North America’s Unique Journey Toward Circularity

By Kate Daly

October 09, 2020

Last week, I (virtually) joined more than 5,000 business leaders, policymakers and circular economy enthusiasts from across the globe for the digital World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF), convened by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. It’s been four years since WCEF’s first convening, and it was inspiring to see the continued momentum and global interest in advancing circularity. This year was the first time WCEF was to be held in North America, reflecting the growing tide of interest here. I was happy to have the opportunity to join the events and speak to the nuances specific to our region in our journey toward circularity.

Elements of the circular economy have existed within North America for centuries, under different names: indigenous stewardship, industrial ecology, recycling, cradle to cradle, environmental justice, remanufacturing. For the new circular economy to flourish in North America, we must commit to building on this knowledge, in addition to adapting successful international models to our own North American cultures and governing systems.

While here in the U.S and Canada we don’t have the same type of unifying mandates prevalent in the European Union, business and investors are not waiting around for national legislation. They’re deploying capital, and identifying new business models and opportunities for collaboration. Many corporations are setting ambitious goals and doing the difficult work of identifying how circularity can become an integrated part of their bottom line. And in the absence of national legislation or funding, some cities are launching zero waste mandates and circular business accelerators to turn waste into resources and create local jobs. Innovation, investment, policy and above all partnership are the key drivers of the new economic model in the U.S. and Canada, and digitization is a key enabler. And in all of this we must together ensure that the new systems put into place don’t perpetuate the negative outcomes of the old ones, where low-income communities are disproportionately affected by the environmental burdens of pollution and waste.

In our most recent report, The Circular Shift: Four Key Drivers of Circularity in North America, we at Closed Loop Partners drew on our experience as researchers, operators and investors in the circular economy to illustrate the momentum and headway made thus far. Both the public and the private sector are responding to changing consumer preferences, increasing demands for better outcomes for local communities, and regulatory pressures. And it’s the cutting edge sustainable innovations and growing investment opportunities that provide a path forward toward circularity.

We’re in an age of experimentation, perfecting reusable and refillable packaging models, renting rather than buying clothing, and transferring ownership of products and packaging back to their producers. There are many reasons to be optimistic, and the time for action, critically, is now. The clock is ticking on our current linear economic system and the circular economy offers a viable and much-needed solution: a robust framework that aligns the interests of shareholders, corporations, local communities and the environment, and is underpinned by core principles of resource efficiency, inclusiveness and resilience.

Together, we all have a role to play to catalyze inclusive approaches to systems change that shift us toward a better, more circular economy that’s business-led and community-led. There is no question that it will require unexpected and unprecedented collaboration, but personally I’m encouraged by the progress made to date and I look forward to what lies ahead of us in North America and beyond.

Closed Loop Partners Launches Report on Unprecedented Shifts in the Circular Economy in North America

September 23, 2020

The report explores the sea change underway as four key drivers – market forces, recent innovations, changing policy and groundbreaking partnerships – push circularity forward

Read the full report

New York, Sept 24 – Today, Closed Loop Partners’ innovation center, the Center for the Circular Economy, announced the release of its timely report, The Circular Shift: Four Key Drivers of Circularity in North America. The report highlights critical trends driving circularity in the region, putting circular economy solutions at the center of business strategy, innovation development, policy changes, and new institutional partnerships.

The tumultuous events of 2020 have shed light on the importance of strong, stable, transparent systems, exposing the risks of overcomplicated, opaque supply chains and the limitations of continually extracting finite resources. In North America and around the world, supply chain disruptions, growing amounts of waste, and health and safety risks have called attention to the flaws of business-as-usual. As these challenges come to the fore, the urgency of rethinking systems that throw $10 billion worth of resources into U.S. landfills has increased. With growing investments and interest in less wasteful systems, the circular economy in North America is in the midst of a sea change.

Since 2014, Closed Loop Partners has been operating and investing in the circular economy, finding opportunities in the space and supporting its rapid growth across the U.S. Drawing from the firm’s investment intelligence and its Center’s research, the report delves into the Four Key Drivers of the Circular Economy in North America, exploring how innovation, investment, policy and partnership act as key enablers of the emerging economic model.

