
Grant Recipients
Meet our Gretas


WelKiv
Arpit Gupta
WelKiv
WelKiv
"I was working in my lab. Fortunately/Unfortunately I Discover The Packaging from Kitchen Waste. This is how it started and further on it went with other raw materials as well. "
"From my innovation Perspective, we just want all Crop waste to be utilized. it should not be burnt in any manner. "
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Vertical & Micro Gardening
Paul Matovu
Vertical & Micro Gardening
Vertical & Micro Gardening
The Vertical Farm presents an opportunity for urban communities to adapt to climate change by ensuring all-year-round food production. We envision a future where communities are given the power to grow their own food. Additionally, vermicomposting will be crucial in helping developing cities to reduce their methane emissions.
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Clauseph Enterprises
Granny Lesiamang
Clauseph Enterprises
Clauseph Enterprises
During lockdowns, I enrolled in an ALX entrepreneurship program called Build. It taught of the minimum viable product and not overcomplicating innovation. At the same time, I was exposed to the founder’s speech where he urged us to do hard things and that it’s our responsibility as educated Africans to solve Africa’s problems. I knew from the situation at home, where heating energy costs as well as food costs were high to bear that I had to employ an innovation using my background in engineering and economics to solve my family and other families' pain points. I knew that the first issue to address was heating energy and cooking fuel as that cost was higher than most and we would supplement by using firewood. I knew whatever undertaking had to be environmentally friendly and sustainable over the long term. I follow a blog, “How we made it in Africa” and I saw articles of young Africans in the East and West using agro waste to make a clean solid biomass fuel suitable for household and business use. I decided to try the same thing using agro-waste common to my country which ultimately led to me using bush trees as the agro-waste route was unsustainable. I foresee a future where Batswana and Africans have largely reduced our carbon footprint and the most immediate way to do that is through addressing cooking and heating energy as this is where most people still use unclean and environmentally degrading sources.
"I foresee a future where most use and prefer clean solid biomass fuel, and the usage of existing alternatives, which are not only clean but also less expensive"
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Mars Materials
Aaron Fitzgerald
Mars Materials
Mars Materials
Aaron led commercialization and productization efforts at Kairos Aerospace, a fast-growing climate change combating startup that leverages proprietary remote sensing technologies. He has also written national policy to help improve the financial lives of our senior citizens, and helps organize a 70,000 person annual event.
Mars Materials (Mars) aims to sequester captured carbon dioxide into everyday products such as affordable carbon fiber, an advanced material used in hundreds of products — from textiles to electronics. Changing how humanity creates and uses these advanced materials can turn carbon-intensive materials into carbon sinks. As a Public Benefit Corporation, we’re guided by our mission to use market-driven approaches to commercialize technologies capable of removing and sequestering greenhouse gases.
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Perennial
Mike Myhrom
Perennial
Perennial
Mike generates new customers and revenue for businesses and NGOs working for a more beautiful and sustainable world. He acheives this by helping them identify, understand, and connect with their highest-potential markets. Currently he helps a national bipartisan climate NGO get new supporters and donations, and help several sustainable investment groups grow their client-bases.
Perennial helps build audiences for sustainability based organizations. Many climate organizations do not have the capacity to do targeted advertisements to help grow their following, enter Perennial. Each new person that joins the climate change movement through the work of Perennial brings us one step closer to a "tipping point" where there are enough people engaged to truly make a planet saving impact.
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Artistic Apothecary
Kuwa Jasiri Indomela
Artistic Apothecary
Artistic Apothecary
Artistic Apothecary are establishing three community gardens as land trusts to be collectively owned and utilized. The land trust model is a means of re-wilding the planet and promoting the health of these spaces, in addition to the heath of the people. Our Zero Waste Community Gardens and remediation programs remedy the root issues in our community creating greenways, pollinator habitat, Nature corridors, fertile soil, clean air, and play space.
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Alga Biosciences
Alex Brown
Alga Biosciences
Alga Biosciences
Alex studied life sciences and economics in undergrad, but worked as a Chief of Staff at a software company until he couldn’t stop thinking about how annoying it was that nobody had solved the problem of cow burps yet.
