7 Startups Caring For The Earth

Earth Day provides businessmen with a wonderful opportunity to show their concern with the environmental issues and at the same time to offer their customers to do something good for our planet. But if the last time you did something to protect the environment was at a community work day in high school, you know what difficulties eco-companies may face trying to inspire people to do something wise, good and eternal.

To engage people, you need something more than just talking about the protection of the planet. They may got involved if they are promised less electricity bills or simplifying daily routine … and at least the opportunity to brag that you are the first one to apply a new cool technology!

Instead of relying on moral values, the following companies offer their customers to solve urgent everyday problems simultaneously resolving environmental challenges.

 

Sistine Solar

How about making solar panels beautiful? This company believes that if the owner of the house, a businessman or a municipality will install attractive panels on the roof of their property, it will be “cool” enough, for the neighbors to start thinking about installing such panels. The question is how to transform them from the ugly black rectangles into something really worthy.

Sistine Solar was a client of business-incubators for eco-technologies NYC ACRE and Greentown Labs and at once received an investment of $ 1 million from the United States Department of Energy. Their licensed technology SolarSkin involves coating of the panel with additional “graphic” layer and enables to change solar panels’ colour according to the surrounding tile, and as well as display their logo or image on the surface. This allows those who were horrified by the idea of covering their beloved roof with shiny black rectangles, to follow the style and to save on electricity at the same time.

And if any aesthete wants Sistine Solar to prove its name and order a copy of the painting of the Sistine Chapel on the roof – well, so much the better for the environment!

 

Chai Energy

Everyone understands that the electricity bills drastically increase in the winter, but few people know how to manage power consumption. Chai Energy helps to reduce electricity bills by 20% due to the collection and analysis of counters’ data. The data are downloaded to the cloud storage service, allowing you to monitor them in real time, besides you are constantly given some helpful advice like “your incandescent lamps consume more energy for heating than for illumination.” Users can visualize how much electricity is consumed by different devices and know how much money could be saved due to more energy efficient ones. Startup Chai Energy cooperates with Microsoft’s Ventures accelerator and Los Angeles Cleantech incubator.

 

Sonnen

Sonnen is a leader in the energy storage field and ranked highly among environmentally friendly companies Global Cleantech 100 last year. Experts wondered how the company’s product, SonnenBatterie, “moves electricity from being a commodity to becoming an experience”. SonnenBatterie is connected both to the solar panels and to the network and stores energy as electricity night rates are lower. At the same time, it can work as a domestic battery in case of a sudden power cut.

 

Farmers Business Network

Population growth and global warming are creating new challenges for farmers and at the same time are paving the way for innovations in the agrotechnical field. The youngest company of the previously mentioned ranking Global Cleantech 100 using big data helps farmers in their fight for the harvest. The platform allows farmers to download the information into a database and anonymously compare notes about anything – from the seeds and the soil to the development of vegetable crops. It is designed to optimize the field cultivation and increase yields. “Join thousands of leading farmers in our digital club. This is a new way of cooperation “- call for the project creators. Recently, the company received $ 15 million from Google Ventures.

 

Seabin

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is, of course, the largest accumulation of debris in the World Ocean. But, unfortunately, not the only one. Small water reservoirs are also suffering from the debris and require innovative methods of cleaning. Manual garbage collection is inefficient, scavenger ships are large and expensive … Seabin was created to clean up harbours, yacht clubs and other small bodies of water where rubbish can spoil business or leisure. It can automatically clean up all kinds of waste, including oil, using bag filters, and the pump installed on the bank.

Using website Indiegogo, Australian company raised more than $ 250,000 and hopes to begin shipping Seabin systems in the fall. You will wonder, what are they going to do with the collected garbage? The answer is simple and amazing: to process for the manufacture of new Seabin.

 

Apana

In many arid countries, people are fined if they do not comply with the limits of water usage. And where there is no penalty, water bills are sometimes a very unpleasant thing. Nowadays, the global issue of water scarcity is becoming more burning in many parts of the world. Apana is one from many tools aimed at saving natural resources and the owner’s budget . It shows the user how much water he consumes, and offers solutions to the problem, for example, to replace a leaky faucet. Apana marketers claim that their development “turns the water accounting process to the inventory procedure” and remind that water savings minimize the need for maintenance, including filters replacement and cleaning the water system.

 

SkyCoolSystems

The air conditioner is not a cheap thing not only to install but to operate as well as. However, researchers at Stanford who created SkyCool hope to change that. They have already created a material, which strange though it may seem cools in direct sunlight, and are now looking for different ways of its application. The material itself is a conglomerate of discoid mirrors, which not only reflects visible light but also, emit infrared radiation into the atmosphere. In other words, the material does not heat, but actively cools itself, and therefore always remains 9 degrees colder than the surrounding air. Now SkyCool authors are working on the development of a system for air cooling based on the material, as well as on the possibility of using it to protect the solar panels from overheating.