Companies bring climate innovation to the heart of Boston for Climate Tech on The Plaza event

Across City Hall Plaza on July 17, climate technology companies scattered under white tents to show off the technology that they hope will make a dent in the ongoing climate crisis.

About 40 companies used their time at Climate Tech on The Plaza to network, exchange information and demonstrate what their technology can do. Some of the companies were just beginning their journeys while others like Schnieder Electric, one of the event’s sponsors, have operations worldwide.

For companies of color present, many of whom are just starting out and looking to grow their reach or expand funding sources, the event on City Hall Plaza was an important opportunity to get more eyes on what they’re offering.

Beth Griffith, a founding worker member of the Boston Community Solar Cooperative, chats with an attendee at the Climate Tech on The Plaza on July 24. The Cooperative is launching a community-owned community solar program with an array on top of the Dorchester Food Co-op, with hopes of launching more projects as well. BANNER PHOTO

Beth Griffith, a founding worker member at the Boston Community Solar Cooperative, said the event was a good opportunity to meet both community members and potential subscribers as well as other companies they could partner with.

“We’re really excited about the exposure, and also being able to talk with and potentially collaborate with other firms here. So that’s a really great experience that we’re having so far.”

The Cooperative is running an effort to install a solar array on the roof of the Dorchester Food Co-op to operate a local community solar program that would connect residents to the benefits of solar energy even if they can’t install panels on their own roof. In the future, they hope to launch other local arrays for further energy generation.

Lina González, founder and CEO of SpadXTech, said the event was an important opportunity to get more eyes on her company and the products they’re making. The company uses microbes to create a kind of cellulose-based material that mimics leather without having to raise cows — and the potential environmental impacts of the livestock industry — or the plastics that leather alternatives often employ.

“It means a lot, it means we’re getting some visibility, it means that people are getting to know us,” she said.

For Diana Yousef, founder and leader of change:WATER labs, was excited to get the opportunity to meet with community members and find increased support for change. Yousef used her education in biochemistry and the roots from her Egyptian immigrant parents to develop a portable toilet to evaporate the water from sewage, shrinking waste without the need for water or plumbing, a technology she hopes will help address poor sanitation worldwide.

The event on City Hall Plaza also, unofficially, served as a celebration of the steps the state has taken in supporting climate technology development, efforts that Mayor Michelle Wu said are important on multiple levels, given a “very limited window” to take action.

“This is going to be the arena where our future is fought for,” she said. “What does it mean to be that leader in climate resiliency, climate tech and innovation? It is saving lives. It is being the healthiest, most welcoming community that we can be.”

Lina González, founder and CEO of SpadXTech speaks with visitors at her booth at the Climate Tech on The Plaza event outside City Hall July 24. González’s company uses microbes to create cellulose-based alternatives to animal or plastic leathers. BANNER PHOTO

That work has included a focus on the way climate equity overlaps with job equity.

“This is not only about creating lots of jobs for people who have all kinds of backgrounds and having all these great companies start here and expand here, it’s also about doing the right thing,” said state Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao. “This is the existential crisis of our time. And we always led in Massachusetts and in our city by helping make the world a better place.”

Joe Curtatone, whose organization, the Northeast Clean Energy Council works with and supports climate technology companies across the region, called Boston a hub of climate tech investment, highlighting as an example the 40 companies gathered on City Hall Plaza.

“They [the sampling of companies] speak to the ecosystem that is supported by the Healey-Driscoll administration, Secretary Hao, MassCEC and the Wu administration in Boston. That’s big because we can have a big role in the wealth that’s going to be created over the next decade plus in Boston and Massachusetts.”

Wu’s time as mayor has been marked by climate efforts, often at the overlap between environmental issues and other areas of work, like, in 2022, launching Boston’s PowerCorps — a green industry workforce development program which focuses on areas like urban forestry and building operations — and pushing efforts to make affordable and public housing greener.

“For us, climate is about jobs; climate is about health and wellbeing. It is exactly in line with what the legacy and history of Boston and Massachusetts have always been,” Wu said. “This is the place where people come to do the big things that change the world.” Wu said.

Companies at the event said that support has been key to getting them to where they are. Yousef said that the ecosystem in Massachusetts, including its educational institutions, has made change:WATER labs possible.

“It has been a long haul to go from idea to validated product, but I don’t think it would have been possible anywhere else” said Yousef, who incorporated her company in 2015, but first came up with the idea in 2009, while consulting for NASA on how to recycle water.

Griffith said she feels lucky to be doing work with the solar cooperative in Massachusetts, and in Boston specifically, saying she thinks the state gets an “A grade” when it comes to renewable energy.

“[Boston is] really taking it seriously and really mobilizing, especially with something as complicated as the Inflation Reduction Act,” she said. That federal legislation, passed in summer 2022, introduced a range of tax credits and incentives for expanding green energy resources.

For González, an event like the one at City Hall Plaza is a significant show of support.

“We’re grown here, right in Massachusetts, and the fact that the government, the city, is supporting us means a lot. It means that we can continue growing here and doing great stuff here,” she said. “The city is taking this initiative to bring these climate techs to get people to get to know them or help them. To get them that visibility means a lot to us.”