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Greentown Houston Climatetech Summit Explores Innovations and Collaborations Driving the Energy Transition

by Reena Karasin

Greentown Houston’s 2022 Climatetech Summit zeroed in on the city’s role in the energy transition, from the ability to rapidly commercialize climate solutions, to the effectiveness of startup-corporate collaborations, to the region’s potential to be a global hydrogen hub.

The event featured a speaking program with leaders from across climate technology, finance, policy, and justice, alongside a startup showcase that offered attendees the chance to network with our incredible Greentown Houston startups!

Check out the day at Greentown Houston:

Greentown Houston’s Climatetech Summit kicked off with opening remarks from InnovationMap Houston Editor Natalie Harms, the event’s emcee, and Greentown Labs’ Head of Houston Incubator + VP of Innovation Juliana Garaizar. Juliana shared reflections on the momentum in Houston’s energy transition ecosystem, what’s next for our startups’ groundbreaking technologies, and more.

From there, Sol Salinas, Capgemini Executive Vice President – Sustainability Lead for the Americas, teed up the first panel of the day: “Rapid Decarbonization: Is Houston Ready to Lead?”

This panel brought together experts from across the energy innovation ecosystem to offer perspectives on how Houston can combine its industry expertise and workforce, the region’s growing population of climatetech startups, and the unprecedented climate capital that exists today to quickly power the energy transition.

Speakers included: 

Next up was the first set of lightning pitches from Greentown startups:

  • R&B Technology, which develops a product called Ari, a cloud-based augmented intelligence software platform powered by a proprietary artificial intelligence engine that is hardware-agnostic, easily scalable, and highly customizable for practically any use case or industry.
  • Lignium Energy, which transforms cow manure into combustion pellets, generating a certified, odorless, cheap, and environmentally friendly fuel.
  • Micronic Technologies, which is transforming industrial wastewater into high-value resources.
  • Pressure Corp, a development company that transforms industrial waste pressure into clean energy with zero capital required from host facilities.
  • Intention, which provides a carbon impact investment platform that allows anyone, whether accredited or not, to invest in a diversified portfolio of new climate infrastructure projects.

Then we had a fireside chat featuring Greater Houston Partnership Executive Director of HETI and SVP, Energy Transition Jane Stricker and SUPERGirls SHINE Founder Loretta Williams Gurnell, a Greentown member. They spoke about how energy transition efforts in Houston are unique and ways to engage underserved communities in its opportunities.

The second set of startup lightning pitches featured:

  • Kanin Energy, whose third-party financing model and turnkey development approach to waste-heat-to-power projects enables industrial partners to quickly monetize waste heat while significantly mitigating risks of deployment.
  • Dash Clean Energy, a boutique green hydrogen development firm that collaborates with leading wind and solar companies that offer the lowest-cost electricity with the highest availability to provide on-site or delivered zero-carbon hydrogen solutions to the transportation, energy storage, and industrial gas markets.
  • CarTwin, a first-of-its-kind, AI-driven platform designed to support and enable an organization’s ESG priorities by providing real-time data on scope 1 and scope 3 vehicle emissions.
  • Applied Bioplastics, which produces affordable polymers with properties that are equal to or better than those of traditional petrochemical plastics.
  • CZAR-Power, which develops state-of-the-art power-management systems for EV and smart-grid applications.

The next panel featured perspectives from successful startup-corporate collaborations between our members and corporate partners, depicting what worked, what didn’t, and what advice they would give startups today.

Speakers included:

The final round of startup pitches highlighted Greentown members:

  • Wootz, whose core technology is a manufacturing process that takes raw carbon nanotubes bought from suppliers and aligns them into high-performance materials, such as films and fibers, that have a unique combination of properties.
  • Excipio Energy, an offshore renewable energy company integrating wind, wave, currents, OTEC, and power-to-fuel in a single floating platform.
  • Sustonable, which mixes post-consumer recycled plastic bottles, recycled glass, and natural stone to create a circular, high-quality surface material that can be used for kitchen tops, wall panels, and furniture.
  • Veloce Energy, which is transforming EV charging, grid-edge utility systems, power flows, and ownership models through its unique modular approach, integrated architecture, design for installation, and integrated resilience.
  • Terrapin Geothermics, a developer of emission-free energy from heat for decarbonizing industries.

We were thrilled to have Jim Fritz, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s Chief Commercialization Officer and Commercialization Executive, Office of Technology Transitions, give the keynote fireside chat at Greentown Houston’s climatetech summit! He and Greentown’s Head of Houston Incubator and VP of Innovation Juliana Garaizar discussed how the DOE approaches and supports climatetech deployment and commercialization; the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act; how startups can engage with the DOE; and more.

Greentown’s Senior Manager, DEI Program Herb Lozano and Head of Houston Incubator and VP of Innovation Juliana Garaizar wrapped up the speaking program with closing remarks—including news of the Advancing Climatetech and Clean Energy Leaders Program (ACCEL), an accelerator from Greentown and Browning the Green Space to support BIPOC-led startups and foster equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice in the climatetech industry.

After lunch came one of our favorite parts of the Climatetech Summit: the Startup Showcase, an opportunity for attendees to speak directly with our climatetech entrepreneurs and make valuable connections. Learn about our startups innovating across the key greenhouse-gas-emitting sectors—electricity, agriculture, buildings, manufacturing, and transportation—and on resiliency and adaptation.

During the showcase, Capgemini—the Climatetech Summit Champion Sponsor—hosted an interactive workshop on Houston’s path to becoming a hydrogen hub.

The Greentown Houston Climatetech Summit wrapped up with an impactful evening of networking. We were amazed and inspired by the collaborative climate action that took place at the summit—and know this is just the beginning of new, valuable connections across the climatetech ecosystem. We’d like to send a huge thank you to the speakers, startups, corporate leaders, investors, and other climate champions who joined us!

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