ReefCycle

Climate resiliency requires durable materials that heal nature, rather than deplete it. Thank you What Design Can Do for sharing the story behind the ReefCycle design!

How can communities create a zero-carbon world and adapt to a warmer climate? 🌏The climate crisis requires dramatic action from all stakeholders, and a zero-carbon world will require both new technologies and equitable approaches to deployment. That’s why MIT Solve launched the 2024 Global Climate Challenge. ReefCycle has been chosen as a finalist! Over $1M in prize funding is available to the most promising solutions. 🗽 If ReefCycle is selected as one of the top six climate solutions, we will be headed to New York City on September 23 for Solve Challenge Finals to meet the other selected teams and network with social impact leaders from around the world!  https://bit.ly/4cZNYjx #SolveChallenges2024 #SocialImpact #ClimateAction 

Resilience is the New Green: Unlocking Massive Value in Climate Adaptation A $1 trillion annual opportunity is emerging in climate adaptation. Here's why it matters for your business: 1. Audit your product line for adaptation potential. Could your solar panels double as cooling systems? 2. Partner with climate risk data companies to enhance your offerings. This could open up entirely new markets. 3. Explore opportunities in infrastructure resilience and extreme weather protection. These sectors are poised for explosive growth. 4. Develop dual-purpose products that both mitigate emissions and increase resilience. This is where the real innovation lies. 5. Look for IRA incentives that could apply to adaptation projects. There's often overlap we're not fully leveraging. The adaptation tech sector is still small - only about 300 startups compared to 10,000+ in mitigation. But experts predict a 20-fold increase in funding over the next decade. Are you positioned to capture this growth? ReefCycle's biocement technology for oyster and coral reef restoration shows how adaptation solutions can create entirely new markets while addressing critical environmental needs. One challenge we need to address: How can we ensure adaptation efforts don't come at the cost of emissions reduction? The most successful companies will find ways to do both. #ClimateAdaptation #CleanTech #Resilience #InnovationOpportunity #CleanEnergy

We're thrilled to join the Biomimicry Institute's 2024 Ray of Hope Accelerator Cohort! As participants, we'll receive financial backing and join a community of high-impact, nature-inspired tech startups: tackling ecological and social challenges from raw material sourcing, to energy storage, to advanced materials. At ReefCycle, we're scaling solutions from nature to grow durable biomaterials. This program will help us accelerate our biomimetic technology towards a future where construction material is grown, not mined. Follow along for updates as we embark on our nature-nurturing journey! #plantpower #biocement #rayofhopeaccelerator #biomimicry

Interested in regenerative design? We're thrilled to participate in Planted Community's Bio-Spaces exhibition at the Roca London Gallery. Stop by to learn more the role of nature-based design in building regenerative, resilient futures.

Our team visited the What Design Can Do offices in Amsterdam last week to kick off the ReDesign Everything Challenge. What an honor to meet the other creative entrepreneurs participating in the accelerator and to share our creative climate solution on the WDCD Live stage. Thank you Tugce Akbulut, Paula Robitsch, Pepijn Zurburg, Xander Straat, IKEA Foundation and the rest of the WDCD team for organizing the event, which included a design take-over of Amsterdam's iconic Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. We're thrilled to be joining this international cohort of adaptive, circular, and regenerative climate solutions! Looop Can, @germinatorium, Cellsense, ForestGuard, Architecture for Dialogue, Polybion, namita bhatnagar, Carla Rotenberg Taboada, SECRID Stay tuned as we accelerate our solutions through the transformative, disruptive, and healing power of design.

🌟 Exciting News! 🌟 We are thrilled to share an incredible milestone in our journey towards a climate resilient NYC coastline! In collaboration with our amazing partners at Billion Oyster Project and OpenIDEO, we retrieved bio-concrete samples from the New York Harbor that have successfully recruited wild oysters. 🌊🦪 This breakthrough signifies two major achievements: Healthy Marine Ecosystem: The presence of these wild oysters highlights the remarkable progress in the health of the harbor's ecosystem, thanks to the efforts of the Billion Oyster Project with volunteer citizen scientists in NYC. Success of Bio-Cement: Our bio-concrete has not only attracted oyster larvae but also withstood the harsh harbor environment for over a year, proving its durability and effectiveness. We are beyond excited about what this study means for the future of clean materials and low-emission coastal restoration. Below are pictures showcasing wild baby oysters attached and growing on Reef Cycle's bio-concrete samples. The white material you see around the shells is "spat," a natural glue produced by oysters to grow their reefs and shells. Our bio-concrete leverages enzymes to mimic this durable material, creating bio-compatible and resilient marine construction materials that can fortify our coastlines for generations to come. Together, we're building a brighter, more sustainable future for our coastlines! 🌍💚 #ClimateResiliency #MarineRestoration #PlantPower #ReefCycle #BillionOysterProject #CleanMaterials #BioConcrete #CoastalRestoration

🌊🌍 To celebrate #WorldOceansDay, we're shining a spotlight on the mighty oyster and the incredible efforts of our partners at the Billion Oyster Project in restoring oyster populations to New York Harbor. Once among the world’s most diverse and dynamic ecosystems, New York Harbor was home to 220,000 acres of oyster reefs. These oysters played a crucial role in filtering water, improving biodiversity, and absorbing wave energy, functioning as a natural storm barrier. Today, the nonprofit Billion Oyster Project is working with communities across the five boroughs to restore one billion oysters to New York Harbor by 2035. In collaboration with them, we’re testing ReefCycle’s enzymatically-grown cement reef restoration modules in New York Harbor to enhance climate resiliency efforts. Last summer, we retrieved samples and prototypes from the Red Hook and Governors Island waterfronts to count the oyster larvae that successfully attached to ReefCycle’s bio-cement. Now, these nature-grown and bio-active structures are submerged underwater, providing a habitat for oysters and other marine life. Join us in supporting this vital initiative and celebrating the power of oysters in protecting our oceans! 🌊🦪 #OysterRestoration #ClimateResilience #BillionOysterProject

A huge shoutout to my good friend Mary Lempres for her amazing work at ReefCycle. I am truly in awe of her creativity and passion for solving some of the most complex environmental challenges we face (and will continue to face). ReefCycle is revolutionizing the building material industry with its low carbon biocement, tackling a traditionally hard-to-abate sector that is responsible for 8% of carbon emissions worldwide. Their first deployment, ReefRocket, in partnership with the Billion Oyster Project demonstrates what is possible through community-based environmental interventions and co-design. Here, modular artificial reef structures have been piloted in the NY Harbor, demonstrating the application and durability of Reefcycle's biocement in the harshest of environments. The possibilities with this technology are endless from enabling climate resilience to carbon sequestration. I am so excited to follow along in their journey with What Design Can Do and beyond. #climateresilience #biocement #builtenvironment

How might we empower frontline communities to prevent, prepare for and recover from the most urgent climate-related disasters; such as, wildfires, floods and extreme weather? Our application of ReefCycle's #plantpowered cement as Reef Rocket, a reef restoration module designed with Billion Oyster Project, was named a Climate Resiliency Solution by IDEO and AAA. Read more about how our low emissions cement is empowering climate resilience against coastal natural hazards. #reefrocket #moonshot