Closed Loop Partners was active throughout town as the link between the circular economy and climate change mitigation becomes increasingly clear. These discussions included one that I participated in alongside Amy Duffuor at Azolla Ventures and Allison Hinckley, PhD at Fine Structure Ventures on the Future of Climate Venture Capital Investing, facilitated by Co-Founder of Climate Tech VC, Kim Zou, at the HolonIQ Impact Summit.

The fundamental question for so many is how the current geopolitical and macroeconomic climate will impact climate VC in the coming months and years. As Kim and her colleagues have written, plenty of earmarked dry powder remains to be deployed. The question that remains is how climate VC’s evaluation criteria will shift in light of the relative uncertainty.

As investors in the circular economy, Closed Loop Partners has long been mindful about the underlying economic models that persist today and their link to climate change – namely those that link perpetual economic growth with extractive and emissions-intensive practices, reliance on long, brittle supply chains for energy and finite raw materials, and excessive waste within those existing supply chains. Given the macroenvironment of rising costs of capital, ongoing wars in the East, tariffs, and trade tensions with China, exacerbated climate conditions and an overhang from the worst pandemic in our lifetimes, the old way of production and economic “prosperity” is being called into question – and is now poised for disruption.

The sensibility across multiple conversations and events attended by Closed Loop Partners was that these forces have pushed climate-related innovations out of the silo of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programming or parallel initiatives designed with a primary mandate to “give back.” Instead, we are seeing broader integration of circular economy and climate-related initiatives and investments entering the C-suite through supply chain, procurement, operations, and shareholder expectations. This means we are seeing corporations adopt transformations with an explicit economic mandate that can simultaneously facilitate a lower carbon, more circular future. Companies with this multidimensional mandate are those that Closed Loop Partners’ Ventures Group partners with and we are proud of the companies in our portfolio that are shepherding the economy into its next, more circular future.

As these transformations accelerate, so too does the need to drive mutual benefits for players further up and downstream from the products and services that we consume every day. In that spirit, value chain resilience continued to be top-of-mind across Climate Week events. Late last year, my team published a report outlining the catalytic power of mutually beneficial supply chain transparency in the next generation circular economic model. Whether from building up new, localized ecosystems through domestic or nearshored manufacturing or from actively creating value for legacy suppliers in an established ecosystem (e.g., parts manufacturers in automotive, mills or cut-and-sew players in the fashion value chain), companies can enable innovations that reduce waste, reduces full value chain liability, and – ultimately – facilitates a just transition for the ecosystem more broadly and builds future resilience.

This is no small task ahead of us; however, it is one that we – and much of the climate tech community – are embracing with open arms a transformation of how industry works. We are energized by novel solutions to tough problems and there is no shortage of both problems and solutions to take on in the coming months and years. Above all, the climate VC community is one of unfailing optimism. At the cusp of this transformation, we’re honored to be thought leaders on the circular economy and look forward to playing a small part in advancing the world toward the next generation of circular ecosystems.

Source

Amidst an increasingly urgent climate crisis, and growing inequity in food distribution, our inefficient food system is called into question. For investors and community organizations alike, finding circular solutions to reduce food waste across the supply chain is now a top priority.

What happens when food is wasted?

As much as 10% of global greenhouse gases comes from food wasted across the supply chain. Sending food to landfills misses the opportunity to convert that resource into any number of productive end uses––from compost and biogas to animal feed to packaging inputs and other products––that support the environmental, economic and social sustainability we seek in our economic system. Current practices that do not keep organic material in circulation are fundamentally unsustainable––locking in our society’s dependence on fossil fuel-based products and continually depleting soil’s regenerative capacity.

What does an ideal food system look like?

For effective strategies to manage food waste, we can look to nature. Natural agricultural cycles are some of the best examples of an efficient, closed loop system. When we harvest produce, we also take minerals and nutrients from the soil. That’s what makes our food nourishing. Importantly, food that is not eaten––surplus food and inedible remnants––contain nutrients too. Those remainders, when returned to the soil in the form of compost, enhance important microbial activity and replenish the soil for the next growing period. Food scraps are a resource that can also be transformed into clean energy and liquid fertilizer through anaerobic digestion. If managed optimally at each point of the supply chain, farming can have a reversing effect on climate change and soil depletion.