These factors shape and strengthen the landscape for circularity as investable opportunities have noticeably advanced, with momentum and innovation in the space growing rapidly. Capitalizing on the circular economy ultimately promises to recapture business value, offering a $4.5 trillion global opportunity by 2030, according to Accenture. Unexpected partnerships and visionary policy will be essential to accelerate the shift toward an economic model that is enduring, and able to withstand future shocks.

Against the backdrop of this year’s NYC Climate Week, the link between the circular economy––the reduction of both extraction of raw materials and of waste––and the consequences of climate change have never been stronger, or more apparent. The circular economy is not a singular solution, nor a short-term fix. To achieve circularity goals, such as decarbonization and dematerialization, change must be sweeping and collaboration must be far-reaching. Much like environmental solutions must include every stakeholder in the path forward, so must the circular economy.

“The clock is ticking on our current linear economic system and the circular economy offers a path forward: a robust framework that aligns the interests of shareholders, corporations, local communities and the environment,” says Kate Daly, Managing Director of the Center for the Circular Economy at Closed Loop Partners. This report builds on the achievements to date and the necessary actions to move forward, underscoring the urgency of focused investment, innovation opportunities, policy change and unexpected collaborations to achieve system-wide change.

Bringing NextGen Cups to Market: It Takes a Village

By Closed Loop Partners & IDEO

June 29, 2020

The NextGen Consortium is a global initiative convened by Closed Loop Partners’ Center for the Circular Economy. Starbucks and McDonald’s are founding partners of the Consortium, together with supporting partners The Coca-Cola Company, Yum! Brands, Nestlé and Wendy’s, as well as WWF as an advisory partner. IDEO is the Consortium’s innovation partner.

Local cafes, cities and students joined the NextGen Consortium’s collaborative efforts to advance reusable, recyclable and compostable cup solutions in pilots across the San Francisco Bay Area earlier this year.

Two years ago, the NextGen Consortium asked innovators: “How might we design the next generation fiber cup to be recoverable on a global scale, while maintaining the performance standards we know and trust?” From the start, we knew that our ability to successfully address the systemic challenge of cup waste would require strong collaboration across the entire cup ecosystem – from brands, suppliers and innovators, to municipalities, materials recovery facilities and mills, to advocacy groups and nonprofits, to the broader public. And we’ve been collaborating with these essential stakeholders, and others, ever since.

The NextGen Consortium serves as a collaborative platform for larger brands looking to move the needle on sustainability. By working together we’re one step closer to finding long term solutions, quicker than we would on our own — Jessica Marshall, Sustainability at McDonald’s

The Consortium’s journey began with the NextGen Cup Challenge —an open call for sustainable cup solutions that resulted in nearly 500 submissions from more than 50 countries. Twelve Cup Challenge winners were given the opportunity to enter the NextGen Circular Business Accelerator or the Advanced Solutions cohort; programs aimed at further developing the select winning cup companies – bringing them closer to pilot and market-readiness. And in early 2020 we launched The NextGen Pilot Readiness Program, a series of live, in-market pilots in the San Francisco Bay Area to further test and refine promising reusable and single-use solutions in surrounding local cafes.

We’re excited to keep learning, testing and exploring new cup technologies with the NextGen Consortium. The collaboration between companies, innovators and stakeholders is critical in our journey to find, and bring to scale, a more sustainable cup. — Chris McFarlane, Project Manager at Starbucks

NextGen Pilot Teams

●CupClub: A returnable cup ecosystem, providing a service for drinks. Think bike sharing, but for cups.
●Muuse : A deposit-based platform for smart, reusable beverage packaging, connecting their cups—and third party products—to Internet of Things technologies.
● Footprint: Fully formed fiber-based cups, lids and straws with an aqueous-based coating that is recyclable and compostable.
●PTT MCC Biochem: Recyclable cups with an innovative, bio-based BioPBS™ coating that makes the cup certified for compost in an industrial compost facility.

The Consortium’s pilots took place across multiple clusters of local cafes in San Francisco, Palo Alto, and Oakland. We evaluated cups and cup systems on their technical feasibility, business viability, user desirability, and systemic circularity. And, through it all, the collaborative spirit came to the fore as the critical ingredient for success.

