ecovative design

Fast Company story: Eco-designs that are reducing waste

Submitted by dave on Mon, 09/21/2009 - 09:04

Check this story from Fast Company about the eco-designs that are 'reimagining the detritus of our daily lives.' The list includes former NCIIA E-Team Ecovative Design and their 'Ecocradle' packaging material.

CNN: Young people who rock

Submitted by dave on Tue, 09/01/2009 - 10:10

Each year, CNN profiles a select group of young people who are rocking the world. Former NCIIA E-Team Ecovative Design, who has developed a green replacement for styrofoam and building insulation, was recently featured.

Greensulate (Ecovative)

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2007 - $15,815

Household energy use accounts for one-fifth of the total energy consumed annually in the US. Better insulation would lead to a reduction in energy consumption, but today's most popular forms of insulation have significant drawbacks in the form of health risks, high cost, and large environmental footprints.

This E-Team developed Greensulate, an environmentally friendly home insulation material. Greensulate is a composite board made up of insulating particles suspended in a matrix of mycelium-growth-stage mushroom cells. This mushroom-based insulation is biodegradable, low cost, produces no pollution in the manufacturing process, and insulates as well as competing products.

They've since focused on developing and selling Ecocradle, a green alternative to polystyrene/Styrofoam packaging.

Update: the team is now incorporated as Ecovative Design. The company won 500,000 euros at Picnic Green Challenge 2008, the world's premier green ideas conference, in Amsterdam, received SBIR Phase I funding from the EPA, and won the DoE's Renewable Energy Laboratory's Clean Energy Venture Awards. Click here to visit their website.

Blogged on the New York Times (2009)
Popular Science top-10 invention of the year (2009)
Planet Green.com (2009)
CNN's young people who rock
NPR: cool inventions of the year (2009)
Time magazine - Industrial strength mushrooms (2010)
Fast Company - Steelcase adopts the Ecocradle packaging system (2010)
TED - Eben describes the Ecocradle packaging system (2010)
Huffington Post story and PBS video (2011)
Ecovative partners with Ford to make car components (April 2011)
Ecovative Design receives equity funding (May 2011)
Ecovative partners with Sealed Air Corporation (January 2012)
Featured in Dot Earth blog on the New York Times (February 2012)
Story from GE ecoimagination (April 2012)
Sealed Air and Ecovative accelerate commercialization of EcoCradle (June 2012)

Postalcode Lottery at it again: €500,000 business plan competition

Submitted by dave on Mon, 07/13/2009 - 08:31

Last year, Venture Well cohort member and NCIIA E-Team grantee Ecovative Design won €500,000 (about US$700,000) in the PostalCode Lottery Green Challenge. Deadline for submissions for this year is July 31.

'Green' styrofoam? Ecovative Design in the New York Times

Submitted by dave on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 10:44

Former NCIIA E-Team Ecovative Design are making a name for themselves in the green packaging arena. Read more about their green (fungi) replacement for styrofoam at the New York Times.