The business areas below are listed approximately according to the directness of their impact on climate change.
Carbon removal may not seem economically viable yet, but it must become so if we want to meet safe global warming targets such as at most 2 °C above pre-industrial levels.
A very good signal is Stripe’s commitment to pay for carbon capture at any available price.
Examples of companies: Carbon Engineering, Climeworks, Global Thermostat
Tree planting: a special type of carbon removal :) The notable company in this field is DroneSeed.
Crunchbase categories: Solar, Renewable Energy
energystartups.org/top/solarenergy
Some big companies: SunRun, Sunnova.
Crunchbase categories: Wind Energy, Renewable Energy.
energystartups.org/top/windenergy
Crunchbase categories: Clean Energy, Nuclear, Biofuel, Biomass Energy, Renewable Energy, Energy
energystartups.org/top/nuclear-energy
energystartups.org/top/waste-energy
Example company: Enerkem
Crunchbase categories: Energy Storage, Battery, Fuel Cell, Energy Management
energystartups.org/top/energystorage
energystartups.org/top/battery
Some big companies: Tesla, Bloom Energy, Stem, Northvolt
Crunchbase categories: Power Grid, Energy Efficiency, Energy Management. You can also combine one of these categories, or simply “Energy” with either “Artificial Intelligence”, “Predictive Analytics”, “Machine Learning”, “Internet of Things”, or “SaaS” to narrow down the search. For example, see Energy + AI.
energystartups.org/top/energy-saving
energystartups.org/top/energy-iot
Companies: Itron, Enbala, Dexma, Actility, gridX
Companies in this field may help to slow down climate change not as directly as some of the companies from the business areas listed below. I placed this category here to keep it close to other related energy sectors.
energystartups.org/top/smartgrid
Examples: Landis+Gyr, Aclara, AutoGrid, REstore Energy, Enel X, Limejump, Moixa, Origami Energy
Blockchain for Smart Grid and Energy Assets is a subcategory which is very populous on its own: GreenTech Media reported there are 122 startups in this space in March 2018. Considering this, and also limited production applications so far, choose a company in this area with caution to increase chances that your effort won’t be wasted. Check out blockchain2energy.com or search Energy + Blockchain on Crunchbase.
Example companies: OVO Energy, Bulb, Ecotricity, Octopus Energy, Xcel Energy, Holaluz
energystartups.org/top/hvac
energystartups.org/top/heating
energystartups.org/top/cooling
Example companies: Aeris, Honeywell, tado
Crunchbase categories: Smart Home, Smart Building, Green Building
energystartups.org/top/smarthome
energystartups.org/top/smart-building
Some notable companies: Nest, ecobee, Leanheat, Carbon Lighthouse, Bidgely
Crunchbase categories: Manufacturing, Industrial, Industrial Automation. You can also combine one of these categories, or simply “Energy” with either “Artificial Intelligence”, “Predictive Analytics”, “Machine Learning”, “Internet of Things”, or “SaaS” to narrow down the search. For example, see Industrial + Predictive Analytics.
energystartups.org/top/enterprise-energy
Example companies: o9 solutions, Stottler Henke, Flexciton, SparkCognition, Sight Machine
Crunchbase categories: Electric Vehicle, Automotive
energystartups.org/top/electric-cars
Some big companies: Tesla, NIO, Rivian, Proterra
Electric Aircraft: not a very practical direction yet, but one day it should become so if we want to keep the option to travel fast across the globe.
Example companies: Lilium, Eviation
Companies in this area help to reduce excessive consumption and production of goods.
Examples of big companies: OLX, letgo, OfferUp, Avito
Karma is the only company active in this area which I know.
Crunchbase categories: Freight Service, Shipping, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Transportation
Examples: Convoy, Freightos, Flexport, Einride
BlaBlaCar and FlixBus are too major companies in this field.
Trains are the most energy-efficient way of long-distance travel. Apart from national train operators, interesting startups in this sector are FlixBus (operating FlixTrain), The Boring Company.
Train ticket search is represented by Trainline and Loco2.
Crunchbase category: Fleet Management
Example companies: Wunder Mobility, Bestmile
There is a concern that this sector might be overhyped and doesn’t need more working hands right now.
Crunchbase category: Last Mile Transportation
energystartups.org/top/electric-bike
Biggest companies: Lime, Bird, Skip Scooters, Uber’s New Mobility
Crunchbase categories: Navigation, Public Transportation. Moovit is the leader of the field, perhaps.
There are many concerns with artificial meat which I don’t want to go into in this post. However, there is no doubt that companies in this space help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, because growing natural meat is very methane-intensive.
Some notable companies: Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods
Crunchbase categories: AgTech, Agriculture, Farming
Visible companies: The Climate Corporation, Indigo AG
Crunchbase category: Construction
Example companies: Procore, PlanGrid
Nuro (roads) and Starship (sidewalks) are the two prime examples of companies in this field. There is some concern that this technology could be easily overused and that our cities would look a little dystopic if this kind of technology is deployed very widely.
Drone delivery may be more energy-efficient than any type of land delivery.
Crunchbase categories: Drones, Drone Management
Some companies: Zipline, Flytrex
Crunchbase category: Smart Cities, GovTech
energystartups.org/top/smartcity
Example companies: Sidewalk Labs, Worldsensing
Examples of companies: Wood Mackenzie, Sustainalytics, T REX, Tomorrow