Tackling a challenge as complex and massive as global cup waste requires a multitude of stakeholders—and it’s important to activate them from the start in order to advance the entire ecosystem. The pilots’ success hinged on collaborative municipalities (San Francisco, Palo Alto, Oakland), local neighborhood associations and universities eager to drive awareness, willing and excited local cafes to help establish a network effect of pick up and drop-off points, curious customers to experiment with new habits and an engaged media to drive awareness. After engaging all of these stakeholders and putting the cups to the test in local cafes, what did we learn?

Customer and Barista Insights Drive Rapid Iterations
Every minute counts when it comes to encouraging the uptake of reusable cup systems. And every user engagement offers a valuable opportunity for feedback. Customers have to sign up to a mobile app to log their cup, navigate the payment process, receive their beverage and ultimately return their cup to either a cafe or a drop-off point. Each step of this journey impacts their perception of reusable cups. For example, customer satisfaction was higher when there was a lost cup fee rather than an upfront deposit, and customers breathed easy after an alert confirmed a successful cup return. Similarly, baristas provided vital feedback. Even a simple verbal prompt asking customers whether they’d “like their order in a reusable cup” increased interest and engagement. These insights, alongside the experimentation mindset that characterized the pilots, enabled teams to rapidly prototype and improve according to key learnings.

Different Local Cafes Banded Together to form Clusters for the Pilots
Clusters are areas where 5 or more stores are located within a 5-minute walk. This walk, or the “pedestrian shed,” is considered the distance people are willing to walk before opting to use transit instead. Cup drop-off points work best when along a customer’s existing route. Local cafes including Coupa Cafe, Verve Coffee Roasters, Andytown, and Equator Coffees formed clusters, opened up their retail locations and helped lay the groundwork for the Pilot rollouts. During the pilots we saw some cups distributed at one cafe and returned to another. To hit a critical mass of users and truly scale reusable cup systems, support for this kind of behavior is imperative. It is also highly complex and requires honing and thoughtful planning as well as collaboration across multiple brands.

A cluster of local cafes and drop-off points

City Governments, Universities and NGOs Played a Critical Role in Galvanizing Momentum
Usership, especially early on, is directly tied to awareness. Data is most informative at higher volumes. The City of Palo Alto’s Zero Waste team was instrumental in identifying retail partners for the Pilot and educating their network, including zero waste leads in neighborhoods, about the pilots. The City of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment team was also engaged and eager to learn more about reusable cup solutions, especially in the face of proposed regulations and ordinances. The non-profit organization UPSTREAM made key introductions to city ofﬁcials and shared essential information regarding upcoming ordinances and policies. The network effect is real. By engaging these organizations and their respective communities, our reach multiplied, attracting more pilot participants, thus gathering more data to optimize systems and prepare for the mass market.

The success of the pilots was built on the foundations of collaboration, which engaged diverse stakeholders and enabled agile and quick responses to feedback. COVID-19 brought unforeseen challenges and intensified the question, how can we maintain customer trust with reusable cups? Throughout the pilots, the reusable solutions adhered to rigorous washing protocols, including one team utilizing an off-site industrial facility to ensure the strictest hygiene standards were maintained. The pandemic has further emphasized the importance of sanitation and health, and the critical need to communicate these elements effectively to customers.

Moving forward, collaboration among diverse stakeholders is essential to ensure that innovative new systems of consumption can bring convenience and delight, while reducing the environmental footprint of our daily habits. The NextGen Consortium will continue to work with the Cup Challenge winners, as well as other promising cup innovations, to advance their solutions, while simultaneously strengthening and building the cup recovery ecosystem as a whole. This includes exploring new processes and working with waste collectors, materials recovery facilities, municipalities, and paper mills, among others, to explore the opportunities around cup recycling and composting. Our pilots in the San Francisco Bay Area provided invaluable feedback on how we can collectively enhance the drinking experience in a way that stakeholders (and the environment) can feel good about. And we’re excited to continue to accelerate the future of more sustainable cups.

