Nikki is a B2B technology marketer with over 20 years of combined startup, agency, and enterprise experience.
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The wannabe environmentalist in me feels guilty for my gas-guzzling, seven-seater SUV (in my defense, I can’t afford a seven-seater electric vehicle) and non-vegan diet. But then I remember, for better or worse, that an individual’s impact cannot alone solve climate change. We need corporations and governments to commit and change.
I have never been one for picketing or petitioning, so instead my contribution toward influencing climate change at scale is through what I know best: startup marketing.
Here, I’ll share three important climate tech trends for 2023 and how several startups are advancing those trends for the good of the planet.
Direct Air Capture (DAC)
Scientists predict that up to 10 gigatons of CO2 need to be removed from the atmosphere annually if we are to meet our climate goals.
DAC is a technology that aims to remove carbon dioxide directly from the air. DAC could play a significant role in removing CO2 from the atmosphere; however, it is limited by cost, energy intensity, scale, transportation and storage. The cost of capturing and storing 1 ton of carbon dioxide is estimated to be in the range of hundreds of dollars.
One of the companies advised by my organization retrofits existing cooling towers to facilitate DAC. Their solution reduces the cost of DAC by up to 10 times versus existing systems, making DAC “mass-market ready.” Their goal is to remove 1 megaton of CO2 by 2030 and 1 gigaton of CO2 by 2035.
Green Hydrogen
Green hydrogen is hydrogen produced from renewable energy sources such as wind, solar or hydropower. Demand for clean hydrogen production capacity will amount to 28 GW by 2025 in Europe alone. On the other hand, the announced manufacturing capacity by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is only 18 GW, meaning there is a shortage of supply by over 35%.
Another company advised by A Series Co has developed an electrolyzer that could generate green hydrogen at 350 bars directly from the stack, achieving an efficiency of up to 90% on a cell level. Their goal is to make green hydrogen a cost-effective alternative to any other hydrogen technology by 2030, with a price of 2.5 EUR/kg H2.
Environmental, Social And Governance (ESG)
ESG provides a framework for measuring the sustainability and societal impact of a company or investment. This includes factors such as a company’s impact on the environment, its treatment of employees and other stakeholders, and the governance practices in place to ensure accountability and transparency.
ESG in agriculture and land use, such as regenerative agriculture and reforestation, are expected to become more widespread as the link between these activities and their impact on the climate becomes better understood.
One company financially compensates farmers for preventing deforestation, using satellite data processed with a machine learning algorithm to calculate carbon storage from agroforestry farms. Food and beverage companies reduce their carbon footprint while increasing farmers’ income—checking all three ESG boxes. By 2035, this company aims to “avoid 1,000 megaton of CO2 emissions, protect one million hectares of tropical forest, and generate €1B of additional income for one million tropical commodity farmers.”
Opportunity Awaits
The venture capital community has an opportunity to generate scaled positive change by investing in ESG and impact. One global early-stage venture capital firm invested in all of the climate tech startups mentioned here, and more. Additionally, they publish an annual ESG & Impact Report, which I encourage everyone to read.
The market opportunity surrounding environmentalism is closely tied to government regulations. Climate tech is a sector that requires both local and global awareness.
The concepts in climate technology can be difficult to comprehend unless you happen to have a basic understanding of chemistry, physics and engineering. While there is certainly a value to understanding how hydrogen is produced today, the value marketers provide is still in distilling the core product value proposition into terms that the target audience can understand.
As marketers, we can help shape the growth of climate tech and environmental industries by reaching a broad audience. Climate change is an issue that impacts all humankind, even though not everyone realizes that yet.
Startups bring new ideas, energy and innovation to markets, and the economic growth, job creation and planetary improvement we will see from supporting climate tech startups is unquestionably a benefit to all humankind.
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