Best Green Startups #1 Top Eco Startups
Being environmentally friendly is increasingly a purchasing decision for most of us from jeans to cars and as a result businesses are using data to embrace more environment friendly processes, materials and product methods and adding transparency on how they achieve this as much as possible.
It’s something that good for the planet, good for all living things and good for us so let’s take a look at some of the most exciting environment friendly london and the UK has right now.
Olio
Olio connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away.
This could be food nearing its sell-by date in local stores, spare home-grown vegetables, bread from your baker, or the groceries in your fridge when you go away. For your convenience, OLIO can also be used for non-food household items too.
Compare Ethnics
Compare Ethnics connects ethical shoppers to ethical brands by using the latest online and offline experiences. From social media to pop-up shops, we are the link between the ethical shoppers and the ethical brands.
Compare Ethnics are currently developing a comparison tool that is set to launch later this year. The comparison tool will remove the barriers of finding the truly committed ethical brands.
Moving Mountains
Moving Mountains is a big, bold and powerful metaphor that maps to the brand’s massive and seemingly impossible goal of living in harmony on a sustainable planet, as well as a daily affirmation in the form of the plant based diet, food and human health.
Simeon, the founder & CEO of Moving Mountains®, is a Vegan and a firm believer in the plant based diet, as well as being a lifelong passionate supporter of environmental issues. Simeon set about to develop a company that could make a real and long-lasting positive change and disrupt the animal agriculture food industry that is responsible for the majority of the earth’s resource destruction.
It all started after a routine blood test at the GP, which returned Simeon with a high cholesterol reading. The GP’s responses were to cut out meat and dairy or go on statins. Already a Vegetarian at the time Simeon was surprised that dairy products could cause so much damage to the human body and decided to follow more of an overall plant based diet from then on.
Starting with the Moving Mountains® Burger, Simeon spent two years in development laboratories with a dedicated team of scientists and chefs to create the ideal tasting product. Hundreds of recipes have been tried and tested to achieve the final result of the burger that’s available for everyone today.
Unpackaged
Unpackaged vision is a world without unnecessary packaging, with resources preserved for future generations and their mission is to reduce packaging waste by developing systems that enable businesses and individuals to reuse and refill and campaign for policy change.
Pact Coffee
Pact Coffee was created to change people’s minds about coffee and they think about it like wine, not flour – it’s a cupboard staple, but one that’s infinitely better if it’s been lovingly grown and expertly processed.
Delphis
Delphis is the first UK-based cleaning product company to make its bottles from 100% recycled plastic, and the first to receive EU E c o label accreditation for cleaning products.
In fact, Delphis boasts the largest accredited product range on the market, and the good news is, it’s a range that’s growing.
ChipsBoard
For Chipsboard sustainability is the core principle and the reason why Chip[s] Board was founded on and is the driving force behind our need to improve the world we live in.
Their philosophy is that a circular economy within waste (by-product) management and material production will create a new sustainable model, utilising the abundant resources we currently have rather than continuing to process virgin materials.
Library of Things
Library of Things were 3 close friends when we started Library of Things. We tested the idea for 2 years+ in our South London neighbourhood, inspired by similar ventures in Berlin & Toronto.
We put in 000s of hours between us, unpaid, because we saw how powerful it was when neighbours became friends & local spaces became home. When a shared collection of high quality Things unlocked experiences for everyone.
Notpla
Notpla are a combination of designers and chemists, engineers and entrepreneurs who create advanced packaging solutions that disappear, naturally.
Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez and Pierre Paslier cofounded Skipping Rocks Lab in 2013 while studying Innovation Design Engineering at Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art.
After their first video of Ooho went viral in 2013, they joined Climate KIC, Europe’s largest funded accelerator focused on climate innovation.
The team started collaborating with chemists and chemical engineers from Imperial College to test Ooho at running events, festivals and takeaway shops. They soon started working on a scalable manufacturing technology.
In April 2017, they raised their first round on Crowdcube which helped grow the business, build the first machine and set up a manufacturing hub in London.
Pavegen
Pavegen are in our green startups guide as they claim to be the global leader in converting footfall into off-grid power and data.
We supply both permanent installations and experiential activations and can power off-grid applications such as lighting, data capture and transmission, and environmental monitoring.
Each footstep on a Pavegen walkway generates 2 to 4 joules of off-grid electrical energy or around 5 watts of power for the duration of a footstep. Bluetooth beacons in the system connect to smartphones, rewarding users for their steps and generating permission-based analytics.
The tech can operate as a standalone or be embedded simply into existing web platforms.
Riding Sunbeams
Riding Sunbeams is a world-leading innovator founded by climate charity Possible and Community Energy South. Our corporate mission is focussed on decarbonising rail traction networks through the development and connection of unsubsidised, direct-wire renewable generation with significant social impact for line-side communities.
