BBC: Environmental Enterprise: Business Ventures Seek Sustainable Solutions

Environmental Enterprise: Business Ventures Seek Sustainable Solutions

This weekend, the Berkeley Venture Capital committee convened once again, bringing together business people from across the nation. 

Each person came to this convention armed with their own start-up idea, all sharing the common goal of promoting sustainable development during a crisis—specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Within the first few hours together, these delegates started to pool their initial ideas together. The result: four separate business pitches vying for the venture capitalists’ investment money. 

One company, named Trnsform, is committed to transforming plastic waste into more usable and environmentally sustainable forms. 

“For developing countries specifically, waste pickers go to different dumpsters [...] and then we employ a team to go bring the waste to our factories,” one of Trnsform’s leaders explained. “In order for us to make money, we take the plastic waste and we turn it into [hydrogen] fuel or grassphault.”

Trnsform’s launch plan, which will be presented to the venture capitalists soon.

Meanwhile, Containify is a separate business venture, also working with biofuel—but created using a completely different recycled source. 

“Our aim is to find chain stores and restaurants, take all their expired or unused food, and convert it to biogas,” a Containify delegate said. “That gas will be sold and repurposed for those restaurants again, and that will be a cleaner and more sustainable source of energy.”

Containify’s business model outlined by multiple delegates in collaborative efforts.

Containify also has a focus on consumer interactions through their proposed mobile app. This app is a holdover from the initial pitch engineered by another one of Containify’s leaders.

“The app would be consulting for restaurants in environmental social governance policies,” the aforementioned Containify leader said, “as well as connecting them with customers who want to go to, say, a green vegan restaurant that uses all paper utensils.”

A third venture is being run by just two people. One delegate explained their vision: “Our company is called Climate Kit. We are essentially combining a series of different sustainable hygiene products, like bamboo toothbrushes, reusable and dissolved toothpaste, and feminine hygiene products [...] and then we market it to those who have the means to upgrade their current hygiene kit.”

Brainstorming done by multiple people before they split into small business groups.

The fourth and final venture, with a focus on fast fashion, is being developed entirely by a singular delegate. 

“Fashion is the third biggest industry in the world but contributes more environmental degradation than any other industry,” the delegate said. “My company is going to focus on sustainability consulting for fast fashion companies [...] One of the ideas that I’m working with is creating algae farms, because algae can be turned into biodegradable textiles. It does cost more to produce, but in the long run, it costs less money.”

When asked if they anticipate there being any issues with running a business alone, the delegate commented, “The only challenge that I’ve really come in contact with so far is that it’s very hard to make a small business model [...] but I have been really trying to include the working class population. That’s why I’m going to be using abandoned buildings rather than increasing the property values in small towns.”

The other companies have been exploring potential problems as well.

“The biggest issue will be getting facilities and waste pickers,” a Trnsform leader said. “Reaching the general audience and getting the production plans approved would be difficult due to the need for permits. It’s very risky.”

Business model outline for Trnsform drawn by one of their leaders.

A Containify delegate, on the other hand, did not express concern when asked about potential difficulties in working with restaurants. “Our incentives for the restaurants are highly based on sustainability and also the fact that biofuel is very circular. The end goal is for restaurants to operate on fuel that they will never need to purchase again.”

The companies are asking for varying amounts of money, ranging from $850,000 to one million dollars, while offering the venture capitalists varying amounts of equity.

There is no limit on how much money the venture capitalists are willing to invest. These businesses are not competing against each other; their only goal is to create and effectively pitch a feasible, actionable business model that the venture capitalists believe in.