Landfilled food waste has negative value due to unpriced externalities. Diverted, it can be a valuable soil amendment, a source of energy, or input into other finished food and packaging products. This is an arbitrage to explore through financial capital and community initiatives.

What types of solutions are needed?

All manners of solutions are needed to move away from current linear processes that drive materials to landfill, as well as stop leaks in existing circular systems. Both holistic, far-influencing solutions––from public policy to childhood education––as well as technical innovations that address specific problems within the supply chains––such as developing end markets for unsold agricultural products––are critical. Until widespread public policy (with appropriate incentives) is in place, the first fundamental realignment requires risk-tolerant funding to capitalize solution providers and municipalities willing to be ‘first movers.’ The second set of solutions, which solve specific supply chain circularity challenges, will have more immediate impact and can be accelerated through a range of innovation services, including but not limited to the provision of flexible capital.

Today, investment and interest in food waste reduction are growing, and there has never been a better time to consider the range of impact solutions that need funding. In fact, in mid-May, Closed Loop Partners and ReFED announced a new Circular Food Solutions Platform that aims to catalyze an array of capital types that can support a wide range of solutions.

Let’s take a closer look at how investors and community organizations are addressing the challenge, and the impact that can be achieved when the entire value chain is engaged.

Seismic changes in regional food systems

In 2015, in the middle of San Diego County, a six-month pilot was run to take food scraps from a quick-service restaurant to a local farm with depleted soil less than one mile away, to compost and land-apply. The pilot aimed to prove the viability of closed loop regional food systems––that there is value in uneaten food, and it can be used to replenish surrounding agricultural soil. Findings from the pilot showed that the compost created from the fresh food scraps was five times more nutrient-rich than the finished compost the farm had been trucking in from 25 miles away. It not only saved the restaurant $250 per month on hauling fees, but also prevented 30 metric tons of greenhouse gases from being emitted.

This pilot was run by Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, a California-based nonprofit that has been advancing community initiatives to reduce food waste for many years. Among many other initiatives, this program planted the seed for what could be achieved through regional food systems. Today, San Diego County is now removing restrictions that previously prevented the replication of similar programs. Solana Center was awarded California’s highest environmental honor for this program, the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA), which recognized food waste as an environmental issue for the first time in the award’s history. More recently, Solana Center’s Executive Director, Jessica Toth, was recognized by the San Diego Business Journal as one of 50 Over 50 Influential Women, celebrating the impact of the programs run by the Center. With these developments, new technology, education and transport systems are needed to maximize and accelerate the economic and environmental benefits of these programs.

Catalytic funding funneled into circular food solutions

On the other side of the country, Closed Loop Partners, a New York-based investment firm and innovation center, has been focused on accelerating a circular economy across a range of sectors, including food and agriculture. Together with leading brands, industry groups, NGOs and investors, the firm funnels much-needed capital and network insights into industry-wide solutions and technical innovations that build a circular food system grounded in regenerative agriculture practices, recycling and transparent value chains. This includes upstream solutions that reduce food waste from the outset, and downstream solutions that can ensure uneaten food does not go to waste.

For example, Closed Loop Partners provided venture funding to ucrop.it, a company that operates as a blockchain farming and crops traceability platform that ensures certainty across crop cycles. It connects crop growers with corporate stakeholders from the agriculture value chain to agree on farming objectives for sustainable crop production, competitive financing and quality crops sourcing, to achieve greater profitability and incentivize sustainable agricultural practices. The firm also invested in ThriveLot, a company that installs and maintains edible, ecological landscaping and more for homeowners, creating a yard-to-table food system. More recently, Closed Loop Partners’ innovation center, the Center for the Circular Economy, launched a collaborative Composting Consortium to pilot industry-wide solutions and build a roadmap for investment in technologies and infrastructure that enable the recovery of compostable food packaging and food scraps.

