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Greentown and IMPEL Highlight Building Tech Innovations at Sector Pitch Day 

The buildings sector contributes as high as 39 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions; to change this, we need innovations that revolutionize how buildings are planned, built, retrofitted, and managed. 

Decarbonizing this key greenhouse-gas-emitting sector will require collaboration across the climatetech ecosystem, with corporate leaders, investors, policymakers, and others working in concert with technology entrepreneurs to scale solutions. That’s why our fall 2024 Sector Pitch Day explored groundbreaking building tech innovations and the partnerships necessary to help them scale.

Greentown was proud to host this Sector Pitch Day with our Megawatt Partner IMPEL (Incubating Market-Propelled Entrepreneurial-mindset at the Labs and Beyond), a program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Building Technologies Office and implemented by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In the five years since its founding, IMPEL has supported more than 250 early-stage innovators who have raised over $125M and garnered more than 200 awards, grants, prizes, and pilots. Roughly 50 percent of IMPEL’s innovators have self-identified as non-white and/or non-male, and they represent 36 U.S. states and territories.

Eighteen Greentown members and alumni have completed the IMPEL program. Through our partnership, this year 10 early-stage companies supported by IMPEL will gain access to Greentown’s startup programming and several other resources.

The Buildings Sector Pitch Day featured:

  • A keynote from DOE Technology Commercialization Manager Nicholas Ryan
  • Pitches from 10 Greentown and IMPEL entrepreneurs; 
  • Reverse pitches from Greentown partners Saint-Gobain and Holcim and from investors Zacua Ventures and Building Ventures; 
  • A startup showcase; 
  • And networking. 

Meet the 10 building tech startups that pitched below, and check out the event program here! Congratulations to Stepwise on winning the event’s Storyteller Award, Enersion for taking home the Game-changer Award, and Eco-Shelter for receiving the Community Champion Award.

Climative [Greentown member]
Climative offers AI-assisted home-energy assessments deployed in an interactive, web-based platform. This tech streamlines the retrofit decision-making process for homeowners while inviting collaboration from a variety of supporting parties.

Counterbalance [IMPEL startup]
Counterbalance aims to redefine the connection and integration of building systems and technologies. The startup believes that by making building technologies easier to integrate and connect, buildings can become easier to operate and understand, leading to greater efficiency and better service for occupants and the environment.

Eco-Shelter [IMPEL startup]
Eco-Shelter is a global building-materials company that develops and distributes affordable low-carbon materials. Its flagship product is a bamboo composite for roofing, rainscreen, and wall applications. 

Enersion [Greentown member]
Enersion’s harmful-refrigerant-free heating and cooling system is accelerating the electrification of the built environment. The AI-enabled system uses water as a refrigerant and taps into a building’s existing waste-heat sources, leading to significant cost savings for customers.

Monaire [Greentown member]
Monaire’s tech-enabled HVAC- and refrigeration-management service reduces HVAC energy use and repair costs while preventing downtime and food waste.

Reframe Systems [Greentown member]
Reframe Systems is scaling offsite construction of zero-carbon buildings with volumetric modules manufactured using advanced robotic microfactories.

Revert Technologies [IMPEL startup] 
Revert Technologies’s enterprise software platform leverages smart IoT power adapters, utility-grid-pricing analytics, and machine learning to help companies manage large networks of appliances, saving up to 30 percent on their electricity bills.

Simplus Systems [IMPEL startup]
Simplus Systems’s Simplus Building System™ combines innovative, fire- and water-resistant panels with Passive House and Net Zero standards, greatly reducing carbon emissions, lowering costs, and speeding construction of nearly any building.

Stepwise [Greentown member and IMPEL startup]
Stepwise makes home electrification effortless and affordable by reducing the infrastructure upgrades costs associated with installations and helping homeowners save money on their electricity bills through energy management.

Uplift Solar [IMPEL startup]
Uplift Solar makes solar pavers that are a walkable alternative to rooftop solar panels, creating energy-generating patios and walkways that are easier and cheaper to install, simple to maintain, and aesthetically match building designs. The company holds a patent for power electronics that enhance energy harvesting by 50 percent, while ensuring safety of solar for human use.