The InNOVAte 2019 Challenge is a six-month accelerator run by Greentown Labs and the world’s leading construction and building materials company, Saint-Gobain. The program is focused on innovations that could disrupt the built environment. Keep an eye on our website for profiles on all four program participants!

Sustainable and efficient building is at our fingertips, but there’s a big roadblock.

“The major barrier in introducing green features in housing is the construction cost,” explains Pre Framing Corp founder and CEO Mauro Sica. “So I thought that in order to actually make more energy-efficient homes, we need to reduce the cost of the construction. There was a lot of space to do that, because the industry is really inefficient.”

Pre Framing’s partially prefabricated framing solution is 10 times faster than the traditional process, which means fewer trips to construction sites and 45 percent cost savings over other prefab systems. Its off-site construction also significantly reduces scrap lumber. If its technology caught on widely, Pre Framing estimates that 1 million trees could be saved and up to 2 million tons of CO2 emissions could be eliminated each year.

“If everything goes well, I think we’ll change the industry in a good way,” Sica says.

Participating in the InNOVAte 2019 Challenge gave Sica a “foot in the door” for important connections, he says, and helped him step out of his R&D comfort zone and zero in on the business side of his startup.

Want to learn more about Pre Framing Corp? Check out the company’s website!

Greentown Labs is a community of bold, passionate entrepreneurs creating solutions for today’s biggest climate and environmental challenges. Located in Somerville, Mass., Greentown Labs is the largest cleantech incubator in North America, operating a 100,000 sq. ft. campus comprised of prototyping and wet lab space, shared office space, a machine shop, electronics lab, and a curated suite of programs and resources. Greentown Labs is home to more than 100 startups and has supported more than 230 since its inception.