Across the food system, financial investors, corporate strategic investors and philanthropists are deploying more capital into emerging companies creating solutions to reduce food waste and ensure that, at every stage of supply and consumption, food is used as a resource that brings value back to communities, the environment and the local economy.

Get involved

ReFED estimates that $14 billion in investment is needed annually to cut food waste in half by 2030, the goal set by the US EPA and driven by international targets. Over 20% of that $14 billion is needed for risk-tolerant funding for far-reaching initiatives, like those driven by community organizations such as Solana Center. The annual impact of $14 billion in investments per year is estimated to drive $73 billion in net financial benefit and reduce 75 million tons of GHG emission; over ten years, it could also create 51,000 jobs annually.

Investors and community organizations play distinct yet critical roles in advancing shared goals. Mitigating food waste will require consumer, producer and government engagement as well as financial investment. Effective deployment of capital and policy, with stakeholders from across the value chain collaborating on shared goals, can make a notable difference in driving economic, social and environmental benefits for communities and investors, addressing climate change, and building a more resilient, waste-free food system.

Interested in learning how Solana Center for Environmental Innovation is monetizing seismic change or to hear about the next big project? Visit here or contact Jessica Toth at [email protected].

Interested in a further discussion on this important topic? Please contact Closed Loop Partners here.

September 13, New York, NY – Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy and the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag released a new resource to help guide retailers looking to adopt reusable bag service models. The report, Beyond the Plastic Bag, shares key insights and analysis gathered from collaborative reusable bag pilots conducted in select CVS Health, Target and Walmart stores throughout Northern California in 2021, as part of the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag’s Beyond the Bag Pilots.

Approximately 100 billion single-use plastic bags are used each year in the U.S., most of which end up as waste in landfills and the environment. Reuse models play an important role in addressing single-use plastic packaging waste, alongside other complementary waste mitigation strategies. As retailers work to respond to the urgent challenge and address increasing plastic bag regulations across the U.S., the report provides key findings on what drives an optimal shopper experience and uptake of reuse models:

Customer-facing journey for reusable bag services

• Effective storytelling is foundational for building awareness
• Convenience is imperative when it comes to adoption and sign-up
• Customers are looking for a clear and easy reason to help them reuse
• Accessible drop-off points and quick confirmation of return help build trust in the reuse system

Behind the scenes action enabling reusable bag services

• Partnering with the right stakeholders matters
• Impact must be measured at every stage
• Further scaling reuse systems will help catalyze efficiencies

“Successfully implementing reuse models on the ground, and accelerating their growth, takes unprecedented collaboration. Since 2018, the Center for the Circular Economy has been convening competitors to address complex material challenges and advance circular solutions, including reuse,” said Kate Daly, Managing Director of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. “This collaboration with the nation’s largest retailers to test and pilot reusable bag solutions across multiple stores is a critical step toward reducing single-use plastic bag waste. Iterative testing and data-driven decision-making of reuse systems can help avoid unintended consequences, like insufficient recapture of reusable packaging or the one-to-one replacement of single-use plastics with ‘reusables.’ We hope that this report on the Beyond the Bag initiative serves as inspiration for forward-thinking organizations looking to bring reuse to the next level. The learnings from our pilots can help guide us toward a future in which reusing valuable materials and products in our economy becomes the commonsense norm.”

The Center for the Circular Economy launched the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag in 2020, convening many of the world’s largest retailers to identify, test and implement innovative new design solutions that serve the function of today’s single-use plastic retail bag. The Consortium’s Innovation Partner, IDEO, worked closely with Closed Loop Partners and its retail partners in designing and running the reusable bag pilots in Northern California featured in the Beyond the Plastic Bag report. Findings from the Beyond the Bag Pilots build on and complement additional learnings from Closed Loop Partners’ NextGen Consortium that ran several reusable cup pilots in 2020, driving forward the Center’s work to rigorously test and hone reuse solutions to ensure that they achieve their intended impacts.

“Through partnerships with innovative startups, collaboration with other partners, and buy-in from our customers, the Beyond the Bag Pilots provided critical data-driven analysis on the role that reuse models could play in plastic waste mitigation when thoughtfully designed and their impact successfully measured,” said Sheryl Burke, Senior Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility for CVS Health. “We still have a lot to learn collectively, but we’re thrilled to continue our journey towards a more circular future for retail.”

