With climate change becoming an even bigger issue, tech companies are actively helping to make the world more eco-friendly. In this blog, we discuss a handful of our favourite UK-based tech companies that are tackling climate change.
Over the years, human activity has been changing the Earth's climate. So much so, that some of the changes are now inevitable and "irreversible" according to climate scientists. The most recent assessment from the U.N's Climate Change Report (IPCC) has labelled the current crisis as a 'code red for humanity'.
With some of the changes already happening to the Earth, such as rising sea levels, warming oceans, and wild fires within the next two decades, temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5C, which is going to bring even more widespread devastation and extreme weather changes.
"This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet. If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But, as the report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses." - António Guterres, UN secretary general.
It's easy to start feeling pessimistic about the future of our planet, however there's hope when it comes to making these changes yourself, which is something we all need to do. Within the tech industry, there are plenty of companies ready to pave the way when it comes down to tackling global warming, so we decided to have a look at some of our favourite businesses that deserve the recognition for taking the next step in helping our planet - here's what we found.
Zeigo is a London-based technology company founded in 2018 by Juan Pablo Cerda. Juan Pablo believes in disrupting corporate procurement of renewable energy to accelerate the green revolution and to also contribute towards a sustainable future.
Zeigo is a climate-tech platform allowing businesses to quickly, easily, and cost effectively source impactful energy. Zeigo uses smart technology to help companies find the best zero-carbon match for their energy consumption profile. Their services include aggregation, access to comprehensive data reports, a tendering tool, a Machine Learning-powered marketplace, and also the ability to manage energy portfolios globally - in turn accelerating each organisations' ability to meet carbon mitigation and clean energy targets.
"The more companies that adopt truly clean power and realise the difference and impact between buying offsets or certificates from directly buying energy from wind or solar farms, the quicker the transition towards a clean global energy grid will be. Therefor convincing companies to switch to clean energy and facilitating the process will play a crucial part for future adoption." - Juan Pablo Cerda.
Greyparrot is a company that focuses on improving and automating the recycling process by enabling waste composition analysis and sorting different waste types. Founded back in 2019 by Ambarish Mitra, Marco Paladini, Mikela Druckman and Nikola Sivacki.
Greyparrot's recycling recognition API allows identification of different types of waste. They combine advances in deep learning to help solve complex visual tasks along with the decline in costs of robotics, which allows further automation that's economically viable - making waste sorting a lot more intelligent than any other.
They launched their first waste API prototype, based on self-acquired and labelled data. They then developed a deep learning model, which had the ability to recognise the difference between cans, plastics (PET, clear bottles, milk bottles and even black plastic), cardboard, card, newspaper and also magazines with more categories constantly added to the list. They've also managed to integrate their API into robotics in partnership with Middlesex University for the following demo and established pilot partnership with Egbert Taylor in the UK and also ACI in South Korea.
"Waste is not only a massive market - it builds up to a global crisis. Greyparrot's solution has proven to bring down recycling costs and help plants recover more waste. Ultimately it unlocks the value of waste and creates a measurable impact for the environment." - Marie-Hélène Ametsreiter, Lead Partner at Speedinvest Industry.
Supercritical was founded just recently in 2021 by Michelle You and Aaron Randall. Supercritical is a software platform that helps towards fighting against the current climate crisis by helping other businesses get to net zero. The technology makes it easier for companies to understand their current climate impact and purchase high-quality carbon removal offsets.
Michelle You and Aaron Randall decided to start Supercritical as they wanted to build a better and sustainable future for their young children - with plans of helping the planet achieve net zero by 2050.
The company's consumer-grade software allows you to have the ability to measure, reduce and offset your climate impact in a matter of weeks - without the need for a sustainability team. It does this by creating an actionable plan for reducing carbon emissions and also by recommending high quality carbon removal offsets for their clients to purchase.
Supercritical only sells carbon removal offsets as they believe this is the only legitimate route to head towards a net zero future. They offer a selection of carbon removal options; including tree planting, biochar enhanced weathering, bio-oil sequestration, and direct air capture.
"Our mission is to make it possible for any business to start the journey to net zero. Climate action can't just be the reserve of the world's biggest companies, and this is a crisis that can't wait." Founder, Michelle You.
elmo was founded in early 2020 by Oliver Jones and Luke Gavin. Their aim was to help the transition to a smarter and more sustainable transport sector by accelerating mass adoption of electric vehicles and they believe that everyone should be able to benefit from new technology but without harming the planet at the same time.
With transport making up 26% of all UK carbon emissions, switching to electric cars is vital in meeting the climate change targets. elmo's platform is designed to remove the cost and complexity while making the change to an electric vehicle.
The platform allows their users to subscribe to an electric car on a flexible and monthly contract. The subscription bundle is all-inclusive with insurance, tax, maintenance, MOT, breakdown cover, public charging, home charge point and even home energy - this all being included in the monthly payment.
This has made elmo the world's first platform to offer 'total cost of ownership' car subscriptions. Users will have no other expenses for their car outside of the single payment that they make to elmo every month.
"We make going electric quick, easy and affordable. By switching, you can join us in taking a big step to becoming part of that solution and to leaving the planet in a better state than when you arrived." - elmo.
Here at Talented Recruitment Group, we couldn't agree more with the changes that need to be made to help towards climate change and we will be doing what we can to personally make a difference.
After looking into all the UK tech companies that are paving the way for the future of the planet, it's clear to see that we have some other incredible companies and startup's such as; Naked Energy, founded by Christophe Williams, Project Etopia, founded by Joseph Michael Daniels, OLIO, co-founded by Tessa Clarke & Saasha Celestial-One, and many more!
We hope to see a continued positive impact to our planet as the years go on and actively praise those who are already paving the way in the fight against global warming.