CupClub’s Cup Chariot in action on Stanford University’s campus

Circular Innovations for an Evolving Retail World

By Kate Daly, Managing Director

June 28, 2020

This article first appeared here on the Retail Industry Leaders Association’s blog.

At Closed Loop Partners we believe it is disruptive circular solutions that provide resilience and create unique opportunities in the face of global pandemics, the ocean plastics crisis and accelerating climate risks. But we don’t need to start from square one. The transition to a circular economy that aligns the interests of shareholders, customers, local communities and the environment is already underway. Circular solutions maximize retailers’ opportunities for resource efficiency and profit, while aligning with consumer demand and long-term sustainability. So how do we get there?

HARNESS INNOVATION TO STOP WASTE BEFORE IT HAPPENS
The future of retail is arriving faster than anticipated. During the pandemic, trends like home delivery and automated check out accelerated, while the consequences of excess inventory became costly. The four key drivers of the circular economy – transparency, digitization, automation and localization – suddenly aligned with the urgent need to safely and efficiently deliver goods. The failings of our current opaque global supply chains reinforce that innovations in digitizing inventory and sharing data can create efficiencies and prevent waste, opening up new possibilities for smart stocking, real time tracking and optimized reverse logistics for returns.

THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX AND REEXAMINE TRADITIONAL BUSINESS MODELS
Circular business models are reimagining the relationship between producer and customer. Nowhere is this more apparent than in fashion, where rental models and recommerce are growing their market share rapidly. This is critical as fashion consumption continues to increase, while the average number of times a garment is worn in its lifetime decreases. Between 2000 and 2015, the EPA noted that textile waste by weight jumped 67%. But profitable alternatives to throwing these valuable resources away have already emerged. Apparel leasing in the U.S. is estimated to reach a market value of $4.4 billion by 2028, while the sale of second-hand clothing is expected to more than double to $51 billion by 2023 according to GlobalData and ThredUp. Companies like The Renewal Workshop operating apparel refurbishment services for brands’ damaged or used goods, enabling brands to sell previously unsellable inventory. Both approaches offer traditional retailers opportunities for additional revenue streams from existing stock, increasing customer touchpoints with individual companies while encouraging long-term brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. This breaks the cycle of waste and helps brands recover the full value of products they’ve already manufactured.

Clothing from The Renewal Workshop

ACCELERATE ADVANCED RECYCLING TECHNOLOGIES TO KEEP EXISTING VALUABLE MATERIALS IN PLAY
After a product’s resale market/value has been exhausted, there is still value to be found. Today’s ‘waste’ stream is rapidly evolving as new types of packaging and textiles enter the market. Most of these new formats and material blends are difficult to recycle after use, and few end markets exist for the materials to profitably remain in the value chain. But game-changing advanced recycling technologies are expanding. These technologies clean or break down mixed plastic packaging and synthetic fibers into their original building blocks so that they can then be reincorporated into manufacturing supply chains without diminished quality. Advanced recycling companies like Evrnu convert textile waste into new, high quality fiber for the creation of new clothing, in partnership with brands and retailers. It is this combination of disruptive technologies and collaboration across the entire value chain that can help eliminate the costs of incineration and landfill disposal, and instead create revenue from recycled materials.

It’s always the right time to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and protect the environment we share. Now is the moment to embed circular principles into core business models and harness these emerging innovations to ensure a more prosperous and sustainable future.

4 Key Drivers Accelerating Resilient and Circular Supply Chains

By Closed Loop Partners

May 13, 2020

COVID-19 has disrupted inertia around the existing linear system, forcing a re-evaluation of the status quo and highlighting the risks of opaque and global supply chains. The timeframe of transformation is unprecedented, happening in months rather than years. The current circumstances emphasize the need for a transition to a more resilient circular economy. This sentiment was echoed in our webinar this month on Trends in Circular Innovations for Resilient Supply Chains.

Panelists from seemingly unrelated fields: fashion, recycling/technology, and logistics identified four themes that resonate across industries, build resiliency to system shocks, like COVID-19, and propel the circular economy forward: transparency, localization, digitization and automation.

Fast Tracking Transparency

The movement towards a circular economy cannot be accomplished by one actor, one company, or even one industry. Therefore, transparency and collaboration are essential. This means data sharing within and across industries and thoughtful collaborations.

