The climate crisis is real and immediate, and technology has never been more important in pioneering revolutionary new methods to spearhead positive change. According to the UN Environment Program, technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and geospatial mapping are “…powering the fifth industrial revolution and have the potential to help us solve our climate goals.” They add that these technologies are “…powering organizations to solve traditional problems” and encourage greater sustainability.
But, crucially, the possibilities are boundless when it comes to how technology can actually be used to benefit the environment. And it is precisely the technology that is empowering organizations to make the change that has been needed for decades. One company is committed to helping make these new, environmentally conscious technological innovations a reality.
How Innventure is Pioneering Change
Innventure is a company that founds, funds, operates and rapidly scales companies in partnership and strategic collaboration with multinational corporations (MNCs). By leveraging market data, they “positively identify and designate disruptive technology solutions” that address currently unmet market needs.
Their ethos focuses on championing and assisting with the execution of disruptive technologies, using a business model that allows the company to recognize and cultivate assets that have the potential to reach a valuation in excess of $1B within five years. It also uses a systematic, quantitative approach to developing companies — a strategy that is designed to mitigate the inevitable risk that comes with scaling high-growth ventures. In short, they’re about making game-changing ideas a reality.
Revolutionary Plastics Recycling
Plastic is one of the greatest design flaws to plague our planet. In the farthest-flung corners of the globe — even deep in the arctic ice — single-use plastics have found their way there. One of Innventure’s successful strategic collaborations was a 2019 partnership between PureCycle technologies, global industrial manufacturer Milliken & Company, and one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, Nestlé, facilitating plans to open its first plant to restore used polypropylene (PP) plastic to ‘virgin-like’ quality with a revolutionary recycling method. Crucially, about 20 percent of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used to make plastic bottles, is recycled. In contrast, less than 1 percent of polypropylene plastic is currently recycled.
“We view plastic waste as a renewable resource that can be used infinitely,” an Innventure spokesperson said. PureCycle’s patented recycling process — developed and licensed by Procter & Gamble — was designed to separate color, odor, and other contaminants from plastic waste to transform it.
“These partners are helping us accelerate as we bring this solution to the market,” said Mike Otworth, CEO of PureCycle Technologies. “This is a validation of our method, and it will help us continue to move even more quickly as we make plastics recycling a reality.” Halsey Cook, president and CEO of Milliken & Company, added: “Milliken understands that creating a sustainable future requires meaningful collaboration with other industry pioneers.”
Less Plastic, Less Waste, Less Mess
An additional project, Aeroflex, aims to revolutionize liquid packaging with lighter, tougher and more flexible designs. “Less plastic, less waste, less mess and more love-ability” is their motto. They also insist that the design is a breakthrough in liquids packaging, combining the best attributes of flexibles and rigids to create something new and disruptive.
In contrast to traditional plastic bottles, no mold is needed, and it’s about 50-70% less packaging. The world generates around 300 million tons of plastic waste a year, but our current recycling infrastructure does not scratch the surface of the problem. Even reducing the amount of plastic a single product uses can significantly reduce the amount that’s ending up in landfills.
Energy Efficient Cooling Technology
An additional portfolio project of Innventure, which began in June of this year, was a collaboration to commercialize Nokia Bell Labs’ high-performance cooling technology. Innventure established a brand new company, Accelsius, specifically to commercialize Nokia’s groundbreaking cooling technology for data centers and mobile network equipment.
“The groundbreaking, scalable cooling technology provides cooling direct to the chip or other heat sources,” a press release read. “A passive two-stage coolant circulation process enables reliable, energy-efficient heat transfer and dissipation from high-density heat sources, without using pumps.”
Bill Haskell, CEO of Innventure, said that they are “very excited” to build a new company around a sustainable technology that Nokia Bell Labs has been developing for more than a decade, adding that it’s positioned to disrupt the cooling industry as it exists today with flexible solutions that can be widely deployed. Jukka Nihtila, Nokia’s Vice-President of Patent Transactions and External Alliances, added that by collaborating with Innventure, the hugely versatile technology could be applied in a broad range of industries to lower energy consumption.
We may not have all the solutions to an eternally critical list of environmental concerns, but we know what the alternatives should look like. Innventure is helping companies work backwards from these pressing issues and making disruptive technology solutions a reality.
Find out more about Innventure here.
