Sustainability - GeekWire

Inflation Reduction Act could boost climate efforts at Amazon, Microsoft — and increase their taxes

by Lisa Stiffler on August 16, 2022August 16, 2022 at 2:30 pm

President Joe Biden is expected to sign legislation Tuesday that includes the most ambitious initiatives to fight climate change that the nation has ever seen. While not as bold as… Read More

Nuclear energy company co-founded by Bill Gates raises $750M, one of the largest rounds in Seattle tech history

by Taylor Soper on August 15, 2022August 15, 2022 at 8:44 am

TerraPower, a Bellevue, Wash.-based nuclear power company co-founded by Bill Gates, landed $750 million in new funding. It’s among the largest funding rounds ever for a privately held Seattle-area company,… Read More

Get a jolt: Starbucks and Volvo reveal cities where EV drivers can charge up

by Lisa Stiffler on August 9, 2022August 9, 2022 at 2:11 pm

Starbucks and Volvo Cars are installing 60 DC electric vehicle chargers at up to 15 Starbucks locations spanning the drive from Seattle to Denver. The companies on Tuesday announced which… Read More

A long, strange, EV trip: Father-son drive from L.A. to Seattle illustrates road ahead on charging needs

by Kurt Schlosser on August 4, 2022August 4, 2022 at 12:41 pm

Aaron Blank set out for a West Coast road trip with his son to see some baseball and more between Los Angeles and Seattle and back down. He came away… Read More

Amazon’s carbon footprint grew again – up 18% in 2021 – despite ongoing efforts to go green

by Lisa Stiffler on August 1, 2022August 1, 2022 at 11:06 am

Amazon’s carbon footprint grew 18% last year — the third straight year of increased emissions since the company started sharing the information. The Seattle-area company created the international Climate Pledge,… Read More

Microsoft demos clean energy breakthrough for data centers that keep the internet humming

by Lisa Stiffler on July 28, 2022July 28, 2022 at 5:40 pm

Data centers packed with millions of servers provide the backbone of the internet, dishing up everything from cat videos to financial transactions to online gaming when and where you need… Read More

Video

Amazon vet flips NFT model on its head, creates a climate friendly marketplace for digital art sales

by Lisa Stiffler on July 28, 2022July 28, 2022 at 10:11 am

Well before cryptocurrencies and NFTs began to fizzle this spring, Carly Rector was already sour on their use for digital art sales. Rector, who is herself a digital artist and… Read More

Microsoft Chief Environmental Officer Lucas Joppa departing to take role at private equity firm

by Taylor Soper on July 26, 2022July 26, 2022 at 4:43 pm

Lucas Joppa, who became Microsoft’s first chief environmental officer in 2018 and led the company’s sustainability efforts, is stepping down. Joppa is joining an unnamed private equity firm as senior… Read More

Online media vets launch The Cool Down, a platform aspiring to be America’s go-to climate site

by Lisa Stiffler on July 20, 2022July 21, 2022 at 7:43 am

Dave Finocchio, co-founder and CEO of the popular sports media outlet Bleacher Report, and Anna Robertson, an ABC and Yahoo News executive, were concerned about climate change. But when California… Read More

News Brief

BC’s green construction unicorn Nexii raises $35M, opens U.S. manufacturing site

by Lisa Stiffler on July 18, 2022July 18, 2022 at 4:02 pm

New funding: Nexii — a Vancouver, B.C. startup with the distinction of being Canada’s fastest company to ascend from launch to unicorn status — has raised a new $35 million… Read More

News Brief

Oregon energy storage company Powin lands $135M investment to fuel growth globally

by Lisa Stiffler on July 18, 2022July 18, 2022 at 1:29 pm

New money: Powin, an energy storage company based in Oregon, has received a $135 million investment to continue growing its international business. The company is the world’s fifth largest battery… Read More

Seattle-area lawmakers approve EV charging requirements for new apartment buildings

by Lisa Stiffler on July 18, 2022July 18, 2022 at 11:35 am

New and “substantially remodeled” apartment buildings in unincorporated King County will be required to have 10% of their parking spaces capable of charging electric vehicles and 25% of spaces must… Read More

Video

We visited the world’s biggest carbon capture plant, which just signed a 10-year deal with Microsoft

by Lisa Stiffler on July 13, 2022July 13, 2022 at 7:58 am

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — A short drive from Iceland’s capital, on a lava plateau blanketed with moss and grass, the earth exhales plumes of steam. In most places in the world,… Read More

More funding for fusion: Seattle startup lands $160M and reveals technology breakthrough

by Lisa Stiffler on June 22, 2022June 22, 2022 at 12:16 pm

The news: Seattle-area startup Zap Energy is edging closer to the promise of fusion power. The company Wednesday announced two milestones: its newest prototype device has created plasma, a superheated… Read More

Testing a new time-traveling VR experience that explores sea level rise in Seattle

by Lisa Stiffler on June 14, 2022June 14, 2022 at 10:00 am

The Seattle Public Library and the University of Washington have created a virtual reality experience for teens and families that explores climate change and its impacts on sea level rise… Read More