Opaque supply chains prohibit stakeholders from understanding where, how and when ingredients or products are sourced, in transit, at a store or where they go after use. Identifying these gaps creates opportunities to reduce waste and increase efficiencies; all foundational elements of a circular economy.

Ocean freight shipping is a USD 115 billion industry with significant environmental impacts. Reports note that shipping accounts for about 3.1% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions annually. Our portfolio company, TradeLanes, is transforming the industry that operates behind the scenes to supply many of our products. They are enhancing transparency by providing an online platform that addresses inefficiencies, digitizing and managing trade execution for bulk shipping of commodities (e.g., meats, grains, paper, plastics).

By digitizing the process, TradeLanes enables greater transparency. Parties are able to ensure timely negotiations, delivery and tracking of products. This reduces unnecessary wastage from mismanaged or spoiled goods and reduces error rates for clients. For exporters still reliant on outdated paper filing systems (a shockingly large proportion of the industry today), COVID-19 is shining a spotlight on how a lack of transparency creates industry-wide problems as critical shipments are delayed, poorly routed or lost amidst the chaos. TradeLanes is just one example of an innovator disrupting an industry through increased transparency in a complex multi-stakeholder process.

From Global to Local

As global supply chains are disrupted and industries experience supply shortages as a result of COVID-19, localization becomes increasingly attractive. By bringing production closer to end markets, supply chains can be more resilient to system shocks. Much like the eat local movement, companies are looking to source, manufacture and produce closer to market. An ancillary benefit includes a reduced product carbon footprint. With mounting pressures for greater ESG disclosures from investors, corporates and the public, among others, more companies are recognizing that localizing their supply chains has multifold benefits.

In the United States, the world’s largest apparel market, 97% of clothing is made abroad. The path of one cotton t-shirt may be thousands of miles, with the cotton grown in India, milled in Mexico and sewn in South Africa. As awareness grows around the carbon footprint and resource intensity of the industry there is a growing movement to lessen the miles traveled. Our portfolio company, The Renewal Workshop, discussed how localization is built into their business model. Their team helps brands repair and resell clothing, keeping materials that would otherwise be landfilled in play. The Renewal Workshop showcased its agile business model as it was able to quickly source local materials and pivot to respond to the demand for gowns and other personal protective equipment during the pandemic. The team is distributing gowns to hospitals in their home state of Oregon, while continuing to provide repair services for their brand partners.

Automating for Efficiencies

Like other themes enabling the circular economy, automation plays an essential role in creating change. AMP Robotics CEO, Mantanya Horowitz, discusses how his company’s AI and robotics system improves the efficiency of materials recovery facilities (MRF). Their robotics system is rapidly learning to identify material types and “picking” them off the conveyor belts. With the adoption of automated recycling systems, facilities increase the accuracy and purity of sorted recyclables, and thereby improve the economics of the industry. Furthermore, when system shocks like COVID-19 span industries and require immediate change, like social distancing, robots give businesses the flexibility to adapt and reorient to new circumstances; in doing so, ensuring their employees health and safety. Automation can also enable staff to dedicate time to the most pressing responsibilities.

Doubling Down on Digital

Transparency, localization and automation could not be possible without the digitization of systems. Digitization closes the gaps in systems by providing accurate and real-time data on the location, availability and condition of materials. With unwavering agreement, our panelists remarked on how systems devoid of digitization are likely to lag in a transition to the circular economy.

As COVID-19 brings the world economy to a sudden and grinding halt, it highlights the existing pain points in our current system. There is no better time to reflect on the fragility of the linear model. Resiliency lies with a transition to the circular economy, an economy that is transparent, local, automated and digital.

Closed Loop Partners Invests in Algramo to Advance Affordable, Reusable Packaging Systems

Already in partnership with brands like Unilever, Algramo’s smart packaging reimagines the future of grocery shopping while eliminating single-use plastic packaging waste.

Contact: [email protected]

October 14 – Closed Loop Partners, a New York based investment firm focused on building the circular economy, announced today its investment in Algramo through its venture capital fund, Closed Loop Ventures (CLV).