“Bringing Target, Walmart, and CVS Health to the same table demonstrates the partnership needed across our industry to address the challenge of plastic waste and achieve measurable environmental benefits for all,” said Amanda Nusz, Senior Vice President of Corporate Responsibility for Target and President of the Target Foundation. “We’re grateful for the insights these pilots have provided, and we’re applying what we learned to identify bag options that are best for our guests, propelling more circular systems throughout retail.”

“The Beyond the Bag Pilots fostered an unprecedented platform for connectivity between trailblazing reuse start-ups, customers, Walmart, and other retailers in the industry,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer for Walmart. “The pilots created the space for collective experimentation, and provided data-driven insights on the ease, convenience, and perceived benefits of the models tested. This kind of on-the-ground diligence from pilots is critical to inform what could be next for reuse and where it could fit in a circular economy.”

Over the next year, the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag will continue to conduct extensive research and in-market testing of designs and innovative bag solutions that can reduce single-use plastic bag waste. These aim to inform the viability of solutions in different contexts, as well as the full potential of solutions to more sustainably, accessibly and effectively get goods home.

About the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners

Closed Loop Partners is a New York-based investment firm comprised of venture capital, growth equity, private equity and catalytic capital, as well as an innovation center. In 2018, Closed Loop Partners launched its innovation center, the Center for the Circular Economy, which unites competitors to tackle complex material challenges and to implement systemic change that advances the circular economy. Closed Loop Partners brings together designers, manufacturers, recovery systems operators, trade organizations, municipalities, policymakers and NGOs to create, invest in and support scalable innovations that target big systems problems. In 2022, the Center launched a Reuse Insights Lab to advance the firm’s testing, piloting and investing in reusable packaging models. The Reuse Insights Lab conducts qualitative and quantitative research and data analytics through in-market testing, focus groups and customer interviews, to identify how to design and build the architecture for a reuse system that brings the circular economy to the forefront in our everyday life. Learn more about the Center’s work here.

About the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag

The Beyond the Bag Initiative, launched by the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag, aims to identify, pilot and implement viable design solutions and models that more sustainably serve the purpose of the current retail bag. Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy launched the initiative with Founding Partners CVS Health, Target and Walmart. The Kroger Co. joined as Grocery Sector Lead Partner, DICK’S Sporting Goods joined as Sports & Outdoors Sector Lead Partner, Dollar General as Value Sector Lead Partner, The TJX Companies, Inc. as Apparel & Home Goods Sector Lead Partner, and Ulta Beauty as Beauty Sector Lead Partner. Ahold Delhaize USA Brands, Albertsons Companies, H-E-B, Hy-Vee, Meijer, Wakefern Food Corp., and Walgreens are Supporting Partners, and Conservation International and Ocean Conservancy serve as Environmental Advisory Partners. IDEO is the Consortium’s Innovation Partner. Learn more about the Consortium here.

In the U.S., 35% of the food we produce goes unsold or uneaten. Whether this is because of too much food produced, too little harvested, food spoilage, or not recognizing the economic value of food byproducts, most of this surplus food ends up in the 1,000+ landfills operated around the country. If we look at U.S. landfills today, food makes up almost a quarter of the materials in them. A lot can be done to improve the resource efficiency of our food system today––and within this work lies a critical path to positive environmental impact and significant economic opportunity.

According to the leading food waste non-profit organization ReFED, uneaten food is a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions today, generating 4% of U.S. and up to 10% of global emissions annually. These emissions come from many sources, ranging from unnecessary forestland conversion to excess energy use in food over-production to methane emissions during food waste decomposition.

To address climate change holistically, we need to look across the supply chains that move food through our economy today and transition them from take-make-waste supply chains to circular ones. Ultimately, a circular food system reduces food waste – and its associated greenhouse gas emissions – fundamentally linking it to climate goals. In fact, it is one of the top solutions to avoiding a global two degree warming scenario today, as reported by climate education non-profit Project Drawdown.