Alex, Daria, and Caroline co-founded Alga Biosciences to reduce greenhouse gas emissions using one of the most scalable resources on the planet: algae. They chemically modify kelp to create a feed additive for cattle that stops them from producing methane. This makes the cow more efficient, saving the farmer 20% on feed costs while also reducing livestock emissions by 90%. After receiving a grant from 1000 Gretas, Alex, Daria, and Caroline continued to develop their idea and were recently selected by the prestigious startup accelerator, Y-combinator as part of its 2022 class.
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Simple Switch
Rachel Kois
Simple Switch
Simple Switch
Rachel is the founder of SimpleSwitch.org, she am passionate about using business as a force for good, and shifting the culture around online shopping. Professional and personal collaborations are her favorite, and new adventures are important to her.
Simple Switch is making thousands of ethical and impactful products available in one place while telling engaging stories of the brands they sell and their world changing work. Simple Switch makes ethical shopping a genuine competitor against big box brands with no commitment to environmental or human impact.
We have the power to make change without changing much, it will just take a Simple Switch! The money we are already spending online can solve incredibly large and complex global problems, including the climate crisis, if redirected to companies who care.
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Philafeed
Maya Zaken
Philafeed
Philafeed
The future that we are helping to create is one where food waste is no longer seen as a problem, but as a solution. Through our innovative approach to food production and waste management, we are reimagining the way we produce and consume food. By turning food waste into a valuable resource and creating a closed-loop system, we are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, conserving resources, and protecting biodiversity.
"By recognizing our interconnectedness with nature and embracing circular practices, we can not only mitigate the negative impacts of the food system on our planet but also create a more sustainable food system that nourishes both people and the earth. "
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Sustainable Farming Solutions
Tonthoza Uganja
Sustainable Farming Solutions
Sustainable Farming Solutions
I grew up in a smallholder farming family and our family home was always surrounded by trees because my grandfather emphasized their role in the world, we lived in. I developed a passion for Forestry to the extent I chose to study it developing my career as a Forestry practitioner. Working with smallholder farmers for over ten years I got to experience firsthand how difficult it is for rural farmers with marginally poor livelihoods to create sustainable small-holder farms that are resilient enough in this changing climate. I yearned to influence communities and productive small-scale land management systems in a way that empowers rural communities to own the solutions themselves.
SFS was born out of the idea that each community can be empowered to be self-sustaining and grow to a level where they can provide for others and not just themselves while healing their ecosystems with the right professional expertise. Land conversion for agriculture is one of Malawi's most significant drivers of deforestation. Being an agro-based economy with 85% of the population relying on agriculture, the problem only intensifies. Market pressures force farmers in Malawi to intensify agriculture and focus on short-term investment returns, leading to land degradation. With degraded soils, farmers are forced to supplement their farming income through over-exploitation of natural resources, adversely affecting the environment, reducing their productivity, and consequently affecting their livelihoods. What we picture for the future as SFS starts with us impacting one community at a time towards small, consistent incremental changes that will lead small-holder farming communities in Sub-Saharan Africa to self-sustaining ones that are restoring their landscapes, maintaining them, and producing off of the landscapes in a way that does not adversely undo or undermine the ecosystems that they vastly depend on.
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Mawejje Creations
Dimma M. Mawejje
Mawejje Creations
Mawejje Creations
Dimma is the leader of Mawejje Creations, a social business that empowers banana farmers and inspires youth in the fashion industry in Uganda and across Africa.
Young African Leaders Award Finalist 2019
Visionary Leader Award Nominee 2019
Most Outstanding YALI Network member 2018 Ugandan Chapter
Mawejje Creations is a social enterprise that empowers banana farmers to produce good quality banana fiber and supports youth to revolutionize the fashion industry in Uganda and potentially across Africa.
Our state-of-the-art Banana fiber Center is a one-stop center that empowers the banana fiber production process and supports the banana fiber processing and product marketing processes.
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DirtSat
Christine Tiballi
DirtSat
DirtSat
Currently building DirtSat, a marketplace for commercial property owners to evaluate, finance, and build urban rooftop farms across their portfolios. We provide crop health and microclimate monitoring, ensuring quantitative and actionable feedback on every rooftop, including integration into building decarbonization plans and ESG reporting.
