app. When a user makes a purchase through Greencom, the savings can be donated to critical environmental projects and organizations.
💡Startup Spotlight
Sunfire - a hydrogen power company
🎧 Podcast
Stefan Gönner of Seqana: sequestering soil organic carbon
Shuchi Nijhawan of Eka Software Solutions: carbon accounting to reach net zero
Jason Nachamie of Rho Impact: the art and science of ESG impact tracking
The Understory Podcast is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Google Podcasts.
⚙️ Jobs
Find and share your open positions on the Understory Slack channel.
🆕 General Manager of Supply at Cloverly
🆕 Head of Marketing at Nth Cycle
🆕 Director of People at Nth Cycle
🆕 Multiple Roles at Goodr
🆕 Business Development & Strategy Lead at Sway
🆕 Fellow, Climate Solutions at Emory University
🆕 Sustainability Engagement Lead at Twitter
🆕 Sustainability Offering, GTM Lead: Financial Services at IBM
🆕 Aladdin Product Marketing, Aladdin Sustainability – Aladdin Climate Lead, Vice President at BlackRock
🆕 Circular Economy Portfolio Leader at Owens Corning
🆕 Director of ESG & Sustainability at La-Z-Boy Incorporated
Director at Georgia Social Impact Collaborative
Head of Growth at Gaiascope
Intern (development & product marketing) at Hazel
Senior Director, Corporate Partnerships at Closed Loop Partners
Recruiting Specialist and In Store Style Curator at Borobabi
Solutions Engineer at Clarity AI
Manager - Supply Chain Environmental Sustainability at McKinsey & Co.
Manager, Global Communications at Interface
Key Account Director at Interface
Director of Sales at WasteWizer
State Climate Policy Network Intern at Climate XChange
Sustainability Lead, Nature at Ralph Lauren
Software Engineer and Communications Coordinator at Greenlink Analytics
Principal, Circular Economy at Amazon
🗓 Events
April 23: Atlanta Green Business Market Fair
April 26: Understory x gener8tor: Startups Driving Sustainability Showcase
May 17-19: Circularity 22 Conference
Do you have any events to share? Post them in our Understory Slack community.
📧 Stay in Touch!
You don’t have to wait for our weekly newsletter for all the latest content. Join us on Slack or follow along on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter to see real-time updates.