Investments in solutions that prevent food from going to waste, such as predictive software that allows retailers to match supply with demand more precisely, as well as composting infrastructure or anaerobic digestion technologies, are critical. According to ReFED, an annual investment of $14 billion – including $3 billion in catalytic capital that is patient and flexible – is necessary to cut food waste in half in the U.S.

But why invest in food waste reduction now?

1) Investable Innovations Already Exist

For more than five years, Closed Loop Partners has been publishing research, investing in and advancing circular solutions that cycle nutrients and eliminate food, organic and agricultural waste. These solutions span upstream food reduction solutions to midstream consumption solutions to downstream processing infrastructure – knowing that interventions at every stage of the supply chain are required to build a circular food system. As an upstream example, one of our portfolio companies, Mori, has developed a silk-based and edible coating that extends the shelf life of fresh food, reducing food spoilage and waste.  Rebound Technologies, one of our midstream portfolio companies, designs and manufactures freeze-point cooling systems, reducing food spoilage by boosting the efficiency of cold storage. Further downstream, our portfolio company HomeBiogas creates household and commercial-sized anaerobic digester units that convert food and yard waste into renewable energy and liquid fertilizer that can both be used onsite. Closed Loop Partners also invested in Atlas Organics, a growing composting company. In 2021, we successfully exited our investment in Atlas Organics, following its sale to Generate Capital, a key investor aligned with impact outcomes and growth of the company.

2) Demand for Investment Is Increasing

We are now at an inflection point, with several clear tailwinds that have convinced us that the investment case for deploying capital into the sector has never been more attractive. What are the tailwinds? We bucket them into three categories:

• Environmental and market forces are directly driving revenue opportunities: Climate change has been headline news for years, but it’s never garnered the level of attention in the U.S. that it has today––and its link to food and agriculture has never been clearer. Climate change-induced droughts and severe weather are impacting agriculture cycles and food supplies, and organic waste in landfills is increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, amidst rising inflation, geopolitical instability and challenged supply chains, retailers are searching for more resilient ways to manage food supply chains: including sourcing more locally and reducing food waste to decrease costs while providing affordable products to consumers.

• Industry leaders are driving action toward shared goals: Many Fortune 500 companies have set public net zero commitments, and more than 20 of them have set food waste reduction commitments with target reduction levels by target dates. As of early 2022, more than 40 large global corporations have signed up to the EPA’s 2030 Food Loss & Waste Champions program to reduce their food waste by 50% by 2030. Furthermore, there are several large cross-sectoral corporate, government and NGO partnerships for food waste reduction now in place, from 10x20x30 to the Pacific Coast Food Waste Collaborative to promote knowledge sharing, innovation and pool sources of demand for solutions. Kroger also launched their Zero Hunger | Zero Waste social and environmental impact plan to help create a more efficient, equitable and charitable food system. We are closely watching and excited by all three sets of development: consumer demand, corporate demand and public-private partnerships for knowledge sharing and innovation.

• Policy is indirectly driving revenue opportunities: Many of us in impact investment have been watching regulatory and voluntary bodies work to standardize and create accountability for ESG disclosure for years. Those of us in the food waste space, particularly in the U.S., have also honed in on the uptick in legislation and updated mandates introduced at every level: federal, state and municipal, including the food waste bill passed this year and local organic waste bans. In 2021, the EPA updated its food waste data baselines to align with international goals outlined in Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, and it expanded the scope of the food scraps it considers waste that must be addressed. More than 10 states and D.C. have enacted food diversion mandates. In the nearly seven months that have passed since January 2022 alone, more than 70 bills were introduced in state legislatures to mitigate or repurpose food waste, calling for measures ranging from making it easier to donate excess food, to updating expiration date label approaches to funding compost collection.

• Signals that traditional investors are starting to pay attention are rising: Investors poured more than $10 billion in venture capital into agricultural technology (known as ‘ag tech’) solutions in 2021. They even invested $2 billion into food waste solutions last year as well. But $2 billion trails the capital needed to cut food waste in half in the U.S., which ReFED found to be a $14 billion annual need.

