20 Women Driving The Future of Climate Tech: Part 2
Its less than 3 days until the kickoff of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26), an event which has core objectives like mobilizing finance towards climate and net-zero solutions, and working together to deliver climate action.
But, since the events announcement, organizers have come under scrutiny for failing to deliver on its promises of togetherness and inclusivity when it announced an all-male leadership team last year.
This has since changed, and although women now make up roughly 45% of the COP26 unit, “almost all of the most senior public-facing roles are taken by men.”
Why women's voices are important in climate conversations:
If you aren’t sure why representation at COP26 is important, or you haven’t read our first article in this series, we are going to reestablish why women are critical players in addressing climate change and advancing solutions:
- The education of women and young girls in particular, could potentially reduce the equivalent of 85.42 Gigatons of CO2 (between 2020 & 2050. This is based on educations ability to increase access to reproductive healthcare, empower women’s political, social, and economic empowerment standing and result in decreasing fertility rates.
- CleanTech solutions are currently male dominated in many countries, despite women being more vulnerable to climate impacts.
- Female-founded businesses tend to employ 2.5 times more women. This improves female job opportunities, generates diverse opinions and further prioritizes social responsibility.
Female Founders, Investors & Scientists who are leading the way
Whilst the actions discussed at this event will play an important role in promoting gender inclusive climate spaces, we know that there are a number of female founders, investors scientists and policy makers taking change into their own hands.
Because of this, we have decided to highlight the women who are working tirelessly to drive climate technology forward and pioneer solutions in a number of critical environmental areas.
This list features women from across the globe that we know will inspire and scale clean innovation:
1. Madison Savilow
Founder (Expedition Air),
COS (Carbon Upcycling Technologies)
Company: Expedition Air
Field/Climate Action Area: Carbon Products, Decarbonization, Green Materials
Company Mission: Expedition Air sells consumer products made from carbon dioxide. We believe every product consumers interact with should enable a low carbon future. The Expedition Air eCommerce site is coming soon.
2 & 3. Miranda Wang & Jeanny Yao
Co-Founders, CEO & COO
Company: Novoloop
Field/Climate Action Area: Plastic, Waste Management, Green Materials
Company Mission: At Novoloop, we’re giving plastic trash new life. We transform packaging waste into high-performance materials (Oistre™) used in shoes, cars, homes, and more. Our materials perform like those made from fossil fuels and they contain up to 50% post-consumer recycled content and reduce carbon emissions up to 45%.
4. Dr. Laura-Marie Töpfer
General Partner
Company: Extantia Capital
Field/Climate Action Area: GHG emissions reductions, Climate Tech
Company Mission: Extantia Capital invests in exceptional technology innovators that slash carbon emissions at scale, cut the cost gap to clean alternatives, and turbocharge our path to Net Zero.
5. Sanjana Paul
Executive Director (Earth Hacks)
Technical Associate (MIT’s Senseable City Lab)
Company: Earth Hacks
Field/Climate Action Area: Climate Tech, Air Quality, Environmental Justice
Company Mission: EarthHacks is an innovation-focused event where students from all majors develop solutions to real-world environmental challenges. Multidisciplinary teams will have 24 hours to learn from mentors, brainstorm, and generate solutions to some of the world’s most pressing problems. Depending upon the problem, proposed solutions can involve hardware, software, art, text, and other materials.
6. Bridget Croke
Managing Director
Company: Closed Loop Partners
Field/Climate Action Area: Circular Economy
Company Mission: Closed Loop Partners is a New York based investment firm comprised of venture capital, growth equity, private equity, project finance and an innovation center. We invest in the circular economy, a new economic model focused on a profitable and sustainable future.
7. Susan Su
Partner (Toba Capital)
Program Creator (Terra.Do)
Company: Toba Capital
Investment Field/Climate Action Area: Decarbonization
Company Mission: Toba Capital is an early-stage investment firm committed to helping create incredible technology companies. We look for businesses capable of long-term growth and teams with the potential to fundamentally shift markets for the common good.
8. Pippa Gawley
Founder & Director (Zero Carbon Capital)
Co-Founder Five Thirteen
Company: Zero Carbon Capital
Investment Field/Climate Action Area: Zero-Carbon, Climate Tech
Company Mission: The Zero Carbon Fund is an EIS fund investing in early-stage companies on a mission to address climate change through hard tech innovation.