Babbling bananas: This Google Ventures-backed startup uses IoT to ‘listen’ to fruit as it ripens

by Lisa Stiffler on June 7, 2022June 8, 2022 at 10:38 am

Katherine Sizov is eavesdropping on kiwis, pears, apples and bananas as they talk to each other, and through their conversations she can tell you if they’re ripe and if they’re… Read More

Meet the Seattle-area teen geeks that just won awards at an international science fair

by Lisa Stiffler on May 21, 2022May 20, 2022 at 9:27 pm

The bleak and all-too-common spectacle of roadkill was upsetting to Vedant Srinivas — particularly when his uncle and cousin’s beloved German Shepherd-Rottweiler mix was fatally hit by a car. More… Read More

Norwegian maritime battery company says ‘ja’ to new manufacturing facility in Washington state

by Lisa Stiffler on May 18, 2022May 18, 2022 at 8:36 pm

Corvus Energy, a Norway-based global leader in maritime batteries, is making a bet that U.S. demand for low-carbon ships and ferries is heating up. The company is opening a battery… Read More

Startup funding news: Inflection.io, Xemelgo, Joule Case, others raise fresh cash

by Lisa Stiffler on May 17, 2022May 17, 2022 at 3:53 pm

Here’s our latest rundown on recent startup investment news in the Pacific Northwest. Inflection.io New funding: Inflection.io, a Seattle marketing automation startup, officially came out of stealth and announced a… Read More

Mammoth zero-emission mining truck makes its debut in South Africa, powered by First Mode

by Alan Boyle on May 6, 2022May 8, 2022 at 7:03 am

After years of development, the world’s largest zero-emission vehicle was unveiled today at a South African platinum mine, with a hydrogen-fueled hybrid powerplant designed and built by Seattle-based First Mode.… Read More

Kelp need help: Paul Allen’s foundation, enviros and entrepreneurs step up to save an essential seaweed

by Lisa Stiffler on May 5, 2022May 9, 2022 at 9:50 am

Kelp is cool. Some varieties of the ribbony seaweed can grow up to two feet a day. They form “marine skyscrapers” that stretch up to 45 feet from the seafloor… Read More

Group14’s high performance battery technology gets super charged with $400M investment

by Lisa Stiffler on May 4, 2022May 4, 2022 at 6:30 am

Woodinville, Wash.-based Group14 Technologies has raised $400 million in venture capital that will supercharge the commercialization of its battery technology. The Series C round was led by Porsche AG, which… Read More

Climate tech startup funding: UW-spinoff BattGenie, Microsoft vet, and weeding robot raise fresh cash

by Lisa Stiffler on April 27, 2022April 27, 2022 at 4:59 pm

Here’s the latest funding news for climate tech startups across the Pacific Northwest. BattGenie New funding: BattGenie landed a $1.5 million seed round from Powerhouse Ventures and VoLo Earth Ventures,… Read More

Cut the BS: This startup is converting cow manure into clean-burning hydrogen fuel

by Lisa Stiffler on April 26, 2022April 26, 2022 at 8:15 am

Seattle-area startup Modern Electron is teaming up with the Tulalip Tribes, a Western Washington dairy, and an environmental effort to test a new technology for producing clean energy. This month… Read More

Inside Bill Gates’ multi-faceted org that wants to help save the world from climate destruction

by Lisa Stiffler on April 9, 2022April 9, 2022 at 8:49 am

It started with a November 2015 announcement by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates along with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and more than two dozen other tech titans and billionaires.… Read More

First-of-its-kind stormwater ‘heat map’ lights up pollutants fouling waters in Washington state

by Lisa Stiffler on April 4, 2022April 4, 2022 at 8:48 am

The COVID-19 pandemic has made us familiar with the idea of a deadly threat that spreads invisibly. Polluted stormwater has a similar modus operandi. Rainfall washes toxic chemicals from roadways,… Read More

Q&A with Seattle investor Naynika Chaubey, whose clean tech firm just raised $150M

by Lisa Stiffler on April 2, 2022April 3, 2022 at 8:30 am

The venture capital firm Evok Innovations this week announced that it raised $150 million of a $300 million fund to invest in clean-tech in North America. The Vancouver, B.C. firm… Read More

Blue Origin vets unveil startup seeking small solution to massive challenge of fusion energy

by Lisa Stiffler on March 30, 2022March 30, 2022 at 8:49 am

As Avalanche Energy founders Robin Langtry and Brian Riordan have been grinding through the development of their fusion technology, they keep expecting to hit a wall. The team is taking… Read More

Researchers develop reactor that refines waste carbon into chemicals while generating hydrogen

by Richard Yonck on March 27, 2022March 28, 2022 at 8:41 am

In a world faced with dual concerns about climate change and growing energy needs, developing renewable replacements for fossil fuels has been a long-sought dream. While considerable progress has been… Read More

IUNU, a Seattle startup that develops computer vision tech for greenhouses, raises $24M

by Taylor Soper on March 16, 2022March 16, 2022 at 11:08 am

Seattle startup IUNU landed a $24 million Series B round that will fuel growth of its technology used in greenhouses to analyze the health of crops and manage production. Customers… Read More