3) Opportunities to Invest Are Growing

Having invested in food waste solutions since 2016 through Closed Loop Ventures Group and ongoing strategies within growth equity and private equity, Closed Loop Partners and ReFED have recognized the need to bring additional catalytic capital into the space. The two organizations have joined forces in a long-term partnership to begin to close the funding gap and to connect innovators with large players in the food system for transformational, sustainable systems change. Our new Circular Food Solutions Platform aims to provide the necessary capital, connectivity, market insight and support for innovation, to accelerate a variety of emerging food waste reduction solutions and bolster infrastructure for recovery. Ultimately, the Platform aims to scale a more circular food system that reduces organic waste and its associated greenhouse gas emissions, minimizes the economic burden on municipalities of unnecessary landfilling and waste incineration, and contributes to hunger relief – all with the larger goal of a more sustainable, circular economy.

Our new Platform is an investment and innovation platform that aims to drive traditional capital into the sector through two catalytic vehicles: a catalytic investment strategy and catalytic grant strategy. The Platform will be jointly managed by Closed Loop Partners & ReFED, intending to: (a) provide patient, catalytic capital; (b) de-risk solutions through innovation support and research; and (c) bring critical stakeholders to the table to collaborate in a cross-supply chain, cross-sectoral manner toward shared sustainability goals. The proposed hybrid structure seeks to activate solutions across three categories: Prevention, Rescue and Recycling. The Platform’s proposed design includes philanthropic and catalytic, flexible investment capital – debt, equity and grants – with the intention of meeting organizations where they are in their development cycle and a purpose of accelerating the efforts of not just private start-ups, but also public sector entities, project operators and non-profit organizations.

Collaboration is Key to Solving the Problem

This initiative is unprecedented. Knowing that collaboration is key to solving this complex challenge, it brings together an industry-leading data provider on U.S. food waste and impact methodology to assess solutions, and an experienced circular economy-focused investment and innovation firm, with unparalleled collective industry knowledge, network, and investment experience. By working together, we can collectively have a much bigger impact on the system, in activating supply chains for sustainability.

Closed Loop Partners is already seeing many circular solutions in the food and organics space, seeking capital ranging from grants to early-stage equity funding to later-stage project finance debt. Since 2016, we’ve invested in 10 food waste mitigation or recycling companies ranging from solutions to sequester carbon in agricultural products, to cold chain storage, to industrial organic composting and anaerobic digestion.

With targeted funding of $100M – of which $80M would be allocated to an investment strategy, and the remaining $20M to grants for non-investment-grade (or non-profit) solutions – the new Circular Food Solutions Platform aims to contribute to the diversion of up to 10 million tons of food waste from landfill, which would result in 15M mtCO2e avoided, and save nearly 800 billion gallons of water. All while supporting innovators of all types to benefit from our nearly 10 years of work investing and partnering with large global retailers, consumer goods, technology companies and local municipalities to build more sustainable supply chains.

If you are interested in learning more about this important topic, please contact us here.

1. The IRA may provide an accelerant for new, circular markets domestically.

To advance a much-needed renewable energy transition, the IRA directly encourages investments in solar and wind generating assets and energy efficiency upgrades in commercial and residential buildings. These new installations will not only require ample raw material – they will also accelerate the need for end-of-life solutions for energy infrastructure being replaced or systems being repowered. In solar, for example, annual capacity additions are expected to increase from 10 GW in 2020 to nearly 50 GW per year in 2025-6.[1]

As supply chain constraints continue, especially for products sourced from challenging geopolitical climates, recovering materials already in use will become increasingly desirable – and economically viable. This is a huge opportunity for companies focused on effective, at-scale reclamation and recycling – such as CLVG’s portfolio company, SOLARCYCLE. SOLARCYCLE is focused on recovering solar panel materials for resale, ultimately providing materials that can be sourced into new, domestic manufacturing.

