CleanTech 2.0 Summit Report

CLEANTECH 2.0 SUMMIT

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SAVING THE PLANET BY COMMERCIALISING INVENTIVENESS AND INNOVATION

What do microalgae, behavioural science, precision engineering, and saltwater have in common, and what role can they play in saving the planet? The answer is that each, in their own unique way, deployed innovatively and commercialised to scale, could contribute significantly to mitigating environmental damage, reduce emissions and support the race to net zero. At a recent CleanTech 2.0 summit, some of the UK’s most forward-thinking CleanTech entrepreneurs set out how their ideas and inventions are starting to move the dial in terms of helping to cut global emissions, making society more sustainable, and creating value for shareholders. Delegates included private equity and venture capitalist specialist as well as members of Winmark C-Suite and Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) networks.

The event, organised by C-Suite network Winmark in partnership with Shackleton Ventures and hosted by Clyde & Co, aimed to inspire the business leaders in the audience to think outside the box when it comes to embedding clean technologies within their own organisations. This was an opportunity to dig deeper into how some of these cutting- edge solutions can be implemented in the real world today, as companies seek to reduce their carbon footprints and improve their ESG performance. Sharing ideas, knowledge and expertise As Richard Elks, Partner at Clyde & Co, said as he introduced the speakers, “One of the distinguishing features of sustainability, climate change and CleanTech, is that this is a shared challenge. There is a desire to share expertise, knowledge and ideas to address it, and that will require a concerted effort from all parts of the global economy. And that means there’s more than enough opportunity to go around. We can’t just use the technologies we already have at greater scale and efficiency. We need new ideas and more innovation.”

A keynote speech by Philip Sellwood CBE, who has substantial experience advising senior corporate leaders and government ministers on delivering a sustainable, commercial future, put the issues into context. He pointed out the sheer scale of emissions reductions required to contain global warming to within 1.5˚C as per the Paris agreement (a 78% cut compared to 1990 levels), and the huge level of investment required: some $275 trillion by 2050, according to McKinsey. That’s $9trn per year – or 20 times the GDP of China. He explained why innovation is so important but so difficult. On a commercial level, it can foster competitive advantage, increase profitability and improve productivity, and on a social level, it improves people’s lives. However, the UK’s regulatory and funding regime requires improvement to make it more supportive of innovation. At the same time, entrepreneurs, shareholders and boards need to start “speaking the same language” when it comes to understanding the technologies involved and adopting more realistic (and potentially longer) exit timeframes.

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SAVING THE PLANET BY COMMERCIALISING INVENTIVENESS AND INNOVATION

Turning trucks into Toyota Prius’s: Adgero

Cleaning up mining with saltwater: Salinity Solutions

“To deliver net zero, we need every bit of inspiration and innovation that entrepreneurs can bring to market. It will be the private sector, working within a constructive regulatory framework, that will achieve this transition,” said Sellwood. Presenting game-changing solutions Deborah Hudson, Partner at investment firm Shackleton Ventures, was of a similar view. For her, entrepreneurs “need creativity and imagination to come up with ideas, but also resilience because this is fraught with challenges, and persistence to attract investment and get those ideas off the ground.” Seven very different CleanTech businesses who are doing just that were then invited to outline their game-changing solutions, explaining how they work in practice and what benefits they can bring to the fight against climate change:

Electrifying the trucking system is a major priority, but replacing the existing HGV fleet will take years, and mining the rare metals required for electric vehicle (EV) batteries is environmentally problematic. For Adgero, the hybridisation of vehicles is the best way forward and has developed modular electric motor and energy storage systems that can be retrofitted into HGVs to keep them on the road longer, reducing embodied emissions, with no copper, lithium, cobalt or heavy metals.

As the world embraces EVs, we are going to need to produce five times the current levels of lithium being mined by 2050, according to the World Bank, however, lithium extraction in its current form takes its own toll in terms of emissions, water consumption and land scarring. Salinity Solutions has developed a brine concentration system that unlocks the potential for low impact lithium extraction operations, combining higher yields with low energy use and a compact physical footprint. The technology is also capable of refining sea water into fresh water.

Helping homeowners make smart energy decisions: HEERO Technologies

Using the power of procurement to cut pollution: EMSOL

Demand from householders for energy saving solutions is growing, but understanding the technologies available, finding suitable companies to install solutions and navigating the grants available is a major challenge. HEERO Technologies is a B2B software and >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6

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