DirtSat looks at ways space resources can have profound impacts on some of our planet's biggest challenges. We are decarbonizing commercial buildings with an IoT-enabled network of urban rooftop farms, reframing urban food production pathways and climate resilience impacts for smart cities.
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ClimateRaise
Hannah Davis
ClimateRaise
ClimateRaise
Hannah's passion and work are at the intersection of climate, community, and supporting women. She is the co-founder of ClimateRaise, a volunteer-led organization that connects active investors with the leading women-led climate tech startups. Previously she was the Program Director for Techstars Sustainability Accelerator in partnership with the Nature Conservancy based in CO.
This group of women entrepreneurs and investors finds and promotes great women-led climate startups. Inspiration for ClimateRaise came when investors told them that they “couldn’t find any women entrepreneurs” and the ClimateRaise co-founders immediately came back with an initial list of 80 women. That idea turned into the ClimateRaise newsletter where they provide an ongoing list of vetted women-led companies open to investment opportunities. Now they work to curate their list of women entrepreneurs, promote them, and also to provide introductions that can bring these startups to life.
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ReKaivery
Audrey Welsh
ReKaivery
ReKaivery
Audrey is an impact-driven entrepreneur with a passion for the triple bottom line - People, Planet, Profit. As an individual, she is a rethinker and can be found always questioning systems around me and seeing if there could be another solution in place.
ReKaivery is creating carbon-neutral food hubs inside renovated, solar powered shipping containers. The food hubs bring the benefits of farmers markets' with the convenience of a grocery store. ReKaivery's kickstarter was a smashing success. 137 backers and $21,217 raised in 38 days. That money will allow them to build their first food hub in Fort Collins. Our team was impressed with their well-researched, community-informed, systems approach to supporting local food systems. Sign up for their newsletter to stay involved.
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Latimer Controls
Simon Julien
Latimer Controls
Latimer Controls
Simon uses his expertise in Power Systems Modeling, Control Systems Engineering, Data Science, and Software Development to develop technical solutions that reduce our carbon footprint associated with generation, storage, and energy consumption at Latimer Controls. Simon is extremely focused on seeing his innovation all the way through from early-stage technical R&D to real-world buy-in of an existing product with a naturally scalable solution.
Latimer Controls is a software-based solution that gives large solar power producers the control ability to ramp up and down their power production while mitigating the unpredictability of changing cloud coverage. Having the ability to mimic coal and natural gas plants by ramping reliable generation on command, with or without battery storage technology, is the one of the final stages of developing a 100% renewable power grid. This will result in clean electricity from our power grid and a huge reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
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Weye Clean Energy
Kakembo Brian
Weye Clean Energy
Weye Clean Energy
Kakembo is the Founder & Executive Director of WEYE Clean Energy Company Ltd .
Forbes Africa 30Under30 class of 2021
Commonwealth Young Person of the Year Awardee 2020
Greenprenuers Achievement Award Winner 2018
Kakembo's WEYE produces charcoal briquettes that emit less CO than traditional cooking fuels while also preventing the deforestation of Uganda's woodlands.
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NanoCrete
Shaun Lane
NanoCrete
NanoCrete
I had spent the last 7 years as an independent insurance broker having witnessed firsthand the increase in the number of weather-related claims being filed, the dollars paid on those claims rising, and the general apathy of insurance companies towards incentivizing positive solutions towards reducing those risks, helped me galvanize the idea that the time to act is now, and the space to act is in building materials, specifically concrete because its production accounts for 8% of annual global emissions. I had also been following the graphene industry since ~2010 and have been very interested in its growing applications, and when I read that researchers had developed a way to produce graphene from waste plastics at low energy levels compared to traditional methods in 2020, the entire ecosystem of graphene production and implementation into concrete as a cementitious material was made clear in my mind.
The future we envision is to reduce the carbon emissions cost of concrete and cement production by 2/3, with our company goal being to sequester 10M tons of carbon via graphene into concrete by 2030.