We were the first to achieve this globally through our pioneering FOAK 2019 project (funded by Department for Transport) which connected solar energy directly into Direct-Current, third rail powered railways, in conjunction with Network Rail at their Aldershot site. We have now received funding on FOAK 2020 to both develop and demonstrate the required technology to connect solar energy and line-side energy storage to feed an Alternating-Current, overhead-wire railway.
Our commercial model uses external finance and a Power Purchase agreement to minimise or eliminate capital outlay for transport operators such as Network Rail, with the cost of purchasing the green energy being offset by a reduction in energy purchased from the comparatively carbon-heavy grid. Riding Sunbeams estimate that each MW of solar capacity connected the rail traction system will deliver annual carbon savings of around 245t/CO2e.
Ovo Energy
Ovo Energy launched in 2009 to make energy cheaper, greener, and simpler. Since then we’ve welcomed over a million members, planted a million trees, and set our sights on helping save the planet.
Home energy is an amazing tool to fight the climate crisis with. On average it makes up 26% of your carbon footprint1. So if we all cut this to zero, we could create huge positive change, together.
We’re building a supportive zero carbon team – and bringing everyone the green energy, technology and guidance they need to make change happen. And, to lead by example, we’re committed to becoming a net zero carbon business by 2030.
Oxford PV (Oxford)
Oxford PV – The Perovskite CompanyTM is the pioneer and technology leader in the field of perovskite solar cells.
The company was established in 2010, as a spin-out from the University of Oxford. Today, we have the largest team globally, exclusively focused on developing and commercialising a perovskite based solar technology. We have a research and development site in Oxford, UK and an industrial site near Berlin, Germany. We are building the world’s first volume manufacturing line for perovskite-on-silicon tandem solar cells.
Solar panels built with Oxford PV’s perovskite solar cell technology will generate more power, critical for delivering more affordable clean energy, accelerating the adoption rate of solar and addressing climate change.
PEP
PEP Kitchen is new food startups london guide was born to revolutionise the ready meal, inspiring everyone to eat more plant-based food the only way they know how – by creating insanely tasty, PEP’d up, plates of food! Our dishes are 100% vegan, delivered frozen, in sustainable packaging, direct to your doorstep.
Freezing allows PEP to help battle food waste one meal at a time. PEP meals can be reheated from frozen in under 10mins, meaning ready to eat when you are. Keeping things icy in the kitchen also means they don’t have to use unnecessary preservatives, simply cooking like you would at home.
Ethical is increasingly a purchasing decision of customers and as a result businesses are embracing their more ethical future and that can at times be difficult to define exactly what this means in terms of business practice.
But one thing is sure it’s a journey and every step forward should be encouraged, embraced and rewarded so here we take a look at some of the scales ups in both the capital and the UK and some special examples from around the world that are taking bold new steps and helping lead the way.
Element AI
Element AI (i,e, artificial intelligence) work hard to ensure that artificial intelligence and big data is designed, developed and deployed in service of the public good.
Not because it is one possible path to safe artificial intelligence among many, but because it is the only way forward.
Element AI engage with governments, civil society, academia and businesses to ensure deployment respects laws and regulations and is grounded in human rights and research the design and technical aspects of explainability and transparency, choose artificial intelligence projects that lead to positive social impacts and are dedicated to putting our own house in order first through responsible and sustainable business practices.
Element AI help organizations adopt the safe and responsible AI that they believe will be imperative to long-term growth.
Glimpse
Glimpse is one of the more cool start ups in this guide as they are a new collective for creative people who want to use their skills for good and run independent campaigns and work with NGOs, brands and people they like. How cool is that!
Safe & the City
Safe & the City‘s award-winning team provides the technology and insights to improve safety risks and create the visibility to share the difference you’re making.
Logically
Logically app is home to a suite of tools, including bespoke fact-checking and an AI-curated feed designed to help you navigate the news. Using the app, you can submit claims to be checked by our team and share the results on social media.
Our news feed is automatically generated by a specially designed AI to help you to contextualize what you see, think critically, and see stories and viewpoints from across the political spectrum.
Symmetrical (London / Poland)
Symmetrical’s mission is to bring financial strength to people. Our vision is to enable inclusive and fair access to money across the world in only one click. We wish Symmetrical, as a great example of how cross country start ups can work, well!
Green Startups
All Plants
All Plants believe the world (and everyone on it, including us) would be better off if we ate more plants and they believe eating 100% plant-based meals should be tasty, easy and convenient.
The chef-made dishes contain the tastiest, most exciting plant-based ingredients we can find.
Instantly freezing our meals ensures nutrition and taste is locked in – so it tastes just as good in your kitchen as it does in ours.