Founded in 2012, Algramo is a Chilean based startup solving economic and environmental issues through its vending machines that dispense staple products, like household cleaners and grains “by the gram” to customers.

Jose “Cote” Manuel Moller, Founder and CEO of Algramo, saw first-hand in Santiago, Chile, how those living in low income neighborhoods were penalized by an effective 40% “poverty tax” for purchasing smaller packaged consumer products, unable to afford larger-format products.

“By creating low-cost reusable packaging and reducing the cost of distribution through our vending machines and dispenser system, we dramatically cut costs for customers and allow them to purchase small quantities of products at an affordable price. This benefits brands too who want to sell product, not packaging. Our system easily integrates into local bodegas, large grocery store chains, and can be delivered to a customer’s home through our mobile delivery app.”

Cote, Founder and CEO of Algramo

Awareness around the negative impacts of single-use packaging on human health and the environment is growing too. Packaging is ending up where it shouldn’t; in landfills, our oceans, or even as a contaminant in the recycling system.

“Reusable models like Algramo’s are an important and necessary step in the reduction of single-use plastic packaging. Algramo is a leading innovator showcasing a circular solution to a global waste issue by ensuring that valuable materials are kept in play for multiple uses.”

Danielle Joseph, Executive Director at Closed Loop Partners

Algramo’s smart packaging, equipped with RFID chips, also encourages and accelerates positive consumer behavior change so that individuals can easily and conveniently embrace a reuse revolution. Each time a customer refills their existing container or bottle with product, they earn credit that can be applied to future purchases, equating to an 11.5% discount on their next liter of detergent for example; the more the packaging is used, the more value it accrues.

Algramo already operates in over 2,000 family owned stores that reach over 325,000 end-customers in Santiago de Chile. Their business model has attracted the attention of a number of large brands, including Unilever, which is currently partnering with Algramo to pilot a mobile dispensing system that uses electric tricycles to deliver products to people’s homes via an app. Algramo was selected as a winner of the MIT SOLVE Circular Economy challenge. Algramo is now looking to expand their operations into the U.S. and beyond.

Closed Loop Ventures is leading Algramo’s Series A round. CLV makes early-stage equity investments in sustainable consumer goods companies, advanced recycling technologies, and services related to the circular economy – reducing waste or closing the loop on various materials. To date, CLV has invested in 18 companies spanning a number of sectors: recycling, textiles and apparel, and food and agriculture.

About Closed Loop Partners

Closed Loop Partners is an investment platform that invests in sustainable consumer goods, recycling and the development of the circular economy. Investors include many of the world’s largest consumer goods companies and family offices interested in investments that provide strong financial returns and tangible social impact. Learn more at www.closedlooppartners.com.

About Algramo

Algramo came into existence to solve a problem impacting millions of low-resource families: the poverty tax. This market failure occurs when low-resource families buy products in small formats and pay up to 50% more for products. Algramo solves the poverty tax with a reusable packaging distribution system that enables families to buy the exact quantity of products they need with bulk prices. Algramo is honored to bring together brands, retailers and packaging producers to work towards catalyzing reusable packaging on a globally significant scale to keep packaging in the economy and out of the environment.

LOLIWARE: The Seaweed Straw of the Future

We caught up with Chelsea Briganti, founder and CEO of LOLIWARE, while onboard the National Geographic’s ship, SeaBird, for the first week of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance’s (SOA) Accelerator at Sea this September. LOLIWARE was part of the inaugural cohort of SOA’s ocean-tech focused accelerator in 2018.

Chelsea Briganti, Founder & CEO of Loliware

LOLIWARE is a Closed Loop Ventures’ portfolio company that is pioneering biomaterials derived from seaweed to replace plastics; healing the planet by making single-use plastics obsolete.

Born in Hawaii, Chelsea grew up feeling a strong connection to the ocean, where she was baptized, nourished, and calmed by the waves throughout her childhood. This, along with her industrial design background and desire to use her skills to create a better planet, have helped propel LOLIWARE forward. The company is now working with several Fortune 500 companies and partnering with Marriott and Pernod Ricard to disseminate millions of plastic-free straws.