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Shop Organix
Mariam Drammeh
Shop Organix
Shop Organix
My interest in the climate change sector spurred from my experiences working in non-governmental organizations focused on improving waste management and recycling across Africa and Asia and supporting innovation and improved livelihoods through waste reduction initiatives. I worked with communities and policymakers to implement our programs on improving public health, reducing pollution, and promoting a circular economy in The Gambia through sustainable waste and recycling practices while supporting livelihoods and innovation that can contribute to the national green recovery strategy.
I foresee a clean environment for the Gambian community, free of waste, reusing and recycling of valuable waste; and sustainable income streams for youth. Existence of sustainable farming methods by utilization and adaptation of organic compost as opposed to chemical fertilizers which are harmful to the farmers (especially women) and the consumers.
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ClimRenew
Naphtali Obed Akudung
ClimRenew
ClimRenew
An entrepreneur, passionate about solving environmental and energy-related challenges, SDG7 (affordable and clean energy) and SDG13 (climate change) through research, consulting and activism.
CrowdSolve Entreprenuer in Residence
Watson Scholar
NUTM Scholar
In a world where there is a constant demand for energy, food security and the need to stay healthy, prioritizing sustainable action becomes inevitable in achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Climrenew creates awareness of climate change and provides consultancy services on renewable energy, plastic waste pollution, and sustainable agriculture while helping small-business owners build sustainable products.
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FrontLine Farming
Fatuma Emmad
FrontLine Farming
FrontLine Farming
Fatuma Emmad is the CO-Founder, Executive Director and Head Farmer of FrontLine Farming. She is a lecturer in the Masters for Environmental Studies Program at CU Boulder. Before becoming a farmer, Fatuma was a political scientist who engaged in issues affecting farming communities such as the push for genetically modified seeds across Southern and Eastern Africa.
This group of leaders is on the front line of saving our planet by mitigating climate change through regenerative agriculture practices. With a focus on leadership and access for women and people of color, Front Line Farming has several key areas of impact including creating community, food access, education, and policy initiatives. All while employing and providing education on regenerative agriculture practices, including carbon sequestration, water conservation, terracing, and cover crops.
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Clean Earth Rovers
Michael Arens
Clean Earth Rovers
Clean Earth Rovers
Michael Arens started Clean Earth Rovers in 2019 after two years of work and development on The Plastics Piranha to pursue his dreams of building a cleaner, more sustainable, tomorrow for himself and for generations to come. Ocean Plastic is one of the biggest issues we face as a society and Micahel believes that using sustainable and autonomous technology will be the key to fighting the ocean plastic crisis.
At Clean Earth Rovers we have this call to action of "creating a better future for generations to come" I think at a large scale this means creating cleaner healthier waterways that can continue to be powerhouse sources of Carbon absorbers. With marine debris and Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) much of the ocean's ability to house healthy ecosystems is at stake. With our technology we envision clean water free of human waste, both litter and runoff. We also envision booming ecosystems restored to their health benefiting fisheries, biodiversity, and the oceans ability to help us in carbon caption.
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Ribbit Network
Keenan Johnson
Ribbit Network
Ribbit Network
Keenan started his career building rockets in aerospace (SpaceX) but pivoted to climate through founding the climate non-profit Ribbit Network. See my story at https://bio.link/klj
Ribbit Network is a non-profit organization creating the world's largest dataset of real-time greenhouse gas (GHG) observations. Our open-source, low-cost, CO2 sensors upload their observation data to the cloud in real-time. Anyone can access that data and make informed decisions on their climate actions. These observations will allow people everywhere to monitor CO2 concentrations, locate emission sources, and hold corporate, government, and individuals accountable for their efforts to reduce GHG emissions.
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Unlikely Farms
Trevor Tuck
Unlikely Farms
Unlikely Farms
Trevor is passionate about fostering community, growing together, and working towards common goals. He's a practical, value-driven strategic customer success and product expert with 5+ years of experience developing innovative products and building meaningful client relationships.
We deliver microgreens to Boulder and Denver, Colorado residents, retailers, and restaurants. Our farm approach is regenerative and organic. Our local community receives microgreens sown with organic seed in organic soil, all happening within an indoor greenhouse using energy-efficient lights powered by the wind.
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