Many of the tax credits introduced or expanded by the IRA have specific provisions related to domestic manufacturing – including for electric vehicle batteries. As domestic manufacturing scales to take advantage of these tailwinds, access to low-cost, locally sourced input materials, including those that are reclaimed from the value chain, will be paramount. This creates opportunities for companies focused on recovery of hard-to-recycle materials that can be incentivized with IRA rebates or credits – everything from battery materials to boilers and air conditioners, insulation, roofing and windows. Early-stage companies that are seeking scalable solutions for recovery and reuse across these markets may capitalize on opportunities from the legislation.

Not only does the IRA amplify the need for companies that can help reclaim products at end-of-life, but it also reinforces the opportunity for low-carbon, circular solutions for energy-intensive industries – such as steel, iron, concrete, glass and chemical production. Indeed, nearly $5B in capital is allocated to continue the push for low-carbon building materials, especially in public infrastructure projects. This is following on previous Executive Orders related to net-zero government procurement which aspire toward net-zero public procurement by 2050, including for carbon-intense materials like steel and concrete.[2]– To date, there are few – if any – commercial scale, low-carbon solutions for much of this procurement, meaning significant innovation will be needed in the coming years to make at-scale, carbon neutral production possible.

Beyond investment in renewables, the bill also has provisions that seek to enable investment into waste-to-energy and biogas operations, including expansions and modifications to existing tax credits. This creates opportunities for new, waste-generated, clean energy sources. Green hydrogen, which can be produced from waste biomass and other reclaimed sources, is well positioned with additional production tax credits. Through provisions for residential homeowners, home energy efficiency upgrades for electric heat pumps or window replacements can be much more accessible, even creating opportunities to bundle with circularity-enabling products like home anaerobic digesters, such as those developed by CLVG’s portfolio company, HomeBiogas. The biogas company creates modular household and commercial anaerobic digester units that convert food and organic waste into renewable energy and liquid fertilizer.

2. The IRA may facilitate environmental remediation on an unprecedented scale.

The bill is heavily focused on the identification and remediation of pollution to air, water and soil systems, as well as the fortification of soil and water for the future – including a specific focus on ports. CLVG’s portfolio company, Accelerated Filtration, supports this mandate by offering fine particle filtration across a range of industries and applications, helping reduce the flow of wastewater into the environment. Nonetheless, there continue to be pollutants – PFAS and 1,4 dioxane among them – that do not yet have commercialized solutions for remediation. More innovations are needed to mitigate the future risk of all types of pollutants leaching into the environment upon disposal.

Additionally, more than $20B is provided in the IRA to support the uptake of sustainable agricultural practices, including regenerative farming solutions and financing for innovations that can improve conditions for livestock raising. The question of how best to engage farmers on these topics continues to be top-of-mind – after all, the intent is to create a win-win situation, where farmers can both increase profits and enhance the quality of the land that they are growing on for today and the future. Ucrop.it, a CLVG portfolio company, has developed a novel solution to this problem with a free platform that fully tracks crops throughout the development cycle, leveraging blockchain to prove the application of climate-positive agriculture practices, which flows through to customers, enabling full transparency and traceability. Companies innovating upstream in the food and agriculture value chains – from soil health and vertical farming to livestock management, have a strong dual mandate that is reinforced by the innovation capital in the bill.

3. The IRA may allow for other enablers of circularity––notably, financing.

There continues to be more demand than supply of financing for circularity-enabling solutions to accelerate a climate-positive future. In particular, asset-heavy solutions that require commercialization of large-scale manufacturing or materials recovery facilities find it difficult to scale from pilot stage. This is yet another space in which the IRA is helping to close gaps and accelerate progress on circularity. By providing additional capital – in the form of grants, loans and concessionary capital – through national labs, the Department of Energy LPO, and even the formation of a Federal Green Bank, the IRA may enhance the dry powder available for early-stage climate tech and circularity-enabling solutions that accelerate our progress toward a climate-positive future. Closed Loop Partners continues to be energized about the crowding in of additional capital into the earliest stages of the space to facilitate the transition to a fully circular ecosystem––one that brings us closer to achieving our shared climate goals.

[1] https://repeatproject.org/docs/REPEAT_IRA_Prelminary_Report_2022-08-04.pdf

[2] https://www.sustainability.gov/federalsustainabilityplan/procurement.html

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