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Greentown Labs is one of the largest climatetech incubators in North America. The offices in Somerville, Massachusetts and Houston, Texas are home to start-ups that share the goal of creating more environmentally friendly and sustainable technology and launching it into the world.
To date, 450 companies have been incubated at Greentown, with over a billion dollars fundraised. Greentown assists its start-ups with Markforged 3D printers, such as the Mark Two and X7 printers.
“Climate change is the greatest existential challenge of our time. We’re learning more and more every day how little time we have to make big, drastic, systemic changes,” said Greg Ralich, Senior Director of Lab and Member Resources, Greentown. “This is a hub to make those things less challenging. The community of Greentown is like minded individuals working on products and prototypes that are going to change the way the world powers itself.”
Using the 3D printing technology from Markforged, the companies at Greentown produce lightweight, high-strength parts reinforced with composites such as continuous carbon fibre.
One of the current start-ups being supported by Greentown Labs is Transaera, a spin-out from MIT that is developing new air conditioning systems with high efficiency for both residential and industrial applications. The company is one of the eight finalists in the Global Cooling Prize, an innovation competition that features some of the largest air conditioner manufacturers in the world.
Transaera Chief Technical Officer Ross Bonner said: “Air conditioning is probably not something you think of when we say climate change, but it turns out that AC is probably the number one energy consumer in your household. 4% of global carbon emissions come from air conditioning. That’s twice the size of the aviation industry.”
Bonner added: “Even a moderate improvement in AC efficiency can save a lot of carbon and make a lot of difference for climate change.”
The work being done at Transaera aims to increase the efficiency and reducing the waste of air conditioning units. The company shares resources for 3D printing with the other start-ups at Greentown and has found this to be useful.
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The speed of 3D printing has been of great benefit to Transaera, with the team at the company able to conceptualise a part, design it in CAD, and be holding it in their hands by the end of the day. The company uses the technology to test, learn, prototype and improve new parts.
“If there’s ever a time when a bracket or a mount or a fixture is eight weeks out, that puts a start-up on pause in a terrible way that 3D printing can come and save in a day,” added Ralich.
Other start-ups currently part of Greentown Labs includes companies working on projects in the worlds of batteries, fuel cells, soil, and more. The aim of the incubator is to help the start-up projects take their ideas out into the world and make a positive impact on their respective industries and the environment.
“It’s a total revolution. There are so many climate change problems to solve. These are engineering problems in some cases, this is stuff that can be solved,” said Ralich. “The company that might come into Greentown next year might be a scratch on the back of a napkin, but we want to be home to them, because you’re never more than one creative solution away from making a big impact.”