We sat down with Chelsea to catch up on the latest news. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

With the help of a team of material scientists, food technologists, seaweed biologists, and biopolymerists, LOLIWARE wants to replace the 360 billion plastic straws used globally every year. How far along on this journey are you?

We’re currently underway with a massive scaling effort. This is where most startups completely drop the ball. They have a great idea, it could be world-changing, but they struggle to take it from the lab to mass scale.

Fortunately, I learned a lot from our initial work at LOLIWARE on the cup. We were creating a cup that you could eat rather than throw away. It was an interesting idea and helped put us on the map, but we dropped the ball on the manufacturing side. I learned that LOLIWARE’s strength and core competency, our real sizzle as a company, is our material technology and innovation pipeline, it’s not that we’re manufacturing geniuses.

What we are is a leading materials innovation technology company. This means that we continue to pioneer biomaterials derived from seaweed to replace plastics at scale. We’re doing this by inventing new materials and inventing the process to scale these new materials. We can then take these two blueprints to a plastic manufacturer, for example, and license them. Plastic manufacturers will be dinosaurs unless they evolve with current regulatory and market forces. There are tons of bans on plastics and millennials don’t want plastic anymore. We’re pitching a new technology to help manufacturers evolve with the times.

LOLIWARE’s straw feels just like a traditional plastic straw, but it’s 100% plant-based, hyper-compostable, and marine degradable. What’s the significance of seaweed in your mission to heal the ocean?

The reason seaweed is so special is because it sequesters carbon as it grows and has a fast, renewable lifecycle of four to six weeks. What comprises the seaweed is cellulose, naturally occurring polymers, and proteins. All of these represent opportunity. They can be used for other packaging innovations, for example, you can create a SeaPulp™ by extracting cellulose from seaweed. This can be formed into any shape, with the added benefit of avoiding any health issues associated to PFAs.

When you look at our competition, the only consequential one is paper. You’ve got tons of fiber companies on the scene and China has said that their solution to plastic is paper. But, you’re going to start seeing backlash against paper. In some cases, paper has a worse carbon footprint than plastic because of its inputs: Trees have a long lifecycle and often you have to transport them thousands of miles for processing. We are tree-free and rainforest-free, believing that these precious carbon sinks should remain intact versus be used for packaging.

Seaweed is definitely part of the future of replacing plastic. All of our seaweed is sustainably sourced. Our supplier in Europe harvests it in accordance with strict regulations. Right now, less than 1% of it is harvested and, in turn, LOLIWARE only uses a fraction of that.

LOLIWARE has already built a strong and recognizable brand, appealing to consumers who want to avoid plastics, toxins, and GMO products, among other things. How important has branding been for growth?

You have to have a killer technology, but you also have to have a killer brand, especially given the current climate. I got a lot of push back from early-on investors in LOLIWARE. They felt like we were wasting time, asking “Why do you even have a social media presence?” But I always knew they were wrong. We’re B2B2C and we’re a movement to go plastic-free. We’re also a technology to replace plastic. Both of these things come together. That’s the secret sauce. There is no brand of paper straws or corn-based plastics that people identify with, yet people connect with LOLIWARE. It’s important to be clever, to be fun, and to have beauty in sustainability when it comes to branding.

We also really focus on being a women-empowered brand. For the longest time, women’s inventions have been sitting on the sideline – underfunded and underdeveloped. Yet, women have a lot of buying power and care about sustainability. Now is the time to rally them. We need more women in leadership to solve the problems of the ocean and the planet.

And lastly, we can’t ignore the incredible natural environment we’re in right now as we head toward Sitca, Alaska. How do natural backdrops like this help to inspire your work?

When you’re an entrepreneur you can easily sequester yourself in the office and become hermetic. For me, I’m inspired by nature’s vast expanse. I love how Charles Eisenstein expresses the importance of being in places where the dream of the planet still lives. You definitely feel that here. It’s the dream of the planet, a pristine natural environment. You get the visceral sense that you are on the planet versus in a manmade landscape like New York City. Too often we’re in landscapes where everything is made by us and we can quickly become disconnected from the natural world. It’s important to be able to take the mental image of the dream of the planet back to your work. It’s what we’re trying to protect or even recreate in places where the dream of the planet is dead or dying.