9. Dr. Tara Karimi
Cofounder and CTO
Company: Cemvita Factory Inc.
Field/Climate Action Area: BioTechnology, Decarbonization, Heavy Industries
Company Mission: Cemvita apply synthetic biology to reverse climate change. We do this by engineering microbes to use carbon dioxide or methane as a feedstock for the production of carbon-negative industrial chemicals.
10. Brandon Middaugh
Director
Company: Microsofts Climate Innovation Fund
Field/Climate Action Areas: Climate Tech, Carbon Capture & Storage, Decarbonization, Water, Waste Management
Company Mission:
The Climate Innovation Fund is a $1 billion investment initiative to accelerate technology development and deployment of new climate innovations through equity and debt capital.
11. Karolina Ling-Vannerus
Founder & CEO
Company: Circulate
Field/Climate Action Areas: Circular Economy, Waste Management
Company Mission:
Circulate is a B2B marketplace for sustainable packaging and a purchasing tool for European SMEs. Our mission is to speed up the world’s transition to more sustainable consumption and a circular economy, where every week counts!
12. Dr. Clea Kolster
Partner & Head of Science
Company: Lower Carbon Capital
Field/Climate Action Areas: Carbon Capture & Storage, Foodtech, AGtech, Energy, Clean Tech
Company Mission:
For too long, the world has ignored the scientists, inventors, and entrepreneurs who are pursuing solutions to lower emissions, remove carbon, actively cool the planet, and save human, animal, and plant life as we know it. Lowercarbon Capital funds research and invests in technologies to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere.
13 & 14. Chantal Emmanuel & Ashley Etling
CTO, CEO & Co-Founders
Company: LimeLoop
Field/Climate Action Areas: Shipping, Waste Management
Company Mission:
The e-commerce shipping platform provides retailers visibility, security, and predictive analytics from the point-of-order to return while making a positive environmental and economic impact, using a reusable shipper and engagement sensor.
15. Cristina Aleixendri Muñoz
COO & Co-Founder
Company: Bound4blue
Field/Climate Action Areas: Maritime shipping, Renewable energy
Company Mission:
bound4blue is an engineering company with the mission to deliver automated wind-assisted propulsion systems as a turnkey solution for all shipowners and shipping companies looking for a reduction in fuel costs and pollutant emissions. The company is also working on an alternative application of this technology to design in the future a wind powered vessel, capable of producing hydrogen and oxygen by means of the electrolysis of seawater in a clean and cost-efficient way.
16 & 17. Anastasia Hofmann & Naomi MacKenzie
Co-Founders
Company: Kitro
Field/Climate Action Areas: FoodTech
Company Mission:
Founded in 2017, KITRO is a Swiss startup embarking on a global challenge by harnessing the power of technology and using it for sustainable change. With artificial intelligence as the foundation, KITRO offers an automated food waste data collection and analysis solution that can be adopted by food and beverage outlets.
18. Daniela V. Fernandez
Founder & CEO
Company: Sustainable Ocean Alliance
Field/Climate Action Areas: Climate Tech / Ocean Tech Accelerator
Company Mission:
Sustainable Ocean Alliance is a youth-led organization that empowers youth to become leaders in preserving the health and sustainability of our oceans. With education, resources and collaborative opportunities, they aim to inspire youth to create measurable impact by incentivizing social and environmental investments and fostering cross-sector partnerships.
19. Jamie Beck Alexander
Director
Company: Drawdown Labs
Field/Climate Action Areas: GHG emissions reductions
Company Mission:
Project Drawdown presents 100 solutions for humanity to reach climate drawdown, the point at which greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere begin to decline on a year-to-year basis. Project Drawdown’s research and analysis includes the work of a broad coalition of researchers, scientists, graduate students, PhDs, post-docs, policy makers, business leaders and activists to assemble and present the best available information on existing climate solutions in order to describe their beneficial financial, social and environmental impact.
20. Elisa (deLaet) Jagerson
Managing Director
Company: Wildcat Venture Partners
Field/Climate Action Areas:Climate Tech, Machine Learning, AI, SaaS
Company Mission:
Founded in 2015, Wildcat Venture Partners is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early stage technology companies. We invest in B2B and B2B2C startups leveraging key technologies such as Machine Learning/AI, IoT, and Cloud & Mobility in the following markets: Digital Health, EdTech, Enterprise SaaS and FinTech.
