18 Environmental Companies Building a Sustainable World | Built In

Environmental sustainability is one of the most pressing needs of our time. With threats like global warming, rising sea levels and frequent wildfires, it’s no wonder so many of us feel unsure about what specific problem to address next.

Some companies in greentech are figuring out how to save and protect our environment. The work of sustainability-focused tech teams is quite literally shaping our future for the better.

Renewable energy makes up around 29 percent of global electrical consumption, and it’s expected to represent over 90 percent of global electricity growth between 2022 and 2027 as more people learn about the benefits of solar, wind and hydropower.

Whether they’re working on big projects, like sustainable city planning, or smaller ones, like helping families shop for energy-efficient appliances, these environmental companies below are helping make the world a better, and greener, place.

Headquarters: Falls Church, Virginia

BAE Systems develops defense, aerospace and security solutions. The company built electric and hybrid propulsion, modeling and simulation capabilities that enable its customers to save on fuel and emissions. It also installed sustainable infrastructure including solar panels and EV charging stations at its facilities across the U.S. Additionally, BAE Systems is working to conserve water, reduce waste and transition its fleet to electric vehicles.

Headquarters: Denver, Colorado

Crusoe Energy Systems makes digital infrastructure for AI and computing. This technology takes resources from energy operations and turns them into power for computing processes that require extreme amounts of energy, like Bitcoin mining and data lakes. By using energy from natural gas flares, which are otherwise a wasted resource, Crusoe repurposes it as power for the computing processes that make leading-edge technology possible.

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Molekule’s flagship product is an air purifier that removes toxins from the air to help sensitive groups breathe easily. Its product differs from conventional air purifiers, which trap particles in filters, by relying on technology that completely destroys pollutants, viruses, allergens and fumes on a molecular level. For larger office spaces, the company’s Pūrgo product provides an easy way for businesses to meet federal indoor air quality guidelines.

Headquarters: Austin, Texas

Banyan Water is a smart water management company that uses software and hardware to conserve water. Clients can employ the company’s Banyan Water Central platform to analyze water usage, identify areas of improvement, single out any major issues and make suggestions. The platform can also track water usage after fixes are made, revealing how much each client is able to save based on environmentally-friendly practices.

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Headquarters: Pasadena, California

Heliogen’s main focus is developing solar energy solutions that are powerful enough to eliminate the need for fossil fuel energy. By leveraging AI and computer vision, the company can align mirrors to reflect sunlight to the top of a tower that generates carbon-free heat. Heliogen has expanded its offerings to include HelioHeat, HelioPower and HelioFuel, giving companies more options to reduce their carbon footprint and operating expenses.

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Headquarters: Boulder, Colorado

Sunday sells lawn care products and strategies through a subscription model that assesses a customer’s needs, customizes a product box and guidance for their property and delivers the goods to their door on a monthly basis. The company prioritizes eco-friendly lawn care and sustainable practices like managed water use, and after a recent impact report redesigned its product packaging to become 80 percent recyclable.

Headquarters: Louisville, Colorado

AMP is a robotics company that develops and deploys tech solutions geared toward solving the central challenges of recycling. AMP works within the waste industry to make recycling more efficient, cost-effective, scalable and sustainable. The company leverages artificial intelligence to improve operational efficiency by training it to recognize specific objects on conveyor belts in recycling facilities.

Headquarters: Oakland, California

Greentech firm GridX works toward large-scale decarbonization by providing analytics on clean energy options to utility and energy companies. It creates models for different migrations to clean energy and gives insights and advice on pricing, so that companies can understand the real-world dollar impact of a shift to a greener tech option. The suite of software GridX offers includes programs for billing analytics, customer service and bundling clean energy options.

Headquarters: Bellevue, Washington

Clean Power Research works with over 200 entities with 80 utility providers to bring solar power to homes. It builds software solutions and tools for services like managing building electrification and supporting efficient solar power plant operations.

Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois

Energy CX is an energy brokerage that supports budget-friendly, data-driven energy purchasing and sustainability efforts for businesses. Its green energy capabilities cover areas like carbon offsets, electric vehicle charging and solar solutions. The company also works with a nonprofit organization to plant a tree for each of its new clients.

Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois

Invenergy develops clean energy solutions such as offshore wind farms, natural gas facilities, water treatment facilities and solar energy projects. The company has upwards of 200 global project sites that are either in progress or have already been completed. Invenergy's work generates energy that powers more than 9 million homes.

Headquarters: Brooklyn, New York

Back Market’s team seeks to reduce the waste generated by device obsolescence by creating new technology that extends the lifespan of mobile and desktop products. The company accepts, restores and grades devices, ensuring each item on its website is fully functional, regardless of its grade. By offering refurbished products, the company aims to give customers more affordable device options and also prevent more used products from winding up in landfills.

Headquarters: Northbrook, Illinois

UL Solutions is a safety science company that works with clients to improve the safety and sustainability of their products and practices through testing, inspection and certification. It administers UL Marks, which are certification marks products can earn by adhering to UL’s standards for safety and quality. UL Solutions also consults on sustainability practices like responsible sourcing, circular economic strategies and climate change mitigation.

Headquarters: Jersey City, New Jersey

Oishii is a vertical farming company that grows strawberries and tomatoes that are available to consumers through partnerships with certain retailers and restaurants that have incorporated its produce into their menus. Oishii makes sustainability a priority by farming without pesticides that can be harmful to the environment and employing a circular filtration system designed to ensure efficient water usage at its indoor farming facility.

Headquarters: Auckland City, New Zealand

Halter offers farmers solar-powered wearable technology for cows, which allows them to track their cows’ health and behavior. It allows farmers to manage fencing, feeding and grazing through its mobile app. It aims to build more sustainable and advanced farming practices.

Headquarters: Fully Remote

Aurora Solar combines cloud computing technology with energy efficiency to create solutions that help energy technicians manage their workflows and deliver better results to their customers. The company’s software platform combines all aspects of the solar panel commissioning process under one umbrella, providing engineers the opportunity to manage financing, modeling, sales and permit compliance from a unified location.

Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois

Sphera delivers integrated risk management software to a network of companies across the globe. Its team maintains a strong focus on environmental protection and sustainability, delivering an integrated, cloud-based platform with which companies can centrally manage their regulations compliance. Sphera’s team has experience working with companies hailing from numerous industries, and the company serves enterprises in construction, life sciences, manufacturing and retail.

Headquarters: San Francisco, California

Watershed assists businesses and brands in measuring, tracing and reporting carbon emissions. The climate platform is an all-in-one solution that starts off by analyzing emissions within every business practice; then, goals are set to dismantle the emission usage and fund carbon removal. Watershed also automates global investor-grade reporting and submits the CDP report with third-party auditors.