Easy as ABC? Athens B Corporations Pave New Ways to Sustainability by ‘Getting Down to Business'  

Prime Coalition is financing clean tech startups and climate-focused technologies that often don’t get a lot of funding. These technologies can be expensive to build and don’t generate profits immediately. So far, the public charity has secured $89 million that it has given into 18 energy ventures. “What’s important here is that the climate crisis is such a large-scale problem that we need lots of different types of solutions,” says Sarah Kearney, founder of Prime Coalition, “and so we need to match up right-fit capital to each kind of solution.”

Philanthropies are funding “tough tech” startups that are developing technologies to cut greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the effects of climate change. Since 2014, the nonprofit Prime Coalition has channeled more than $24 million from wealthy donors and foundations to 10 ventures focused on that goal. Not all of their investments, though, have paid off. Yet, some of these initial investments could lead to widespread solutions to the world’s climate crisis.

Climeworks, a Swiss start-up, is using technology to suck carbon out of the air and turning it into stone, essentially cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere permanently. Their plant in Iceland is able to turn 50 tonnes of carbon to stone per year. While that amount of carbon won’t solve the climate crisis, they are expanding their work to other countries and are launching a personal carbon removal subscription service as a way for the travel industry to help offset the carbon that they emit each year.

Climeworks is focusing on pulling carbon dioxide directly out of the air to store or reuse in some capacity as a way to lower global greenhouse gas emissions. The Swiss company has 16 plants around Europe, with their biggest one in Switzerland that removes 900 tons of carbon dioxide a year that is then sold to Coca-Cola Co. to put in soft drinks or to local industrial greenhouses for plant growth. Scaling the operations to capture more carbon is costly, but the startup recently raised $76 million from investors.

The town of Athens, Georgia has committed to a 100% renewable energy pledge. Both the local government and local businesses are working towards it by implementing sustainable practices such as solar panels and wastewater pretreatment systems.

Around the world, companies, especially those that depend on the production of plant-based products, are stepping up their sustainability efforts. In the face of climate change, producers of things like coffee and fragrances are realizing that biodiversity and conservation are crucial to the companies’ success and sustainability. Trusts like Germany’s Crop Trust are becoming key players in this, helping companies develop conservation strategies.

Because the upfront costs of transitioning a farm to be certified organic can be burdensome to farmers amidst a growing demand for organic food, large companies like Kashi and Land O'Lakes are creating a number of initiatives to help ease the process. Techniques include no-interest advances for expensive initial supplies, fair trade premiums that go to local community work, and soil health initiatives for suppliers. The companies even implement a complex data tracking system to gather information on yield and profitability, which can then be used to inform future sustainable practice transitions.

U-Haul and supermarket supplier C&S Wholesale Grocers are striving to help offset their wood use by increasing donations to The Conservation Fund. This partnership has led to the promotion of the conservation of the Success Pond and its surrounding forest, the establishment of newly planted trees, and a significant investment in land easements that will restore and protect native habitats.

Iceland, hit by the oil crises of the 1970s, turned to geothermal energy - and they haven't turned back. The island is now powered by 100% renewable energy, and they are taking it one step more, looking to further cut emissions using a unique carbon capture system called CarbFix. It is being pioneered at the Hellsheidi geothermal power plant in western Iceland.

An economic shift to renewable energy could take decades, but thanks to rapidly evolving disruptive technologies, dropping prices of solar and wind power sources, and increasing market demand for green business, the new age of renewable energy could encompass the world economy much more quickly.